By Rick Assad
Hector Valencia knows a thing or two about coaching after having been one for more than two decades at Burbank High.
Having coached track for a decade, along with basketball for several seasons and football for five years, Valencia is back for a second tour as the head man of the football program.
The Bulldogs are off to a 2-1 start and will visit Muir to open the Pacific League schedule on Friday.
“I am not surprised about the work that it takes to do the job,” said Valencia, a 1993 Burbank graduate who has been at the school since 2000, and is a physical education teacher. “I am more prepared and aware of the task at hand. I am more focused about the future growth of the program, not just on the season at hand. I want to make sure that players are enjoying their experience playing football at Burbank High.”
Valencia has been successful in large part because of his game knowledge and the assistance of other quality coaches.
“The coaching staff is the key, outside of talent. Surround yourself with like-minded individuals. In the past I surrounded myself with great coaches who became head coaches. Manuel Lemus, Richard Broussard, Martin Bacon and now I find myself doing the same by adding young coaches, hungry for knowledge on my staff that I know will have a long and bright coaching future,” he said. “Along with that I have nine out of the seventeen coaches on the staff that are alumni and are passionate and dedicated about Burbank football, as well as six coaches with sons or brothers on the staff.”
Being on the same page and buying into the program is key for Valencia, who went 37-20 in five seasons, 25-10 in league, captured the league banner in 2009 and made the CIF Southern Section playoffs four of the five seasons.
“We try to teach them the meaning of brotherhood and to explain the values of striving to be great together,” he said. “Fight together and for each other and go through adversity together and through their persistence they will prevail as brothers and want to play for each other and not just with each other.”
Smart coaches borrow traits they like or admire from other high-end coaches.
“Be yourself as a coach. Don’t pretend you’re someone else. I am not a big screamer and hype-up guy, but they know I am straight to the point,” Valencia said. “I don’t pretend to be someone I am not, and the coaches and players know it.”
Valencia, who played football four years for the Bulldogs and ran track, added: “But through my actions they know I am always there for them. The other one is to run one program, not two levels. Our players warm up together and sometimes practice together and run the same system throughout our program,” he pointed out. “So as players move up over the years, they will have become familiar with our system.”
For many of the Burbank coaches, the brotherhood is real and it’s what bonds the players and coaches.
“I believe we need to create a sense of brotherhood in the program that it takes a while to develop. When players start seeing that the person next to him is putting in the same amount of work, they will go out of their way and have their back,” said Valencia, who played football for two seasons at Glendale Community College, ran the hurdles for one campaign, and capped his gridiron career at Chico State University, the same school his daughter Kara, a four-year softball player and recent Burbank graduate who will also play softball for the same school. “We also do many team building activities in the off-season and get ready for the season.”
Valencia went on: “We do a retreat in the mountains, Hotel Bulldog, where the players spend a day at school, but we do many team activities. We had a slip and slide. Inflatable balloon soccer games. Activities that have the players working together,” he pointed out. “We upgraded our locker room to actually be a place where players like to hang out together, even for a few minutes before practice. We fixed and upgraded some of our equipment.”
There is satisfaction in being a leader of young men for Valencia.
“I like the part when a player looks at you and you can see a sincere look in their eyes asking for your help and wanting to learn from you,” he said. “When you see that, it makes you want to come back and hope to see it again.”
Because of attrition, football is a game that requires lots of bodies, the more the better, but it’s always challenging.
“At Burbank, it is the amount of players trying out. We average 30 to 35 players on the varsity. So when we have injuries, it becomes hard to fill the spots,” Valencia said. “On the lower level, we average a little higher, closer to 40. But we have never averaged large numbers.”
Valencia added: “Clearly all the off the field stuff is a lot more time consuming than people think. Coaches just don’t get credit for it. Finances, inventory, equipment issues,” he noted. “Getting ready for the week’s games and all the ins and outs of it. I am not even talking about coaching. Is it all the other things that have to do with managing the program.”
Film study is a key ingredient and it’s indispensable, but Valencia has found a way to balance football with his family life.
“In the past, I used to watch lots of film the day after the game and over the weekend. Slowly burning me out. This time around I try to really maximize my time in the morning after the game with the coaches and clock out of football for the rest of the day and most of the next day,” he said. “Sometimes it is hard since my son [Kaylem, a sophomore who also played basketball and baseball] is on the team and sometimes, he wants to keep talking about the game. But I try to talk to him as a parent, not as a coach.”
During different junctures in a game, coaches are asked to make key decisions that can alter the game.
“I think you need to see that you weigh in as many scenarios as possible before you make the decision,” Valencia said. “If you missed one and it caught you by surprise, then it hurts. Last game we went on fourth and five on our own 40-yard line. We felt the call was appropriate for the defense and the player got open but simply dropped the ball that hit him in the hands.”
Valencia continued: “I can’t second guess myself. It’s always a gamble but in this case, we made a good call, but we dropped it,” he recalled. “You call plays, but you can’t control the part of a player simply dropping it by accident. We moved on and never second guessed ourselves because it was the right call as coaches, just not our outcome.”
Such is life for a coach, but having to make those decisions is something that Valencia doesn’t regret.
