Gavin: What brought you out of El Paso and brought you here to Kyle?

Coach Torres: Well, I, I lived my whole life at El Paso, so it was nine years as head coach, uh,
eight varsity seasons as head coach. But my entire career and my entire life has been out there.
so it was nine years as head coach, uh, eight varsity seasons as head coach.
But my entire career and my entire life has been out there. And I was made aware of an opportunity, a unique opportunity that’s here at Buda Hays. And, uh, you know, I, I I took a chance.
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Gavin: What’s up, Hawks? My name is Gavin Resendez Lopez with the Hayes Hs Media team. I’m here with the new head football coach and athletic director, coach T. Coach- Do you have anything to say to the student body?

Coach Torres: It’s been a welcoming environment so far. I’ve gotten to meet the kids on, on two brief occasions, and I’m looking forward to bringing a kind of pride and kind of culture. Everybody around here can be proud of… Hawk Yeah!

Gavin: What, before you got, you started coaching there in El Paso, what led you
to start coaching football as your career? Like what really …

Coach Torres: Well at, you know, at, at a young age, I knew that athletics was going to be a big part of my life no matter what. You know I really took to athletics. My, my dad, my parents, they, they put us in sports.
Took to it naturally. I really enjoyed the coaching.
athletics f Phillips, you know, it’s been great for me.
When I got to high school, my head coach had a great influence on me, and he hired a lot of good men that really had an impact on us growing up. You know, they weren’t just our coaches, they weren’t just our teachers. You know, they were there for us whenever we needed something.
And my goal became, I wanted to do that for kids one day.

Gavin: So now that you’re here at Hays
and you’re, you know, you’re in Kyle, what are you looking forward to most here?

Coach Torres: You know what, uh, establishing relationships and,
number one, you know, I had a, brief meeting with them this morning where, oh, I kind of laid out that, you know, I, I need their help. Yeah. Know my family. We just uprooted. We don’t have any family here. We don’t have any friends here. We’re kind of a fish outta water coming here to Kyle and, you know, and I need their help just as much as they’re gonna need my help as coach.

Gavin: What kind of changes are you, do you intend to make here for this program?

Coach Torres: Well, I, I wouldn’t necessarily call ’em changes because from what I’ve seen, you know, everything is being run very well. This is a top notch program, and you can see that in the way the kids dress and the way they, you know, go from one station to the next.
How the coaches interact with the kids. I, I would really like to make clear is that, you know,coach Goad is a great coach and, and he left quite a legacy here going into retirement, and he did things right. I’m just coming in here to be myself.
And so whatever changes might come with that or might be viewed as changes that just comes with me who I am as a person and a coach.

Gavin: You know, to go back into your past as well, what coaches, you know, have been a big influence for you and that you take inspiration from?

Coach Torres: Well, I think I would start with my, my, my parents. You know, whether you’re, uh, in, in a sport or not, you’ve got teachers everywhere. and my grandparents who are kind of our first coaches. You know, whether you’re, uh, in, in a sport. You know, whether you’re, uh, in, in a sport or not, you’ve got teachers everywhere. Yeah. And it starts in your home. And so, you know, my parents and the household I grew up in, that’s number one, the number one influence that I have.
And then when I went to college, uh, Bob Kitchens was, was my college head coach. And, you know, he’s a Hall-of-Famer. He is a national champion, all these things. And so I watched how these people carried themselves and the influence they had directly and indirectly with everybody around them. They indirectly influence you. And, and, and have an impact on you.
I, I had a chance to meet Coach Shelton when, uh, when I was hired. You’re always learning. Don’t, don’t miss an opportunity to learn the right way and the wrong way to do things. And so, like, everybody has a culture. There’s a good culture and there’s a bad, doesn’t matter.

There’s, there’s a culture everywhere you go. And, and you gotta fight for the one you want every single day.

Gavin: You know, when you’re a head coach in El Paso, what style of offense and defense did you run there?

Coach Torres: Yeah. So we run an even front defense. Everything behind that is dependent on the kind of offense that you’re defending, but the idea is to find a way to get your best players the ball.
And find a way to make the defense defend the entire field.

Gavin: You know, that’ll kind of just give a little bit of insight of, you know, what the new Hays program will look like, or…

Coach Torres: Or… that’s it right there. It’s depending on the players… you know whatever goals we set are based on- we had the meeting this morning- but we’ve got a weekend to figure out and really do some soul searching on what they’re individual goals are for who are they
as a value as a person and a player, and then what kind of results are they looking for with…
what do they want to get outta this program?
If I just went up there and say, well, guys, these are our goals, but it’s not their goals well they’re not gonna buy it. So you start with what the players want to get out this program, and then we go from there.

You know what, where I was coming from we didn’t even have our own home stadium. Ya know we played in a community stadium, but it was detached from all the campuses and so it’s been a long time since the workout stadiums had to be a part of the workout. Little dumb things… that you guys are like “really you don’t have a …” … So things like that everybody’s contributing no matter what. ‘Cause like I mentioned earlier there’s a culture. No matter where you are there’s a culture, whether you recognize it or not. Everybody on this campus and in this community is contributing to our success. Now they only chance we have if everybody’s pulling in the same direction and so my message to the campus, the community and the student body is: Jump in with both feet. Be all in. Otherwise we don’t have a chance.

Ya know, you gotta think about everybody tugging on one rope, right? Well, if one person, let’s go. Well, we’re not as strong. And so this, this program as an athletic program is a result of our community. You know, we’re, we’re the reflection of the community. And if we want to be known as winners and champions on and off the field, you know, all of us are contributing and we need to, we need to recognize that.