Valley football, community loses ‘awesome’ coach

They were three Rio Grande Valley boys, knocking around the streets of Edinburg in the 1950s.

Robert and his younger brother, Pete, had a best buddy named Freddy. They lived within two blocks of each other under the watchful eyes of two diligent and strong-willed mothers.

Still, the boys got into their share of scrapes around the neighborhood and at West Park in the heart of Edinburg, a place to play ball and show some glimpses of your manhood.

They would need that toughness when they reached Edinburg High School, becoming Bobcats and playing football for a young Fred Akers, who years later would coach the University of Texas Longhorns.

Robert and Pete Vela would pass that test, playing Bobcat football for Akers, as would their best buddy, Freddy Gonzalez.

It was the 1960s by then, the Vietnam War raging, military service calling and ending their days of youth in their hometown. Freddy became a Marine, an only son who served one tour of combat duty, and then came home.

He wouldn’t stay. Volunteering for a second tour of duty, Gonzalez became a platoon sergeant, and during a January 1968 battle in Vietnam, while wounded, ran through heavy fire to save the life of a wounded Marine.

Days later, he was killed by an enemy sniper while leading his men in a fierce battle. Gonzalez’s heroism was so recognized and respected that he posthumously received the Medal of Honor.

Robert and Pete carried on. So did their love of football. They became coaches, much to their mother’s delight, for she was a football fanatic in her own right.

Robert would build the fortunes of the Edcouch-Elsa Yellowjackets, La Maquina Amarilla, as it became known under Vela’s winning ways.

Down an FM road from the Delta Area, there was Pete coaching at — of all places — Mercedes, the Jackets’ archrivals.

So, here were the two brothers, born only a year apart, locked in fierce football competition. Local lore at the time reported that the two, so inseparable much of their lives, would not even speak for weeks leading up to their big yearly showdowns.

I can’t say that’s true for sure since I got different accounts from the two coaches. But I know this: The Vela brothers are winners, no matter the score.

I grew up in Edinburg, too, just like the Velas, but a generation behind them. I was linked to them through marriage in our families.

As a boy, I heard their names bounce around our home so often that when I met them, I felt like I already knew them.

I liked and admired them instantly, especially Robert.

Coach Vela invited me to visit him at Edcouch-Elsa High School when I came back to the Valley in 1991 to become the editor of The Monitor in McAllen.

When I got to the school, there was a hearty abrazo waiting, as were a number of gifts, all in black-and-gold. How about an E-E cap, the coach asked, and you’ll need a Yellowjacket shirt, too, and hey how about some shorts?

Then the coach brought some of his players over, his captains, and said, “Boys, this is a very important man. He’s the editor of The Monitor.”

But I didn’t feel important. I was in the shadow of a great coach whose personality and presence filled the room, and I was no match for those gifts. Then the coach, always the master of motivation and making you feel good about yourself, put his arm around me as I was getting ready to leave and said, “Someone from our family is editor of The Monitor. That’s awesome!”

Awesome, that was a Coach Vela signature word, and he was awesome at E-E. So good, in fact, that in 1997 he moved up to 5A ball, and became the head football coach at Edinburg High. Robert Vela, Bobcat head coach, just like Fred Akers. That was awesome!

Coach Vela had a great run with the Bobcats. In the late 1990s, his teams went deep into the playoffs, including his great 1999 Bobcat team that went all the way to the state semifinals in the big 5A playoffs.

I followed his teams with great interest, dropping by his practices to watch and chat, and to see the spectacle of a Robert Vela practice.

Most coaches hate to be bothered while they work, but with Coach Vela, once he got the essentials done, he loved to visit with friends and family who would drop by. The coach welcomed all comers. He embraced the community and the community embraced him.

The coach had a lot of fans, and not just in Edinburg, but all over the Valley where his name and legend grew.

When it was announced earlier this year that Coach Vela had cancer, I didn’t want to believe it. How, could it be? Not my favorite coach, a man so robust and full of life that he seemed indestructible.

But this disease does not discriminate, taking the likes of the great Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi, and it took Coach Vela, too, at the age of 61. I put off going to the first two memorials for him because, really, I didn’t want to face that he was gone.

I got to the church early because I knew the kind of crowd that would be there for Coach Vela’s funeral service. There was his brother Pete, speaking to the huge crowd, thanking them for coming to honor his brother, and saying how Robert had urged him to step up now and become the leader of the Vela family.

Afterwards, Pete thought back to those days of his Edinburg youth, just him, Freddy and Robert.

“I still get choked up after all of these years when I talk about Freddy,” Pete said. “And now Robert and Freddy are together again, up in heaven.”

You should have seen it, Coach Vela. The crowd at the church was overflowing, people standing, spilling out into the bright, summer day. Your current players were there, so were many of your former players, and coaches from all over the Valley, too, wearing their team colors.

It was a little slice of the Valley, coach, jammed tight into that old Catholic Church on the east side of Edinburg. And they were all there for you, Coach Vela.

It was awesome, coach, just like you.

R. Daniel Cavazos is publisher of The Brownsville Herald and El Nuevo Heraldo.