EDINBURG — Longtime Weslaco East assistant coach Rene Guzman has been tapped as the next head football coach and athletic coordinator at Edinburg High during an Edinburg CISD school board meeting Tuesday night.
Guzman has worked as a football and powerlifting coach for Weslaco ISD for the past 24 years. He started coaching at Weslaco East when the school first opened in 2000 and was one of the few remaining original coaches within the Wildcats’ football program.
Guzman most recently served as East’s defensive coordinator and coached the Rio Grande Valley’s top defense in terms of yards allowed per game (171.2) among all Class 5A teams in the RGV during the 2020 season.
“I’m very humbled and honored to take over such a great program with such great tradition,” Guzman said. “It’s one that I grew up with and dreamed about playing for. I know what Bobcat football is all about and it’s just awesome. Right now it feels surreal, but honestly, it feels really great.”
Guzman joined current Weslaco East head coach Mike Burget on the Wildcats’ original football coaching staff when Weslaco ISD opened its second high school two decades ago and helped build East into one of the RGV’s perennial powers on the gridiron.
Along with Burget and the Wildcats coaching staff, Guzman helped East reach the playoffs at the Class 4A, 5A and 6A levels.
Together, they won the District 31-6A championship in 2019 and advanced to the third round of the 6A playoffs before falling to eventual state champion Austin Westlake and to the second round of the 5A playoffs this past season after being crowd District 16-5A DI co-champions following a 4-0 regular season.
Guzman said he’s hoping to bring that winning pedigree and championship mentality with him to Edinburg High, one of the Valley’s most storied football programs.
“We’ve played them before and now, we want to bring that style of football to the program you’re going to lead,” he said. “It’s without a doubt been the recipe for success at Weslaco East. What we have over there with myself and Coach Burget, we put it together with a great coaching staff. I can’t leave those guys out because they’re the ones who made this possible tonight.”
Guzman also helped jumpstart the powerlifting program at Weslaco East, which has since produced three boys state championships and a pair of girls state titles, too, in recent years.
He believes that production in the weight room is essential to building the foundation of a championship-caliber program in Edinburg.
“It’s really a mindset that we’re going to instill in the kids. It doesn’t matter how tall you are, how small you are or how fast you are; it’s just a mindset that we’re going to get straightened out,” Guzman said. “We’re hoping that it takes off. It took a while at Weslaco East, but it’s like I told the committee, I remember those first four years. … Those years made us work harder and once we turned that tide, it was that mindset that changed that we can be successful.
“The foundation is the weight room,” he added. “Everyone bought into what we were trying to sell (at Weslaco East) and that made our job easier.”
Guzman also inherits a talented Bobcats’ squad that qualified for the Class 6A playoffs last season but missed out on participating in the postseason due to an ugly on-field incident during the team’s District 31-6A zone play-in game on the final day of the regular season.
For Guzman, though, the goal at Edinburg High in Year 1 is straightforward: win his first game leading the Bobcats on the sideline and continue to build momentum from there.
“Our goal is always going to be 1-0. That’s the same thing we talked about at Weslaco East,” he said. “We’re going to take it one game at a time. … All I can say is that I’m ready to get to work and I’m ready to work with those kids. I can’t wait to get there. It’s a dream come true.”
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Twitter: @ByAndyMcCulloch
