E-Blog

if you think that all us sports writers talk about is high school football this time of year, you’re right.

just the other day we were discussing who we thought the top five head football coaches in the Valley were in the last 20 years.

there’s been a few great ones but here’s my list (in no particular order).

Jesse Longhofer, Harlingen
Joe Solis, Edcouch-Elsa
Robert Vela, Edcouch-Elsa and Edinburg
Sonny Detmer, Mission
Richard Flores, Edinburg

Longhofer, Detmer and Vela (at Edinburg) have the distinction of being the only coaches to lead their teams to three postseason wins in Class 5A.

Flores, much like Vela at E-E, can be held responsible for building those programs into the proud and tradition-filled programs they are today.

Vela guided the Yellowjackets to their first district title in 1989. That season, La Maquina Amarilla reached the state quarterfinals.

Flores build the Edinburg Bobcats into one of the premier programs in South Texas in the 1980s.

Solis coached at Lyford in the early to mid 1990s but will be mostly remembered for his current ride of success at E-E. As Solis enters his fifth season as Yellowjackets head coach, E-E’s won four District 32-4A titles under his watch. The ‘Jackets also own a Valley record streak of 36 consecutive regular season wins - including three straight 10-0 seasons.

HONORABLE MENTION
There’s a few other coaches that come to mind like San Benito and Port Isabel’s Tommy Roberts. Roberts had success at PI when he led the Tarpons to the state semis in 1981. But Roberts will be mostly remembered for building the Greyhounds into a winner again following years of futility.

Another one is Alex Leal. Coach Leal sits two games from earning his 200th career win. He’s coached at Rio Grande City, Port Isabel, McAllen, Harlingen South and is in his second tour of duty at Raymondville.

Tony Villarreal took the Tarpons to the state semis in 1994 and has enjoyed success everywhere he’s been. At the moment, he’s got the Weslaco Panthers dreaming of their first district title since 1998 when they shared the crown with Brownsville Rivera. Tony V. is in his third season at Weslaco.

But that’s just my opinion. Remember these are coaches that have coached in the past 20 years only. What do you guys think?

eladio jaimez, valley morning star

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 11:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.