Charlie Gomez helps Liberty-Eylau Leopards football team turn things around,
TEXARKANA, Texas — Charlie Gomez, the Liberty-Eylau Leopards’ new defensive coordinator, spearheaded much of the major turnaround the team made from its previous season last year.
L-E went from 0-10 to 6-5 with a first-round playoff berth.
“Coaching has been my calling,” Gomez, a Tularosa, New Mexico native, said. “I feel like sports are good to help young people grow. You have structure and coaches guiding you. You also have the agony of defeat.
“When I was in high school, we lost the state semifinals my junior and senior year. Sometimes you fall short and it’s not because of lack of effort, it’s just who’s better that day.”
The 68-year-old Gomez finds the camaraderie with his coaches and players one of the main assets to coaching and also what keeps him inspired every day to coach.
“My biggest thing is motivation,” Gomez said. “Motivation comes from the heart. Discipline, structure and motivation all coincide with one another. I try to be a disciplinarian, but at the same time you have to be lenient. Sometimes you have to let things roll off because guys are going full speed, so you have to be there to say, ‘Come on, let’s get to the next play.’
“I’ve seen a lot in my time as a coach, even how film is watched and distributed amongst coaches. First, you would have tape reels, then you would have VHS and now there’s HUDL.
“Before this new era of technology, as an assistant coach, you’d have to leave at 4 a.m. to pick the film up from the developer. I always wanted to be the first to get the film out. No one liked the VHS because of the quality. It would break if you ran it back, then you couldn’t tape it back together. There was a time period it went to
DVDs. Now with HUDL, everything is right there on your cell phone. I miss the personal interaction of trading film with other high school coaches.”
Gomez has traveled throughout the state of Texas coaching, influencing young men’s lives throughout his career, which spans over three decades.
“I’m a follower of my head coach,” Gomez said. “I follow my head coach, so I’m able to go back and lead others. There’s a pyramid within a football team. There’s the athletic director at the top, then the head coach, the coordinators follow behind him and then the position coaches, etc.
“Everyone must accept their role and stay within their role in order for a team to be successful. If a school doesn’t have that, they’re not going to win many games. A dictatorship won’t work well either. I know my role and I like my role. The final decisions rests on the head coach, so assistants have to know their role and like their role also. You have to have the right fit.”
Gomez attributes his strong work ethic to his mother and his childhood upbringing.
“When I look in the classroom, I look at the top of their heads and I tell the kids I want to see their brain moving,” Gomez said. “It doesn’t matter to me their culture or where they’re from. I just want them to be able to explain to me what I’m telling them. We have to be able to teach. That’s what we’re here for.
“My mother placed values in me that still hold strong with me today. She taught me to work hard and to care for people. You have to care for people from your heart. She taught me to be consistent and to be structured in everything that I do.”
One of Gomez’s biggest coaching inspirations is legendary Texas coach Darrell K. Royal.
“He was a motivator, a father, structured and he surrounded himself around good people,” Gomez said. “He’s much like Bear Bryant, they’re cut from the same cloth.
“I sat with Johnny Majors one time when I was in Knoxville on summer vacation. I kinda stumbled into one of Pat Summit’s basketball camps and she called him over. I was there two weeks and every morning I was able to sit in there with them. That’s how you learn ball. I learned throughout all of my experiences, is putting your kids in positions to succeed at all times.”