Q&A: New San Angelo TLCA football coach Paulo Gonzalez talks about plans for the program
San Angelo Texas Leadership Charter Academy hired Paulo Gonzalez as its new football coach on June 23 after Matt Jones, who led the Eagles to their second playoff birth in program history, stepped down after the 2022 season.
Gonzalez, an Abilene native, played college football at Abilene Christian University. He spent some time in the Arena Football League with the Wichita Falls Thunder before an injury ended his playing career. After his playing career, he started coaching arena football with the Abilene Roughriders. Gonzalez made the switch to coaching high school football, where he received his first opportunity in Whitney. He then moved around coaching everything from six-man to Class 6A football, eventually landing at Maypearl where he was the assistant head football coach before taking the position at San Angelo TLCA.
The Eagle's new head coach sat down with the Standard-Times to talk about how he can transform the team into a consistent contender.
What attracted you to the position?
Well, I'm from Abilene, so it's not very far. You know, it's coming back to West Texas (and) being closer to home. But also knowing about TLC's record (the past few years) and I love a challenge. It didn't scare me. So, I'm all for helping any program that I can to come in and help elevate the program.
TLCA is in a tough district. What is your plan to keep this team in playoff contention?
We're gonna set the standard and I'm gonna make sure that the expectations are set in place and we're gonna be very detail-oriented and very disciplined. We're gonna have relentless effort, execute and make sure that we're sound in everything that we do.
Is relentless effort part of your coaching philosophies? And how do you get that across to your players?
Anytime that you start a program, the expectations should be relentless. You should want everybody with that high energy and have everyone bought in and set the culture for what you want the program to be. You have to talk about it every day. It's a daily conditioning of the mind. You can't just talk about it one or two times, it has to be funneled down all the way through your coaching staff. They have to be the voice of what I'm communicating to players when I'm not around.
What areas do you think the team can improve?
The offensive line is always the key, every game starts in the trenches. So, I've been an o-line guy everywhere I've coached, so that's where I'm really going to focus when we start. I think we have a lot of key players at skill positions like receivers and the quarterback Layne Honea is good, but we can't do anything without an offensive line.
What kind of team can fans expect next season?
They're going to see an aggressive approach, with a very disciplined team that is going to give everything they got. And the product we put out is gonna please the people here in the community.
This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: Q&A: New San Angelo TLCA football coach Paulo Gonzalez
