BROWNSVILLE – Just a few weeks ago, Pace assistant coach Art Cantu tragically passed away after collapsing during a scrimmage at Sams Stadium. Cantu may be gone, but his memory is certainly not forgotten.

“You look at him and he’s a big ol’ giant guy,” said Pace head coach Daniel Pardo. “Everyone was afraid of looking at him because he was so big, but if you get to know him, he was a great guy. A great sense of humor. We enjoyed our time together.”

Pardo wasn’t just Cantu’s boss at work. He was Cantu’s neighbor and close friend.

“It was always good to be around him. To do what we do. To spend time at the beach with him,” said Pardo.

Pardo along with so many others were shocked and saddened by Cantu’s death. All this happening just weeks before the Vikings’ first game.

“He could be quiet but he would tell you one time and he would tell you calmly and everything,” said Pace senior defensive lineman Robert Bermudez. “You learn just by the way he’s teaching you something. He would take his time in order for you to learn.”

“He taught us a lot of lessons,” said Pace senior offensive lineman Julio Hernandez. “He was a pretty big coach. He had a mean face but inside he was very gentle. He was a friendly giant. He was a pretty nice coach.”

When the Vikings played their season opener Saturday, there’s no question Coach Cantu was on their minds. Pace went on to shutout PSJA Southwest 28-0. The Vikings pumped up to win one for coach.

“We said it from the beginning,” said Hernandez. “Every single W we get is going to be for him. We’re going to work hard and we’re never going to get outworked.”

Pace is honoring Coach Cantu in a few different ways this season. The football team has the initials ‘AC’ on their helmets and the high school is having a blood drive in his honor. The Vikings want everyone to know that their coach was loved by many.

“He was a very wonderful guy. I hope that everybody that didn’t meet him, one day you’re going to meet someone in your life that is going to be like that. We’re playing every single game for him,” said Bermudez.

Coach Cantu was 56-years-old.