By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Danny Pardo and Rodney Morales have formed a winning football coaching combination that has become more and more difficult to beat.
They’ve coached together nearly 20 years, starting in 1999. Most of those years, Pardo was the defensive coordinator and Morales was the offensive coordinator under Rene Medrano at Brownsville Pace (1999-2011), and then when Medrano took over at Brownsville Hanna (2012-2015).
In between those stints, Pardo spent a couple seasons coaching girls basketball at Brownsville Porter (2003-2004) before returning to Pace. Morales started coaching at Pace in 1998, which was Medrano’s first season guiding the Vikings. Pardo joined the Pace coaching staff prior to the 1999 season.
“We’ve been assisting each other forever,” said Pardo, a 1991 Porter graduate and a standout lineman who was named all-district defensive MVP in 1990 as a senior for the Cowboys. “I think one of the reasons we’ve had success is because of the loyalty we’ve had staying together so long. You just don’t see coordinators staying together that much anymore, especially today.
“We always talked about if one of us got a head coaching job, the other one would follow him (and be the offensive or defensive coordinator),” Pardo added. “That’s the loyalty we’ve had to each other.”
Pardo took over as football coach at Pace in 2017, and since then, Morales has been the Vikings’ offensive coordinator for his coaching partner.
With Pardo as the one directing Pace football, the Vikings have made the playoffs three straight years, including the 2019 season when they finished 6-3 in District 16-5A Division I and went 6-5 overall.
It’s been a successful journey for the two coaching comrades that figures to continue producing positive results.
“We seem to work well together,” said Morales, a 1985 graduate of Pace who was a standout pitcher for coach Tony Barbosa on the baseball team and was followed by younger brother Rene Morales, a 1987 Pace graduate who also shined on the pitching mound for the Vikings. Rene Morales is the longtime baseball coach and a football assistant at Los Fresnos.
“It all goes back to Coach Medrano,” Rodney Morales said. “He was very organized, very structured, and we loved that. We’ve continued that approach now that Coach Pardo is the Pace head coach. (Under Medrano) everybody worked together. We still run that (kind of) program with little tweaks here and there.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of positive results lately (coaching together),” he added. “Since we had been (coaching) together for a while, Coach Pardo asked me if I would come over (from Hanna) when he became the head coach at Pace (in 2017). He knew what type of (offensive) system I liked to run, and I knew what (defensive) system he liked to run, so I think that’s one of the main reasons I went back over there to Pace to coach with him.
“We’ve been pretty successful coaching together. Not only that, the (entire) coaching staff we have at Pace has really helped us be successful. All of our coaches do their part. It’s been difficult with 10 teams in our district these past three years, but I guess you could say we’re up to the challenge.”
Both Pardo and Rodney Morales credit Medrano with having an impact on their coach careers. Medrano, who retired after his 2015 season at Hanna, said the feeling is mutual.
“Those two are the most loyal coaches you could ever ask for,” said Medrano, who guided the Vikings to the playoffs five straight seasons from 2007 to 2011 and before that in 2000 and 2004. “I don’t think I would have ever had the success I had if it weren’t for those two guys as my anchors. To me, they’re the best assistant coaches I could have ever asked for as far as being dedicated, loyal and working hard.
“Even now that I’m retired, they continue to be successful because of their work habits, their loyalty to each other and just because of the way they do their jobs,” Medrano added. “Those guys are determined to be successful, and that’s what it takes.
“I’d like to say I’m extremely proud of the way they’ve continued the program at Pace the way we started it. I wouldn’t trade those two guys for anybody in the world. They were always top guns, and I depended on them a lot. It’s as simple as that.”
Pardo said he knew he was in the right place under Medrano when he first started coaching at Pace in 1999.
“Coach Medrano was very structured in his method of coaching,” Pardo said. “I could see a (positive) difference in our athletes in the program with the core values and the way things were being done. That’s really the reason both Coach Morales and I liked coaching for him. We saw that he was bringing out the best in the athletes, and that’s what we try to do now. Our attitude is we’re going to make it work no matter what.
“The saying, ‘Nobody is going to outwork us,’ is what we live by,” Pardo added. “The core values of our program were inherited from Coach Medrano. We have coaches (now) who played at Pace before (under Medrano). They have that same attitude (as we do), and that’s the reason we’re clicking. We’re proud of that.”