“I hate you” is a phrase that the Taylor Football players are used to hearing from their beloved Coach Villalon, and now that he left Taylor ISD on Friday, January 20, 2012, tears are being shed over his departure. One may wonder why in the world anyone would cry over the absence of a critical, “hateful” coach...however, Coach Villalon’s harsh criticism and playful insults are something that the football team has come to hold dearly.

“When Coach V. first got here, he told me, ‘I’m going to work y’all until you can’t go anymore, I’m going to push you to your limit’,” Dantrel Hargers (11) said. Coach Villalon expected no more than the best from his players, and the players have been changed forever by the impact of Coach Villalon’s belief in them.

“He also motivated me by telling me I wasn’t very good, even though he knew I really was and it made me want to work harder to show him I could do it,” Reagan Fischer (11) said. The methods Coach Villalon used may have been different, but they had a tremendous affect on the players, because for the first time since 2005, the Taylor Duck football team made it to the playoffs. 

Coach Villalon developed personal relationships with all of his athletes and because of this they will all miss him very dearly. “I’m really going to miss how hard he pushed us, and our team will never be the same without him. You just can’t replace someone like Coach V,” David Lee Ancira (10) said. 

These young men’s lives were changed by Coach Villalon, but they were not the only ones whose lives were changed. “You guys have made me very happy and proud and I’ll never doubt myself because of y’all,” Coach Villalon said. 

Even though Coach Villalon will miss his athletes who have become like his children, he is moving on to work under his mentor at the high school at Aransas Pass. His mentor will be retiring soon and it is Coach Villalon’s dream to work under his mentor one more time, and have a chance to better himself as a coach. 

Though he will no longer be in Taylor, the young men who have come to love him so much are happy for him and wish him the best at his new job. “We’re losing a great coach, but I think we’ve learned a lot from him being here and he will never be forgotten,” Fischer said.