Friday, September 17th, 2021 marked 50 wins for Coach Andres Perez with our Warrior Varsity Football team. At the end of the varsity football game against Sickles they surprised Coach Perez with a tribute showing former players congratulating him on this big accomplishment.
“It was something I didn’t know, that caught me completely off guard, which was an unbelievable surprise at the end of the Sickles game, which was my 50th victory as the head coach here,” Coach Perez said, “some of the people that work here and some of our coaching staff have put together a pretty special little montage of our former players all the way from our very first team ever to the very last team. Just talking about, you know, congratulating us and congratulating me on the accomplishments. It’s a pretty special moment.”
Coach Perez has been coaching at Steinbrenner since it opened in 2009. This is his 16th season overall coaching at Steinbrenner high school and he took over as head coach in the 2011-2012 season. Throughout the years he has had many teams and impacted lots of players, and with all of them he tries to emphasize the importance of working as a team.
“Nothing in football is individually done. Everything is a team effort. Every one of those victories, while I may have been the head coach and I get the credit for all that, it has nothing to do with me, has everything to do with our coaching staff, has to do with our players, has to do with our fans, with our parents, with our administration. It’s so much bigger than any one person,” Perez said.
When looking back on all his accomplishments, what stands out to him is all the students and teams he’s been able to coach over the years rather than any one season or individual win. It has been those that have had a big influence that are the most memorable to him.
“When I saw that video and when I think back at the wins you don’t think of any specific wins, you think of the people that have impacted the program, you think about the people that were on the different teams… that’s just kind of how I remember them. I don’t remember specific victories.” Perez said.
Coach Perez has been a big part of our warrior family for such a long time. He’s worked very hard for this accomplishment, and every warrior appreciates everything he’s done for this school. Congratulations Coach Perez, we look forward to watching you make more football history!
Isabel Ballard//Staff Writer
