|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
EDINBURG — Edinburg Vela head football coach and athletic coordinator John Campbell announced he will be retiring at the end of the school year on Wednesday after spending 20 seasons as a Texas high school football head coach.
“It is official. I’m going to be retiring at the end of this school year in an attempt to make sure the program is in good shape and the district can move forward,” Campbell said in an interview with The Monitor. “I’m still going to be with the school district for the remainder of this year, but I wanted to make sure Vela and the school district had an opportunity to move forward with my replacement.”
Campbell, who took over lead duties at Edinburg Vela in 2017, went 171-54 during his 20-year head coaching career. He coached the SaberCats to a 71-12 overall record during his seven seasons at Vela, winning four district championships and 11 playoff games. The SaberCats reached the Class 6A regional semifinal round of the playoffs in four seasons under Campbell and put together 10-win seasons in 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
A Rice football alumnus, Campbell began his high school coaching career with Floresville before moving to John Jay High School in San Antonio in 1997. He served as head football coach and athletic coordinator at Jay from 2004-06 before taking over head coaching duties at Katy Taylor in 2007. Campbell then became head coach and athletic coordinator at San Antonio Brandeis from the time the school opened in 2008 to 2014. In 2015, Campbell joined the coaching staff at Texas A&M-Commerce. He then moved back to the high school ranks as head coach at San Antonio Madison in 2016 before coming down to the Valley in 2017 to lead Edinburg Vela’s football program.
Edinburg Vela ranked No. 66 in Dave Campbell’s Top 100 Texas High School Football Programs in 2023, which ranks the relative strength of every program in Texas over the course of the last six seasons.
“At the end of the day, it’s about relationships. You remember the losses a little bit more than the wins, unfortunately, but the relationships is the main thing,” Campbell said. “This is a very difficult decision. I’m very proud of what we’ve done at Vela, but the relationships continue well past the playing field. It’s difficult to put into words. As finite as it seems that a retirement is, I don’t look at it that way because I’m still there, I still have the relationships with my former players, guys that I’ve worked with coaching staff wise across multiple schools, it’s just going to be at a different capacity. Coaching is a big investment from a time standpoint, so this is going to afford me the opportunity to see my family more and be around them more.”
