By MARK MOLINA | STAFF WRITER
It has been a sweet season for the Hanna Golden Eagles as they lifted a District 32-6A title and have now won two playoff games for the first time in program history.
The team boasts players with talent, drive and a head coach Mark Guess that has turned the culture around in his three seasons as the team’s lead man.
Though he is responsible for a lot of that success, he’s not naïve enough to suggest it’s been just him as he constantly credits the game-planning and strategy from his coordinators.
The praise is warranted as second-year defensive coordinator J.C. Ramirez and first-year offensive coordinator Damian Vela have their fingerprints all over this season’s edition of the Golden Eagles and put their respective units among the best in District 32-6A this season.
Hanna was No. 1 in the district on defense and No. 2 in total offense.
Achieving such success, however, goes far beyond just X’s and O’s, but comes from the coordinators being on the same page as Guess on everything from game planning to character building.
“When coach Ramirez and I were together over at (Brownsville Veterans Memorial), he knew what the culture was, what the cultured that I expected and what we had instilled and demanded from the kids.” Guess said. “With Coach Vela, I’ve known him for awhile since I was the athletic director. Over the last three years, especially the first two, I knew he was a very good coach. Seeing him work and having seen his rapport with the kids, I knew he was also on the same line as me when it came to the type of culture we want to have here and how we treat the kids.
“That’s the No. 1 thing in trying to get success, is having people that believe in the same thing you do.”
Both Ramirez and Vela have gone down different paths in their careers, but now both are key components in the Hanna football program.
Here’s a look at how both reached this point:
LIKE MINDS
The relationship between defensive coordinator J.C. Ramirez and Mark Guess runs deep and is one of the reasons they have been able to put their minds together to build a strong Hanna defense over the past two seasons.
Ramirez worked under Guess as an assistant at Brownsville Veterans Memorial for the 2010 and 2011 seasons and it didn’t take long for him to realize the type of person his head coach was.
While Ramirez was setting up the field with equipment prior to a practice, he heard a voice ask him to hand over a pad in an effort to help out.
The voice belonged to Guess, which Ramirez, as an assistant, was having none of.
“I said ‘No, coach, I’m not giving you this,’” Ramirez recalled. “He said ‘Give me the pad, I’ll help you.’ It was very strange for me to see he was a worker. It took me aback, but it gave me real insight to what type of person he was. He was going to work in the trenches. There are different leadership styles and he’s one of those leaders in the trenches with you.”
Guess would become the BISD athletic director in 2012 and then would become the Hanna coach in an interim role in 2016 before bringing in Ramirez for the 2017 season as his defensive coordinator.
Ramirez was thrilled to reunite with Guess and considered it an honor to work for a coach that he says “shares the same moral ground with him” when it comes to developing players and building a culture.
As far as on the field, that fit has worked just as well with Ramirez specialized working with defensive backs in his stints with Lopez and Brownsville Veterans, and Guess having an emphasis with the defensive line and linebackers.
Ramirez said his biggest contribution is bringing in a 4-2-5 concept to combat popular widely popular spread offense, which he picked up from former Brownsville Veterans defensive coordinator and current PSJA Southwest head coach Mike Evans.
“I was to learn a lot from him and all that information I was able to bring and augment what was happening here at Hanna High School,” Ramirez said. “The first few weeks were a very exciting challenge because it was a merger of different systems. As of right now, it’s been a really good merger. We were able to seamlessly merge TCU, Virginia Tech concepts to old school concepts that coach Guess had been running for a while.”
It shows as Hanna’s defense has paved the way for a dominant district season in which the unit allowed an average of 9.4 points per game, including shutouts of Rivera and San Benito.
The Golden Eagles also have forced 18 turnovers and recorded 37 sacks.
PAYING DUES
Hanna assistant Damian Vela became the third offensive coordinator for the Golden Eagles in three seasons after former coordinator Steve Marroquin left for San Benito in the offseason.
It was a big break for Vela, who had been waiting for such a moment after paying his dues as a wide receivers coach for eight seasons.
Vela stayed in the same system not only to avoid having to start over from scratch else where, but also out of loyalty to Hanna.
“I’ve been loyal to Hanna to pay my dues and (get promoted) the right way,” the first-year coordinator said. “I made sure to stay in the same school and same system so I won’t have to start all over again. I’ve been through five head coaches and I finally got my chance.”
The patience has paid off for Vela, who is inheriting talented players and a trio of assistants that make the Hanna offense so potent.
Running game specialists are Mike and Rick Chavez, who were classmates of Vela’s at Pace in the mid-nineties and quarterbacks coach David Torres, who has been integral in the development of starting quarterback Victor Campos this season.
“(Mike and Rick Chavez) are guys that I trust and are my best friends, but I think they are some of the best assistant coaches out there” Vela said. “(Torres) does wonders with our quarterbacks Victor Campos and Miguel Payan. Without those three I don’t think we have any of the success that we’re experiencing right now.”
Vela’s story is one of complete gratitude as he also expressed how grateful he was to Guess and Ramirez for recognizing his abilities as a coach, as well as his rapport with the players.
The first-year coordinator also considers himself a player’s coach and said he “commands the respect of the troops,” in reference to his players.
It’s shown as the Golden Eagles have averaged 394.2 yards and 33 points per game.
The attack is headed by a bruising ground game led by Cesar Mancias and Aaron Frausto and the playmaking abilities of Victor Campos, who has been a key cog in everything with the introduction of the run-pass option into the offense, which Vela believes is one of the biggest spins he’s put on an offense.
The success has been a pleasant surprise, but an unexpected one for Vela as he continues to live in the moment that is this season and hopefully many more.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling to have this success with this team,” Vela said. “I think I really hit a goldmine and I won the lottery with this group. Hopefully this sets the tone for this up and coming generations to come through Hanna. I feel like I want to be here for a long time under coach Guess.”