After a three month-long search, Española Valley High School finally has a new head football coach in Caleb Holbrook, a former NAIA standout quarterback at Oklahoma Panhandle State University.
Originally from San Marcos, Texas, Holbrook coached quarterbacks and did film analysis for Los Alamos High School last season. He replaces Tylon Wilder, who left the Sundevils for Sandia after ushering in the best four-year stint in program history.
“I’m excited to get going,” Holbrook said. “We’re already behind the curve and there’s less than 100 days to game one now. It’s going to get here quick.”
Holbrook threw for 2,793 yards and 28 touchdowns as a senior for the Aggies in 2014, helping them average more than 43 points a game and a 7-3 record and then was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2019.
He played arena league indoor football for several years before transitioning to coaching because of league rules.
The 2020 season of COVID turmoil took a toll on his football career and he decided to find a career, landing at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he specializes in active security issues.
But his love for the game was too powerful to ignore, drawing him back with the Hilltoppers last season and now to the Sundevils.
“I realized coaching was something I really wanted to get into,” Holbrook said. “The team in Los Alamos, and the inspiration I had on kids, I realized this was a calling to me. I feel really bad for staying away from the game for so long. It’s a calling to me. Once I got back into coaching and football, it’s nothing I will ever let go of again. When I found out about the opportunity in Española, I definitely had to go for it.”
Holbrook stood out in his interviews, Española Superintendent Eric Spencer said.
“His leadership on and off the field, his commitment to mentoring young athletes, and his belief in building a program that begins with trust and community buy-in are exactly what our students need,” he said. “He brings not only experience, but purpose. He understands that football at the high school level is about more than competition — it’s about life lessons, discipline and unity. I’m confident he will continue the momentum we’ve built and help us take our program to the next level.”
The first order of business, Holbrook said, is meeting with the returning players and getting them into the weight room to see where they stand. Longtime Sundevils assistant coach Rudy Martinez, who also runs the school’s successful power lifting team, has continued working with the returning players, as have many of the football team’s remaining assistants.
Holbrook hopes that many of the assistants will remain with the program.
“Coach Martinez is going to be a big mentor to me,” he said. “And he’s somebody that understands the politics of the town. I’ll interview the other coaches, but I have no intention of getting rid of the coaches that the players were used to. I’m going to need their mentorship along the way, too.”
Likewise, Holbrook said he doesn’t envision sweeping changes to the playbook, at least not right away. But with that being said, he envisions a more wide-open approach to the game by opening up the passing more.
Sundevils’ success came on the ground, amassing more than 3,500 rushing yards in a 7-4 season in which they reached the Class 4A semifinals for the first time. But Española attempted just 15 passes on the season for 99 yards.
“I’m not here to fix anything that isn’t broken,” Holbrook said. “They had a great running game and we’ll keep that and we’ll keep the same terminology they used in implementing the offense I’m trying to bring. We’re going to spread it out, but I’m not looking to take away from the running game at all. Passing to get ahead, and running to stay ahead and controlling the time of possession. I don’t want to bring too much on them.”
Holbrook said he’s already watched quite a bit of Española film and he likes what he sees of the returning core.
“Once I can get these kids to buy in and believe in themselves, there’s no team that we can’t compete with,” he said. “We have 16 returning and nine are seniors so that’s a big deal. If we get everybody to buy in, I believe that right now, with the guys that are returning, we can make a state run this first year.”
Ultimately, Holbrook said, the goal is to make Española a program that runs deep in the community, reaching all the way down to middle school and across the region, even working cooperatively with other nearby communities like Pojoaque and Taos and the smaller towns in between to create a bond through football.
“This is something that we can implement,” he said. “This is how we build a program and we can make it happen. There will be a big emphasis on community. Once we can get that done, the north will be a region nobody wants to mess with. That’s what I’m hoping to build here. The sky is the limit.”