BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
When Donna North coach Joe Marichalar set out to scout Grulla, one player looked very familiar.
“They have the clone of Abel (Gonzalez III, Grulla’s coach) at the quarterback position,” Marichalar said. “I was freaking out, like, I know this is a kid Abel is coaching, because he moves like him. He throws like him. He plays the way Abel played.”
Marichalar’s observation was about senior Dillen Salinas. Through two games, Salinas has thrown for 416 yards and 8 touchdowns while running for 72 yards and another score.
Few would recognize that style better than Marichalar. He and Gonzalez were teammates for two years starting in 2000 at Texas A&M-Kingsville.
“I transferred in as a junior from Sul Ross State,” Marichalar said. “He was the quarterback when I got there. I was there with him two years — my junior and senior year.”
Marichalar was an inside linebacker, but the bulk of his playing time with the Javelinas was on special teams. Still, the two Valley coaches often faced off in practice.
They will now face each other in a new way, meeting in a regular season game for the first time since they both became head coaches at 7:30 on Friday night at Joe R. Sanchez Stadium in Rio Grande City.
“Donna North is going to be well-coached,” Gonzalez said. “Coach Marichalar, an old teammate of mine at Kingsville, did a heck of a job at Edcouch. I am glad he got this opportunity at Donna North. He is going to have those kids fighting all four quarters. They play with a lot of energy. We have our hands full. We are going against a bigger school. But at the same time, we feel we are going to get ourselves ready for a four-quarter battle.”
The two weren’t the closest friends, but the bond of the Valley kept them closer than most starting quarterbacks and backup linebackers.
“There were like four or five of us that were from the Valley,” Marichalar said. “We all knew each other and had respect for each other. We hung out here and there, but he was an offensive guy, and I was a defensive guy. We had mutual respect for one another. I supported him, and he supported me. We were all just young kids trying to prove a point and get it done. He had a lot more success than I did. He was a damn good quarterback.”
Gonzalez still has his name in the Kingsville record books, and his back-to-back trips to the NCAA DII playoffs began a four-year streak of appearances for Kingsville. The Javelinas shared the conference championship in 2001, Gonzalez’s junior year, and then won the next three titles outright.
Friday will be the first time the two coaches face in varsity action, but they had one battle in 2013.
Marichalar, the coach at Edcouch-Elsa at the time, was selected as the East coach for the RGV All-Star game that year, and Gonzalez was the West’s coach, representing Grulla.
The game was close, and both teams were loaded with talent, but Marichalar earned the win. Marichalar had several Yellow Jackets on his team, including running back Israel Loredo, tight end Isaac Martinez and linebacker Jacob ‘Bucky’ Barrera.
“We also had some really good kids from the Brownsville area, some Harlingen boys, Los Fresnos boys, San Benito boys and some PI guys,” Marichalar said. “Their team was pretty loaded, too, as you can imagine.”
Now friends and rivals, the two get to face off with pride on the line in the non-district matchup, which should be a fierce battle.
“It will be a good challenge for our team,” Marichalar said. “They have some good kids over there. We have some great kids. A lot of our guys will go both ways, and a lot of their kids will go both ways. It should be a fun match.”
Just as Gonzalez has a player in his image, Marichalar has a linebacker he has shaped in his image — junior Christian Cortina.
“He is our team captain,” Marichalar said after Week 1. “He is the guy who takes charge and is a leader on that sideline. He had 11 or 12 tackles, and he was flying around, all over the field. He was just being a savage out there. We say SMU, ‘Savage-minded unit.’ He kept the morale going, kept the fighting spirit alive within the team.”
And that is all Marichalar asks of his players.
“I just want them to compete at a high level, and take pride in playing tough football for Donna North.”