DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
After graduating from Edinburg High in 1988 and before he stepped onto the then-Texas A&I campus in Kingsville, J.J. Leija knew what he wanted.
“I was going to be a coach,” Leija said. “I was going to be an educator. And my dream was to come back and be the head football coach at Edinburg High School.”
Late Tuesday night, Leija returned to his roots. Edinburg CISD approved the former La Joya Palmview defensive coordinator/assistant head coach as the next head coach/athletic coordinator for the Bobcats’ football program.
Edinburg CISD interviewed 10 applicants. Thirty applied. Leija, who was a runner-up when former coach Joaquin Escobar was named to the position in December 2013, won out this time around.
“I had great mentors growing up, and it’s because of those men that I’m in the position where I’m at today,” Leija said Wednesday afternoon. “It’s a big dream come true for me.”
Leija played center on the offensive line as a Bobcat for Richard Flores. Leija’s ties to Edinburg — he was also formerly an assistant coach at Edinburg Economedes — is what attracted him to Edinburg CISD administration.
Leija succeeds Escobar, an Odessa native who went 3-17 in his two years at Edinburg High.
“He’s an alumnus and is familiar with Edinburg and that was big for us,” Edinburg CISD athletic director Roy Garza said of Leija. “It was important to us that we get an Edinburg guy, and he was above the rest. He’s a professional.
“He’s a player’s coach and is very organized. He’s a family man who loves Edinburg.”
Leija’s first head coaching gig will be a challenging one.
Since Edinburg High split enrollment in 2012 with the birth of Edinburg Vela, the Bobcats are 8-32 on the gridiron. The football program has seen its numbers shrink, and the Bobcats have not been able to forge an identity.
But Leija comes from a Palmview program that struggled before he got there in 2014, and he is familiar with reclamation projects. Since it opened in 2008, Palmview was 17-43 and failed to make the playoffs before coach Margarito Requenez brought Leija on board to lead his defense.
In the two years since, Palmview underwent a drastic turnaround, going a combined 11-11-1 and making the playoffs both seasons.
“You have to change the mindset,” Leija said. “We went into Palmview, which hadn’t been successful, and we made the kids believe that they are going to be champions and winners. It’s about making the kids believe, and that’s going to be the biggest challenge I have.”
Leija said the first step is establishing a system founded upon discipline, respect and responsibility, the “three key features that kids need nowadays.”
“We’re going to have to really take them under our wing and have them understand what we’re trying to do and why we’re trying to do it,” Leija said. “It means one-on-one time and showing I care and I was put here for a reason, and that’s to lead them.”
Going into his 24th year as a coach, Leija is excited and confident. He talks about playing a hard-nosed, physical brand of football — “the only way I know how” — and continuing in a long line of legendary coaches at Edinburg High that includes Flores, Fred Akers, Joe Vasquez, and Robert Vela.
“They want someone who will be here for the kids,” Leija said of Edinburg CISD’s desires. “The previous coach did a great job, but they want someone who has a connection with the kids, someone who knows what Bobcat pride is about. They had shied away from that, and if the kids understand someone who’s been there before, and who’s worn their colors, they’ll understand it and believe in it more.”