It all started with a conversation at NRG Stadium in Houston last year. Ray Aguilar and Josh Kirkland, both assistants at Houston Westbury in 2015, were talking about a head coaching job opening in El Paso. That job was at Parkland High School, where Jerry Walker had retired after 17 seasons.
Kirkland encouraged Aguilar, an El Paso native, to apply for the job. Aguilar encouraged Kirkland to do the same. Ultimately, Aguilar decided to follow his Westbury head coach, Ajani Sanders, to Houston Klein Forest as a wide receivers coach and special teams coordinator. In January 2016, Josh Kirkland was named the new head coach of the Parkland Matadors. It’s his first head football coaching job and one that he cherishes based on his upbringing in Lubbock.
“Coaches for me saved my life,” said Kirkland, “They kept me out of trouble and I was geared that way and they were a big part of who I was.”
Ray Aguilar saw Kirkland use that experience firsthand last year at Westbury, where he says that drawing kids to play football there is a tougher challenge than at most other schools in the Houston area. When he heard about the opening at Parkland, he saw the Northeast El Paso school as “a perfect fit” for his style and his leadership.
“The kids love his style and energy,” Aguilar said, “They saw what a leader he was football wise and he took a big role in mentoring them and getting them excited about football.”
It was a bold move for Kirkland, who arrived in the Sun City after other Texas stops in Daingerfield and James Earl Rudder in Bryan. When he flew into town for his interview, it was his first time spending “substantial” time in El Paso.
“Flying in and seeing the mountains, it’s a lot different than Lubbock,” Kirkland said, “It’s got a lot of things to it that make it pretty neat.”
Since arriving, Kirkland has quickly settled in to his new home. He and his wife, Marina, bought a house in July and their oldest son attends pre-kindergarten near Parkland. They even found a go-to Mexican restaurant in Casita Linda, where Kirkland says he takes friends and family who come to visit. He loves the “hometown culture” of El Paso, especially since he and his wife are closer to their family in Lubbock.
“El Paso has a small-town feel to it”, he says with a smile, “it has everything you need.”
On the field, Kirkland’s style is all about high energy and fast pace, which is quickly obvious if you get a chance to catch a Matador game this year. He’s in the process of transforming the Matadors into a no-huddle spread offense after many years of running the wishbone. It’s an adjustment that has even surprised him.
“I don’t know if anybody realizes it,” Kirkland says confidently, “but we’ve thrown the ball more than they (Parkland) did all last year in two games.”
Parkland is off to a solid 2-0 start, but their home opener against the Socorro Bulldogs last Friday showed there’s still a lot of growing pains. At halftime, Parkland trailed 12-7 in a half where they committed 10 penalties and gave the ball away four times. But thanks in large part to a 214 yard rushing output from sophomore running back Deion Hankins, the Matadors eventually pulled away for a 27-14 win. Kirkland was impressed with the team’s response to adversity, but after a blowout win in Week 1, he simply stated: “It was probably pretty good for them to get smacked in the face like that.”
Still, 2-0 is a great start to a head coaching career. But the challenges Kirkland’s Matadors face get tougher as they start District 2-5A play against the defending district champion Eastlake Falcons on Thursday. He has faith in what he calls a “very special team”.
“We’ve talked about this game a lot for the last eight months,” said Kirkland, “We’re ready. We’ve got to play mistake free football.”
While his goals on the field include winning the District 2-5A title and making a playoff run, Kirkland’s ultimate goal echoes Coach Aguilar’s belief that being a Matador was a perfect fit.
“We focus so much on character and really doing anything for these kids,” Kirkland says, “I tell them all the time, I’ll literally do anything for you. Now that may mean, I’m going to be really hard on you at the same time, but the reason I got into this profession was to help kids, help kids get to college, help kids get their grades up, help kids be better dads, better husbands, better whatever as they move forward.”
