Saturday, June 20, 2009

Onate High makes solid hire

Onate High School lost a solid coach in Adrian Ortega, but late last week picked up a solid coach in now former Gadsden assistant coach Saul Perez.

Perez has learned under the tutelage of Gadsden head coach Mike Harper for many years.

Perez is a solid basketball guy and he's helped overlook the improvement of the Panthers program. He inherits an Onate team which went 17-13 last year and advanced to the quarterfinals of the 5A state basketball tournament.

Onate will have to replace several key players, but does return guard Tim Jacobs and forward Zach Daugherty among others.

Perez will have tough shoes to follow in Ortega, but again he's a solid x's and o's type of guy and it's great to see him get rewarded for his hard work as an assistant.

He won't have much time to work with his charges this summer, but he knows the district 3-5A well and he should have a good idea of what the Knights have in terms of personnel.

Perez' hiring means two of the five teams in 3-5A have new coaches. William Benjamin was hired recently to replace Mike Smith after several years as Smith's assistant.

- Felix

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Knights get a solid hire. Saul is a hard worker and does a nice job with kids. Look for the Knights to continue to get better

Anonymous said...

Onate got a great hire, Saul is knoweledgable about the game but more importantly is a competator and knows how to get kids to rise to expectations. He will make sure they carry themselves as a class act and they will play that way .

Anonymous said...

The perfect coach for Onate basketball. Coach Perez has always been a winner and the coaches he has played for and worked with have been first class,(Geyer,The late Drag, Harper, Dixon, Price).
The players will know how fortunate they are!!!

Anonymous said...

I agree with you all. Sal is the right choice. Many people in the community know he is not only a good coach but a great person.

Anonymous said...

He earned it!!!

Anonymous said...

i myself think he is not a suitable coach i was coached by him and played for ortega and there is a big difference he will no nothing good for the program onate players dont respect him