{"id":11668,"date":"2020-05-28T18:15:04","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T18:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11668"},"modified":"2020-05-28T18:15:05","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T18:15:05","slug":"port-isabel-hires-a-familiar-face-as-its-new-head-football-coach-athletic-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11668","title":{"rendered":"Port Isabel hires a familiar face as its new head football coach\/athletic director"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Veteran football coach Tony Villarreal was hired as Port Isabel\u2019s new head football coach\/athletic director on May 13.<\/em><\/strong> Photo courtesy Rio Sports Live<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By BILLY WATSON
<\/strong>LFN<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Port Isabel has found its new head football coach\/athletic director, and it is a familiar face to the program and the Rio Grande Valley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 13, the Point Isabel ISD Board of Trustees unanimously elected Tony Villarreal, who coached the Tarpons in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited,\u201d Villarreal said. \u201cI\u2019m very appreciative of the superintendent, and the principal, and the school board, and the community. This is a very, very special place with high expectations, and you have to respect the community and what they\u2019ve accomplished over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hire comes after last season\u2019s head coach\/AD Jason Strunk accepted a position at Manheim Township High School in Pennsylvania, which will allow him to be closer to his son, Mac, who will be running track at The Citadel in South Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over his two-year tenure, Strunk led the Tarpons to a 7-13 record and made the playoffs each year, but lost in the first round each time. In 2018 the Tarps narrowly fell to West Oso 57-56 and this past season they fell to Sinton 50-30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Villarreal is no stranger to RGV athletics. In addition to coaching at Port Isabel, the veteran coach has worked his way around with stops at his alma mater Brownsville Hanna, PSJA High, PSJA North, McAllen High and, most recently, Weslaco High. Villarreal was also inducted into the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the coronavirus pandemic halting practices and summer activities, Villarreal will have to wait to meet his athletes in person, but he said he is excited for that day to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, you have to be a champion of change and adjustment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat you do today can be out the window tomorrow, so we don\u2019t know. There\u2019s a lot of uncertainty\u2026 We\u2019re always on pins and needles, but we\u2019re ready to adjust. We\u2019d love to get started, but right now all you can do is teleconference and some limited stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Villarreal\u2019s passion for football is unquestionable, he fully understands that his athletes are students first and, therefore, he is a firm believer in getting students ready for life after high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to get them ready for college,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want them to take the ACT tests. I want them to make A\u2019s and B\u2019s. At the end of the day, we want to change the landscape of the Valley, and what I want from these young men and women in four years or five years is come back and be \u2013 have a degree \u2013 professionals. It just helps everybody, and if we can do that, then I\u2019ll feel accomplished down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BILLY WATSONLFN Port Isabel has found its new head football coach\/athletic director, and it is a familiar face to the program and the Rio Grande Valley. On May 13, the Point Isabel ISD Board of Trustees unanimously elected Tony Villarreal, who coached the Tarpons in the early 1990s. \u201cI\u2019m very excited,\u201d Villarreal said. \u201cI\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11669,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11668\/revisions\/11669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}