RGV Capsules: UTSA football good for Coker, San Antonio and Valley
MCALLEN — He shook hands, posed for photos and signed autographs.
Larry Coker’s celebrity status was well in tact at Jackson’s All-American Sports Grill on Thursday.
And if not for the calendars establishing that it’s 2010, many would have thought it was 2001 and Coker was fresh off his lone football National Championship at the University of Miami.
Coker led the Hurricanes to a win against Nebraska in the 2001 Rose Bowl for the national title. Coker and the Canes returned the next season but fell to Ohio State in double overtime.
Miami never regained the same level of success under Coker and after the 2006 season, Coker and Miami parted ways.
The veteran coach served as an analyst for ESPN until 2009. That’s when UTSA announced that Coker would serve as the Roadrunners first ever football coach.
McAllen and even San Antonio is a long way from Coral Gables, Fla. and The U, where Hurricane Football is a way of life.
But Coker is now in Texas, where football IS life. And even after being out of coaching for four years, Coker refuses to call his move to San Antonio a comeback.
Instead, he sees it as an opportunity.
For himself, UTSA, San Antonio and the Valley.
“It’s a great opportunity to coach these young men and build something from the start,” said Coker, who’s in the Valley for the inaugural UTSA Advance football Camp at PSJA Stadium.
“We have a strong support group there at UTSA and we have a great chance to start something good for San Antonio and South Texas. This all didn’t just happen. (UTSA) president Ricardo Romo and (athletic director) Lynn Hickey have done a great job of getting this program off the ground. It was a great opportunity for me and I want to take advantage of it.”
But Coker’s not the only winner in all this.
The city of San Antonio has embraced the new football program from day one and a fanaticism for the Roadrunners football team exists and rivals many across the nation. The immediate and lasting economic impact on the city is great.
But Coker sees the start of a football program at UTSA as being beneficial to the Valley as much as the Alamo City.
“It’s a good marriage between the Valley and UTSA,” Coker said. “And I’m not just offering lip service. That’s why I’m here with my coaches. A lot of people are right that the Valley is sometimes overlooked. Everyone knows how to get to Dallas or Houston but not many know about McAllen or the Valley.”
Even Coker hadn’t been here before making a trip down to McAllen when recruiting McHI’s Nick Garza and Scott Inskeep.
But he knows now and Friday’s football camp at PSJA Stadium is an example of Division I football’s presence in the Valley.
“We want to be THE team for South Texas,” Coker said. “There is no Division I or professional team down here. We have a 60,000-seat stadium (Alamodome) and a 30,000-member student body. We have a lot to offer all of South Texas. We want all kids from the Valley to see us as the place to go get their education. It’s a great opportunity for both of us. There’s a lot of pride in the Valley and I respect that.”
PSJAISD athletic director Orlando Garcia is a UTSA alum and was very excited to see his alma mater finally field a football team after all these years.
“San Antonio is in the heart of Texas, the country’s biggest football state,” Garcia said. “We’ve got ourselves a top notch coach and San Antonio is a great place to be. Eventually we’re going to have one of the premiere Division I football programs in the country. I commend the leadership at UTSA. They made all the right moves and now we have Division I football.”
Coker said their priority for the 2010-11 school year is to build team chemistry and focus on fundamentals.
UTSA plays its first season in 2011, when it will compete in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (the old I-AA) independent. The Roadrunners will play another independent FCS schedule again in 2012 before moving up to Division I for 2013. They will still compete as independents, Coker said.
“Like any coaching staff we’re competing to win football games,” Coker said. “We’ll have all red shirts that first year but we’re going to establish ourselves and better ourselves every week.”
UTSA’s first roster consists of 26 players including 25 from Texas and 14 from the San Antonio area. The lone out-of-stater is from Colorado but has family in Texas.
Registration for today’s camp starts at 8 a.m. and the camp runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The cost is $50 and Coker will offer hands on instruction.’
Eladio Jaimez is a sportswriter for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 430-6285 or via e-mail at eladioj@valleystar.com.
Name aids Travis Bush in helping UTSA program grow
McALLEN — Travis Bush’s last name is a familiar one in Texas football.
Despite being only 34 years old and just a decade into his coaching career, many of the state’s high school coaches and administrators have a feeling of familiarity toward him. Part of that is because of Bush’s own career, which has taken him from being a wide receiver at Southwest Texas State to a graduate assistant at TCU to co-offensive coordinator at Texas State to being the offensive coordinator for Larry Coker and the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners, who begin play in the Football Championship Subdivision next fall.
A bigger part of that familiarity, however, comes from Bruce Bush, Travis’ father. Bruce, now coaching at PSJA North, has been all around the state and, naturally, has made connections at numerous programs.
And nobody downplays how important that Bush name is for Travis, who is one of the recruiters trying to sign players who are coached by people who know his father.
“A lot of the coaches that are around the state have either coached with me or played with me or they’ve certainly played against me,” Bruce said. “Just the association with the coaches, and the coach’s name, I think that’s going to be one of his big assets is the recruiting base that he’ll have in the state of Texas. A lot of that is from people that know me and have been around me.”
Travis recognizes that.
“I think 99 percent of the schools I go into or recruit in are coaches that know him, that have worked with him. They remember me when I was a kid,” Travis said. “There’s a connection with those coaches, through him mainly that has really helped me as well as the schools I’ve been in the recruiting process for.”
Coker, who led the Miami Hurricanes to the 2001 National Championship and came within one controversial pass interference call of another the next year, had in the past recruited Texas. But unlike at Miami and the other major schools he’s worked at (Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State), the majority of the Roadrunners’ talent will come from Texas, and much of it from South Texas.
Having Travis Bush (and his name) is something he expects will help the program grow.
“I think it will help us. It will for sure get us in the door, get him in the door, get our name in the door,” Coker said. “But then we’ve got to c lose the deal, which he can.”
Brian Sandalow covers high school sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436 or via e-mail at bsandalow@themonitor.com.
Media
Valley sports radio station to switch to FOX
There will be no need to adjust your radio dial when you hear that screaming voice on KSOX 1240 AM first thing in the morning on Aug. 3.
That day, KSOX will no longer carry ESPN radio sports programming. Welcome Fox Sports Radio and Steven A. Smith, who is sometimes referred to as “Screaming A. Smith,” Dan Patrick and Jim Rome. Goodbye Mike and Mike, Colin Cowherd and Scott Van Pelt of ESPN Radio. The local Fox Sports programming will be simulcast on KVJY 840 AM beginning the same day.
“ESPN radio is leaving the market,” said Bruce Collins, programming director of KVJY and KURV. “We have made the decision to go with Fox Sports Radio. We’re excited about the programming they offer for the Rio Grande Valley.”
The simulcast is necessary because eventually KSOX will stop carrying sports programming altogether. According to the Radio Business Report/Television Business Report website (rbr.com), Border Media Partners (BMP) has sold KSOX to a local religious group, Vision Hispana Incorporated Internacional. A transfer of the station’s license has been filed with the FCC. Once the paperwork is completed with the FCC, KSOX will stop airing the Fox Sports Programming. Collins is unsure how long the licensing process will take.
Texas Longhorn football will still be carried by the station. In addition, Collins said the station will carry 96 NFL games through Westwood Radio, which includes several Dallas Cowboys games. The station will air all the NFL playoff games, including the Super Bowl.
“One of the reasons we made the decision was because of the popularity of Fox and the NFL and this being a football crazy market,” Collins said.
Collins said KVJY offers stronger signal (5,000 watts during the day and 1,000 watts at night) than KSOX. According to rbr.com, KSOX’s signal is 520 watts in the day and 850 watts at night.
Collins said there was no word on whether the Houston Rockets, who were on KSOX last season, will be carried on KVJY this upcoming season.
BMP owns seven English-licensed stations in the area. ESPN radio has held its programming in the area for about seven years.
-- David Hinojosa
Hunting
Expo to begin today in McAllen
McALLEN — The years pass by, but the feeling never gets old for Christopher Curl.
“I love to see people come out of a show with a smile on their face,” Curl said. “It makes me feel good that they enjoyed something that I spent a year to help put together.”
Run by brothers Christopher and Justin Curl, the 20th annual Texas Hunters and Sportsman Expo opens today at the McAllen Convention Center. The Expo runs through Sunday.
Christopher Curl said the Expo will have a record 250 exhibitors that will feature vendors for hunting equipment, fishing gear, camping equipment, mesquite furniture, jewelry, western wear, RVs and boats, among other things.
Country singer Kevin Fowler will be signing autographs at the Cavender’s booth from 6-7:30 p.m. today. He’ll be performing at Las Palmas Race Track in Mission afterward.
Also, Joe Martin will bring his ever-popular snake pit for the fourth-straight year. Wildlife artists, David Drinkard and Don Breeden, will have some of their work on display and for sale. They will also be available for autographs. The Expo will also have outfitters from across the United States, Canada, Mexico and Africa ready to book hunting and fishing trips in those places.
The Expo, which was started by the brothers’ late father, Jerry W. Curl, 20 years ago at the old McAllen Civic Center, is now in its fourth-straight year at the Convention Center. Christopher Curl said the Expo will take up the entire indoor space at the Center in addition to some parking lot space.
“We keep getting more exhibitors every year and need more space to hold it each year,” he said. “The crowds keep getting bigger.”
About 30,000 people attended the Expo last year. Christopher Curl hopes to exceed that amount this year. He theorized that one reason the crowds have grown each year is because his father insisted that children should always been admitted free.
“My father always said that children should always come in free,” Christopher Curl said. “Now, they are the ones coming in, and I’m seeing their kids.”
The work doesn’t end for the Curl brothers on Sunday. During the Expo, they’ll already be securing exhibitors for next year’s show.
-- David Hinojosa
Briefs
Port Mansfield tourney begins today
PORT MANSFIELD — The month of July isn’t complete without the Port Mansfield Fishing Tournament.
The 36th annual event kicks off today in Eastern Willacy County and runs through Sunday.
The event features bay and offshore divisions and a piggy perch for children. A variety of arts, crafts as well as food/drink booths are also available at the Port Mansfield Chamber of Commerce Pavilion.
Anglers will hit the waters early with bay fishing beginning today at 6 a.m. The offshore and kids’ piggy perch divisions set sail at 7 a.m.
Weigh-ins for the kids’ piggy perch begin at 11 a.m.
Final tallies for bay division wrap up with weigh-ins from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., while offshore gets an extra three hours until 8 p.m. at Port Mansfield’s chamber pavilion.
On Saturday, the fishing begins again at 6 a.m. for the bay category while piggy perch and offshore start an hour later at 7 a.m.
Weigh-ins are 11 a.m. 5o Noon for piggy perch, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. for bay and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. for the offshore anglers.
A dinner will be held at the pavilion from 7-8 p.m.
The annual event’s awards ceremony puts the cap on the tourney on Sunday morning starting at 10 a.m.
For more information on the festivities, contact the Port Mansfield Chamber of Commerce at (956) 944-2354.
-- Valley Morning Star
Bees announce signing of Smyth, Lehrke
HIDALGO — The Killer Bees on Thursday announced the signing of defenseman Matt Smyth and forward Tyler Lehrke.
Smyth, 25, spent the majority of last season with the Corpus Christi IceRays. In 44 games with the IceRays, Smyth collected 15 points and had a plus-21 rating. Smyth joins winger Adam Powell as the second former IceRays player to sign with the Bees this offseason.
Lehrke, 24, spent the last four seasons at Bemidji State University. Last season, Lehrke scored nine goals and added 15 assists for the Beavers.
-- Killer Bees Services
Memorial’s Gonzalez part of Dynamo Academy roster
McALLEN — McAllen Memorial’s Alex Gonzalez will play for the Houston Dynamo Academy in the upcoming SUM U-17 Cup starting today in Friendswood. Gonzalez is also a part of the Dynamo South Texas Academy.
The Cup is being hosted by the Dynamo and includes youth teams from the other 15 MLS clubs. The tournament is scheduled to run until July 29 and features four groups of four teams, with the winner of each group advancing to the single-elimination semifinals.
-- The Monitor
