McAllen ISD announced Tuesday it has named McAllen Memorial defensive coordinator Walter Moses Patterson to be the program’s interim football head coach. Patterson will also serve as the Mustangs’ interim athletic coordinator.
Patterson has coached at Memorial for 11 years where he’s spent the previous eight as defensive coordinator. He has 20 years of coaching experience.
“I feel like this is a tremendous opportunity. The kids, the community, the school and administration, they’re all great,” Patterson said. “This will be my 12th year going into McAllen Memorial and I feel like we’ve built a pretty good home there and I want to continue the tradition and move forward.”
The position opened earlier this month after longtime Memorial head coach Bill Littleton announced his retirement.
Under Littleton, the Mustangs went 128-71, winning nine district titles and making the playoffs 14 times in 18 seasons. He was inducted into the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday.
“This is just a dream come true. Memorial is a special place,” Patterson said. “There’s been a great foundation that’s been laid before me and I’m just fortunate and really happy to get the opportunity to jump in the seat. Look for a lot of excitement coming out of Memorial.”
McAllen Memorial is fresh off winning a share of the District 16-5A DI championship last season. The Mustangs went 5-2 overall and 4-0 in district play in 2020.
“The Mustangs are going to be the Mustangs. We’re going to continue our tradition and continue to run the ball; we’ll do a couple new concepts here and there, but the foundation has been laid,” Patterson said. “It’s my job to go out there and continue to lay forth a new foundation for kids we have coming in and hold them accountable for previous generations that have come through Memorial.”
