By GARY LONG
Staff Writer
Longtime Brownsville Independent School District coach Joe Rodriguez, a fixture in BISD athletics for decades who also served on the BISD Board of Trustees, passed away overnight, his daughter Monica Rodriguez Davis confirmed late Tuesday morninng.
Rodriguez passed away due to complications from a stroke he suffered Feb. 18 and had been hospitalized at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Brownsville, Davis said. She added that her father had recently been in good spirits.
“He was asking questions. He had a good attitude in general and it carried over. He always had a positive attitude,” she said.
Davis and her sister Debbie Rodriguez Pringle were travelling to Brownsville from the Austin area Tuesday afternoon.
Of all her father’s accomplishments and accolades as a coach, what stood out most to her was that “he was a very great father. Most importantly, he loved us,” she said.
“He was also a great father figure to many people in the district and all over the Valley,” she said. “He always felt it was important to go out and stand up for the children of Brownsville.”