By STEFAN MODRICH, Staff Writer
Anyone familiar with high school basketball in the Rio Grande Valley knows that a proper history of the sport in the region cannot be written without mentioning Brownsville Veterans Memorial boys coach Larry Gibson.
Thanks to a coaching partnership and friendship with Gibson that has spanned the better part of three decades, Lady Chargers coach Arnold Torres — the Steve Kerr to Gibson’s Gregg Popovich — already has begun to make a similar impact with the program he oversees.
“Our first year together (the 2011-12 season at Brownsville Veterans), we only had sophomores and freshmen,” Gibson said. “We only won one district game. The next year we went two rounds deep in the playoffs. I think that was a great accomplishment and something he and I can be proud of. To me, that’s one of the things I look back on and think that it’s one of our best achievements.”
The Chargers went into the playoffs in 2012 as the fourth seed and knocked off Corpus Christi Ray, tied for the first seed in the area round.
“That game kind of changed the mentality of the players and program,” Torres said. “As far as, ‘OK, we did this this year, what can we do next year?’”
Eight years later, the Brownsville Veterans boys and girls squads have each won three of the past four District 32-5A titles.
Torres recorded a perfect 14-0 mark in district, going 32-6 overall in his first season as the Lady Chargers’ head coach, and Gibson guided the Chargers to a 28-4 overall record, going 13-1 in district play.
Humble beginnings
Gibson, the grizzled veteran and a native of Houston, was first drawn to the Valley to recruit a Hanna player while he was an assistant coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville, and eventually he became the top choice for Pace head coaching position in 1993.
That same year, Torres began his stint at Pace coaching the JV girls basketball and track squads, a job he held for five years.
“(Gibson) was kind of like a mentor to me,” Torres said. “It was my first year, and during that time, I’d go watch his games, I’d go watch his practices every once in a while. I learned a lot from him just watching him.”
Torres applied for Pace’s head coaching position in 1998 and was passed over in favor of Adelaida Pena, who failed to turn around the struggling Lady Vikings.
But when Torres did get the girls head coaching job in 2000 after it appeared he was headed to work under Gibson with the boys, Gibson made it clear he was going to have Torres’ back.
“There were times where (the girls) would be playing, and I’d ask (Gibson), ‘What do you see?’” Torres said. “He would give me his advice. And then there were times where (the boys) would be playing and I would be watching at halftime, and he would ask me what I see. And so we built a relationship from there. We’ve always been willing to help each other. We’ve built that coaching rapport. But I also think that over the years, we’ve become good friends.”
Pace’s intense rivalry with Hanna was one of the main draws to the job for Gibson at the time. Though several years of struggle and futility ensued with the Vikings, Gibson and Torres’ departure from Pace to Brownsville Veterans helped fuel the two programs as they evolved to become the city’s premier basketball hotbeds.
“The Pace-Veterans rivalry built because it kind of caused Pace to split a little bit,” Torres said. “When kids had to leave Pace because of the zoning, it created a rivalry. There’s good camaraderie, and at the end of the day a lot of those kids (from both schools) are still friends. But the competition is good.”
Though Gibson and Torres moved on from Pace, the school remains an important part of their lives, especially for Torres’ family.
“It was such a big part of us,” Torres said. “We kind of grew up at that time, and our kids grew up at that time. My wife graduated from Pace. … So when everything changed, she still bleeds green. Lucky for me, I think she loves me just a little bit, so when we play Pace she’ll still go for me even though part of her heart is still cheering for Pace.”
Arnold’s son, Isaiah Torres, said some of his earliest memories were of him shooting on the side hoops in the Pace gymnasium while his father led practices. Isaiah loved the environment and fast-pace of big-time games against Los Fresnos and Harlingen High, and going to Pace football and baseball games with his parents.
“Our wives, sometimes I think they’d rather go watch Pace play than us,” Gibson said with a smile.
Family affair
The next phase of the two coaches’ careers was largely facilitated by Isaiah’s future, as well as his daughter, Alexa.
Isaiah is a student manager for the men’s basketball team at the University of Texas at Austin. Isaiah plans to apply to be a graduate assistant after he completes his undergraduate degree from UT in May.
The 22-year-old played for Gibson from 2011 to 2015.
“When (Isaiah) first started walking and talking, he said, ‘I’m going to play for Coach Gibson one day,’” Gibson said. “Arnold has been really lucky. He’s had the opportunity to coach his son, and now he’s getting the opportunity to coach his daughter. … I hated to let him go. But I understand. Very few people get that opportunity to coach both of their children. I think it’s a blessing in disguise. He’s taught both sides of the ball, so he’s had to do the good cop-bad cop. He’s got such a good mind, I think it helps everybody.”
Arnold was initially torn between remaining at Pace and leaving for Brownsville Veterans, but the opportunity to coach Isaiah solidified the difficult last-minute decision.
“(Isaiah) doesn’t say it much, but I know Coach Gibson was like a second father to him,” Arnold said. “He’s seen him since he’s grown up, and he has a lot of respect for him.”
But Isaiah has observed up close and appreciated the contrasting coaching styles of Gibson and his father.
“It’s kind of like fire and ice,” Isaiah said. “I feel like they really complement each other.”
Torres’ promotion extended the window during which he would coach Alexa, something he hadn’t initially expected to happen so soon, and forced him to make another tough career move.
“We’ve worked really well together, so leaving (Gibson) was tough,” Torres said. “When I left to coach the girls, I just wanted to be in the girls program so no matter where my daughter played I would be able to go watch, and I wouldn’t have to be fighting, you know, the boys are playing here and I gotta be over there, and I’m gonna miss my daughter’s games.”
Even Torres didn’t expect to be thrust into the head coaching role so soon, but he embraced the opportunity to make his mark with a new group of players.
“My plan was just to be able to watch (Alexa) play,” Torres said. “With this situation coming up where I am her coach, there are times I have to remind her, ‘Now I’m talking to you as your dad,’ and ‘Now I’m talking to you as your coach,’ and I still have to differentiate that sometimes.”
Isaiah went through the same experience, and he learned how to compartmentalize his father’s different roles because he and his teammates were accustomed to viewing each other’s fathers as authority figures in different sports, including the travel baseball and basketball teams for which he played in middle school.
“We were so close as a group of friends growing up,” Isaiah said. “We just had mutual respect for everybody. We were always together playing baseball or basketball.”
High school added a third variable to the parent-coach dynamic for Isaiah and Alexa — biology teacher.
“Really, I saw my dad in three different ways,” Isaiah said. “And they all get their respect, but it’s different. One’s school, one’s sports and the other is just life.”
When Isaiah returns home from UT on breaks, he and his father — and occasionally he and Gibson — will talk shop, bouncing ideas back and forth about tactics and schemes.
Seeing the game from a coach’s perspective has been enlightening for Isaiah.
“It’s really fun,” he said. “I feel like we’re able to connect on a level that no one else is able to in our family because of our interest in coaching.”
New era, new challenges
The start of a new decade has brought new challenges for both Gibson and Torres. For Gibson in particular, being around younger coaches like Torres has helped the veteran Chargers coach to evolve and stave off the temptation of complacency.
“(From the beginning, Coach Torres and I) were very loyal to each other,” Gibson said. “He was loyal to me and I don’t think we’ve ever had a fight or an argument because we respect each other so much.”
Gibson credits this mindset as one of the factors contributing to his longevity as a coach.
“I think the key is to be willing to change,” Gibson said. “To be willing to accept different ideas. I’m not one of those coaches who says, ‘It’s my way and we’re not going to do it any other way.’ Every assistant I’ve had, I’ve taken something from them. I’ve been around over 40 years. I know I don’t have an ego anymore, and I’m not worried about somebody saying such and such … because I believe in myself.”
Observers have seen the Chargers and Lady Chargers go from being an upstart underdog to a perennial district favorite, with the Vikings also very much in the mix on the boys’ side.
“When (Brownsville Veterans) first opened, we had freshman and sophomores only,” Isaiah said. “We were the new kids on the block, so we wanted to prove that we were a school to be taken seriously. From there, it kind of stemmed to what it is now, and I think it’s pretty cool that both schools are pretty far back to being top basketball schools, because it makes the rivalry fun.”
Perhaps the most important aspect of the professional relationship between Gibson and Torres is their desire to learn from each other and continuously improve, not just with offensive play-calling — Torres’ specialty — or defensive schemes, Gibson’s bread and butter, but also with communication with players and assistants.
“I learned a lot from Coach Gibson as far as game details, defensive details, defensive strategies and last-second situations,” Torres said.
In turn, Gibson said he has learned from watching the way Torres taught the Lady Chargers and Lady Vikings, and sought to apply those concepts in practices with his players.
“Even at the early stages of his coaching career, I would watch his girls play and practice and they would be so precise,” Gibson said. “That’s why I tried to hire him at Pace to help me on the offensive side of the ball. He’s a little younger than me and more progressive than me, so I really wanted to get some of his offensive thoughts.”
Gibson refuses to rest on his laurels and has become more accommodating to the more player-friendly environment that has been the trend across all levels of basketball in recent years.
“If I were to try to do the things I did 20 years ago, I wouldn’t be coaching today,” Gibson said. “Arnold bridged that gap for me because he helped me understand that things change and you have to change with them. If you’re not willing to change, you’re going to get left behind.
“I used to be a yeller and a screamer and stuff like that, but working with (Torres), it really calmed me down. Coach Torres is such a calm person. I realized that there’s another way to get through to kids, and I got that from him. Being with him for the last eight years made me really rethink my philosophy a little bit because of his cool, calm demeanor. I’ve tried to model myself more like him as opposed to the way I had been in the past.”
The rapport between the two men has since developed into a close friendship, but also one of the most widely respected and unique working relationships in coaching in the Rio Grande Valley.
The coaches continue to watch each other’s games from the bleachers and frequently advise one another whenever they feel they can contribute to the success of their colleague’s team.
“I admire their coaching, their approach to helping to build character in kids, and their effective ways of communicating with their teams,” Brownsville Veterans athletic director David Cantu said. “They truly are great for young people, and I wouldn’t trade either one of them for any coach in the country.”