EDINBURG - Edinburg CISD made two coaching changes on Monday. JJ Leija was reassigned from his head football coaching position at Edinburg High School after five seasons. Meanwhile Gabe Peña was reassigned from his head football coaching post at Economedes High School, a position he's held since 2011. 

Leija, an Edinburg High alum, took over the position in 2016 after the Bobcats had five straight losing seasons. In his five seasons Leija had risen the level of play and respect of the program with four playoff qualifying seasons with only one season below .500. 

Late in the 2020 season Leija would be placed on probation by the UIL after an on-field incident by one of his players Emmnauel Duron became national news when he physically assaulted a referee after being ejected from a contest. After the incident Edinburg High School and Leija were placed on probation by the Texas athletic governing body for next season.

Leija, guided the Bobcats to a 27-21 record in the five seasons

Peña, has lead the Jaguar program since 2011 as just the second head coach in school history. Peña led the Jaguars to four of the five playoff appearances in program history with his best years coming in 2013 and 2016 with 7-4 records.

MISSION - Koy Detmer is leaving the Mission Eagles after five seasons and three playoff appearances. Detmer was approved Monday as the new head coach of Somerset High School where he will replace his late father Sonny, who he played for at Mission High in the early '90s. 

Detmer took some time to chat with us about leaving Mission and what it meant to him to begin his head coaching career at his alma mater.  

MISSION - Koy Detmer is headed to Somerset High School to be the head coach of the Bulldogs.

He replaced Mario Pena in 2016, leading the Eagles to a share of the district title in 2019 and three straight playoff appearances.

Detmer was 30-19 as the Mission Head Coach.

EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros men's basketball team blew out the St. Mary’s University Rattlers 96-67 on Thursday at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.

The Vaqueros are now off to a 6-3 start for the first time since 2004-05, when the team started 7-3.

Junior LaQuan Butler led the Vaqueros with a career-high 20 points on a career-best 8-of-11 shooting, including a career-best 4-of-6 from downtown. Junior Sean Rhea scored 13 points with six rebounds. Junior Marek Nelson finished with 12 points with three assists and two steals. Junior Uche Dibiamaka scored 11 points with two steals. In his UTRGV debut, graduate student Jeff Otchere recorded four blocks and five rebounds while scoring seven points.

Tyler Caron led the Rattlers with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Caleb Jordan scored 11 points with five assists. Miles McDougal scored 12 points. Mamady Djikine finished with 10 points, five rebounds and two steals.

The Rattlers led 5-3 out of the gate, but the Vaqueros scored the next eight points as part of a 24-8 run to take a 27-13 lead. Nelson put an exclamation point on the run by rocking the rim with an alley-oop by using a feed from junior Ricky “Doc” Nelson. The Vaqueros hit nine of their 13 shots during the run, including the first UTRGV basket for Otchere, a transfer from Stony Brook.

The Vaqueros extended their lead to 35-17 on back-to-back threes by Butler and Marek Nelson, and then took their largest lead of the half at 44-25 on a Butler layup toward the end of the half.

The Vaqueros scored the first six points of the second half, capped by a Rhea dunk, to take a 50-28 lead.

The Rattlers responded with a 10-0 run to pull to within 12. Then, with the score 52-40, Dibiamaka and senior Chris Freeman hit back-to-back three-pointers to spark a 16-0 run to put the Vaqueros up 68-40 and push the game out of reach.