BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
The Edcouch-Elsa YellowJackets are banking their program’s success on a former college player with a diverse football background.
Bradly Chavez was officially named the new head coach at Edcouch-Elsa Saturday afternoon. Chavez’s arrival comes after Joe Marichalar was reassigned after going 37-21 in five seasons.
“What attracted me to this job was the opportunity to compete and win at a high level,” Chavez said. “I’m looking forward to bringing back their winning tradition. I feel I wouldn’t put myself in a situation where I don’t feel comfortable enough to put us in a position to succeed.”
Chavez takes over a team that went 5-5 this season, losing to archrival Mercedes for the fourth year in a row and missing out on the playoffs for the first time since 2009.
“The talent will be there and the work ethic will be there,” Chavez said. “I think my knowledge, and the knowledge of the staff I put around me, will be able to give these kids something they’ve never had before.”
Chavez is a native of Satsuma, Ala., a town of approximately 6,000 people around 20 miles north of Mobile. He played three seasons of Division I college football at Alabama-Birmingham from 2002 to 2004. In three seasons as a Blazer, Chavez caught 51 passes for 974 yards and three touchdowns as UAB’s second receiving option next to eventual All-Pro wide receiver Roddy White.
“The biggest thing I learned from playing at that level is to be technically sound and have a work ethic with an underdog mentality,” Chavez said. “Someone’s trying to one-up you in the next rep or the next route. We need to compete with each other, day in and day out. That’s how we need to teach these kids here because that’s how we were successful at UAB.”
Chavez entered the 2005 NFL Draft but went unselected. The Cleveland Browns signed him as an undrafted free agent shortly thereafter, but he didn’t make the team out of training camp.
Chavez went onto indoor football where he played for the Kansas City Command of the Arena Football League and coached for the Corpus Christi Fury of the Ultimate Indoor Football League before moving to Texas A&M-Kingsville as a wide receivers coach in 2013.
“I’ve been blessed enough in my life to meet some great people that have helped me along the way,” Chavez said. “I haven’t done anything by myself, and at the same time, I continue to want to learn. I don’t know everything, so having great mentors around me that I can call throughout the years has been one of the biggest things for me.”
The Edcouch-Elsa job will be Chavez’s third in three seasons. Chavez was named the interim coach at Corpus Christi John Paul II in October 2015 and eventually was given the full-time job in 2016.
After the 2016 season, Chavez took the head coaching job at Santa Gertrudis Academy and athletic director position at Santa Gertrudis ISD in Kingsville for one season before arriving to E-E. Over the last two and a half seasons, Chavez’s record as head coach at both schools is 6-18.
“I don’t think earning the kids’ trust will be a concern at all,” Chavez said. “Once we get to know the players and they get to know us, we’ll be fine. I continue to have relationships with previous players. If you’re open with them, and they understand the process that you’re going through, it’ll work itself out.
“Communication is the biggest thing. Knowing that they’re going to work for you because you care about them as individuals and not just football players is important. We’re going to be around. It’s not going to be us here for a short amount of time.”
Chavez is working on putting together a coaching staff he says will benefit the players greatly.
“I can’t speak officially about who will be on the staff names-wise because some of them are still under contract and employed with other places,” Chavez said. “But I can tell you that the staff will have Division I experience. It will have NFL experience. That’s another part of the process that will make it easy for the kids to buy into — when they’re dealing with people who have played at the NFL level and have coached first-round draft picks. This will challenge our kids physically and mentally in everything that they do.
“These are not only great football coaches but they are great men who can impact kids’ lives. It will be a no-politics type coaching staff. The best players are going to play and the proof will be all on the film.”