Sixteen years after leaving for the second time, Joaquin Escobar is coming home.
Escobar will return to the school he graduated from in 1991 and coached at from 2000 to 2005 after he was announced as the new head football coach at Comanche this past Tuesday.
He will replace Stephen Hermesmeyer, who departed Comanche for Troy back on March 16. Hermesmeyer accumulated a 61-42 record during his nine-year stint at the helm in Comanche.
“It’s an honor to be named the athletic director and head football coach at Comanche ISD,”
Escobar said.
“Comanche is special place to me because, as a kid, I needed teachers, coaches and community members that were willing to go the extra mile to give me an opportunity to reach my full potential. They used athletics as a tool to help me graduate, and now it’s my responsibility to serve the kids in Comanche.”
Comanche is located in Central Texas, about 150 miles southwest of Dallas and 150 miles northwest of Austin. The high school has an enrollment of 345 students and competes in District 5-3A Division II.
Escobar believes that the football team can be a source of bonding for the community.
“My goal is to unite the Comanche community through our athletic teams and more importantly through football,”
Escobar said.
“Unity will always be the secret to success. I’m going to work really hard at developing a family atmosphere that fosters relationships and a blue-collar work ethic.”
This will be the third head coaching job for Escobar. He spent two seasons at Edinburg in 2014 and 2015 before serving as the head coach at Carrizo Springs last season. During his only year at the school, he led the Wildcats to a playoff berth and a 4-7 record, the most wins in a single season at Carrizo Springs since 2013.
In addition to his head coaching stints, he has also served as an assistant coach across the state of Texas.
After graduating from Tarleton State, he returned home and took a job as the special teams coordinator at Comanche (2000-2005). After that, he has served as an assistant coach at Odessa Permian (2005-2007), La Marque (2007-2008) and Midland Lee (2009-2013), and the offensive coordinator at Beeville Jones (2016), John Jay High School (2017-2018) and Taft (2019).
There will be high expectations for Escobar in Comanche, where the Indians have made the playoffs the past eight seasons under Hermesmeyer’s lead. Comanche finished 8-3 last season and fell to Wichita Falls City View 34-21 in the bi-district round.
Looking forward to this upcoming season, the Comanche backfield is in good shape as starting running back Luke Wilson and starting quarterback Hudson Welch both return after earning all-district honors last year.
However, there is a lot of work to be done elsewhere as Comanche will graduate 12 players who earned all-district honors last season, including many who played key roles on both sides of the ball.
Despite the graduation of the on-field production in Comanche, Escobar is excited to get to work at instilling the traits in his football team that he believes is required for success.
“You can’t win until you develop character, toughness and discipline,”
Escobar said.
“That will be our main focus as we progress into the summer [and] then into the fall.”
With the hometown man leading the way under the Friday night lights this fall, Comanche will look to keep its eight-year playoff streak alive as it goes in search of its first playoff victory since 2018.
