By ANDREW CRUM, The Brownsville Herald
The school year just finished, but Los Fresnos is already preparing for the 2017-18 athletic season.
Los Fresnos welcomed four new coaches this week. Two replaced recently retired coaches while the other two filled positions that went through a transition in the past year.
Rebecca Valdez replaces Kim Edquist, the long-time Lady Falcons girls basketball coach who retired with 528 wins and seven district titles on her resume. Dawn Aguilar-Snyder becomes the new boys and girls cross country coach, taking over for Frank Falcon who also retired. Kevin Nguyen will be the new wrestling coach and an assistant on both the football team and to the strength coordinator. Jaime Perez will take over as the new swimming and diving coach, replacing Albino Cisneros.
Valdez played basketball for McAllen Memorial and at Texas Lutheran University before returning to McAllen Memorial as an assistant for the past five years. This is her first head coaching position, but she knows she’s ready.
“I’m very excited,” Valdez said. “My head coach let me take on a lot of responsibilities and prepared me to be a head coach.
“I knew I was ready.”
The transition has been fairly easy as Edquist welcomed Valdez to Los Fresnos, showed her around and offered her advice and a phone number for anything she might need. Plus, Edquist’s daughter Lindsay will remain as a varsity assistant for Valdez. That makes the transition even easier as Lindsay Edquist and Valdez, grew up and played basketball together for a time.
“Coach Edquist has set a great foundation here. She has a legacy here,” Valdez said. “I’m ready to build on what she has here.”
Aguilar-Snyder, the former girls cross country coach at Port Isabel, returns to her alma mater as a coach. She graduated from Los Fresnos in 1992 and was happy for the new opportunity.
“I’m beyond excited,” Aguilar-Snyder said. “I have so many fond memories as an athlete, so to get the opportunity to come back and give back as a coach … I’ve come full circle.”
In high school, she said she learned a lot from volleyball coach Becky Woods and now-retired girls basketball coach Kim Edquist. So the opportunity to work with Woods and Lindsey Edquist, who was often in the gym during their practices with her mother, was too good to pass up.
“I enjoyed my time at Port Isabel and loved working with the kids, but this was an opportunity for my family and an opportunity to come back home,” Aguilar-Snyder said. “I wish them the best and know that great things will come to them. The good thing about cross-country is that I’ll be able to see them at some of the same meets.
“There’s always a challenge to coach your hometown school, there’s certain expectations that people expect you to meet. Los Fresnos always has the mentality that they’re the best and going to be the best and I hope to continue to instill that into the kids.”
Nguyen earned his first head coaching position and takes over a wrestling program that is still in its infancy that was just started this past school year.
He was an accomplished wrestler in high school, reaching state multiple times and learned under a coach that is now in Texas Wrestling Hall of Fame. Nguyen also played football under now Los Fresnos football coach Patrick Brown in El Paso. He stayed near home and graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso.
Nguyen is ready to get to work and credits past coaches for helping him get to this point.
“It’s a fresh program,” he said. “The community is awesome … everyone supports athletics and academics. The kids are willing to work and build that up. All the coaches I’ve worked for have been great influences … installed a sense of discipline, athletics and what is needed to run a successful program.”
Perez returns to Los Fresnos where he helped start the swimming program.
During his tenure, he coached the Falcons to three consecutive district titles and a regional title before leaving coaching to raise his family. He never left swimming though; he was in charge of the City of Los Fresnos’ aquatic programs.
Perez returns to a program that has continued that initial success — the boys have won eight consecutive district titles and the girls have won 4 of 5 after a runner up finish to Hanna this year — and a new aquatic facility that is set to open soon.
Perez looks forward to developing new programs at the aquatic center and is happy to return as Los Fresnos’ swim coach.
“I’m very excited,” he said. “Working for Los Fresnos CISD is awesome. We have high standards and the support you get from the bottom up … it fuels my energy to come to work with a smile and give it 100 percent.
“I’m ready to hit the ground running.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.