Guevara Wants to Restore Winning Tradition at Lake View

SAN ANGELO, TX-- When Lake View Head Coach Hector Guevara left small town Bovina, a town 13 miles from the New Mexico/Texas line, for Lake View High School in July, he knew the challenges would be plentiful in a program looking for resurgence. 

As many know, former Head Coach Doug Kuhlmann resigned to take a job at Austin Westlake on July 11. Guevara was hired less than a week later as the Chief's Head Coach on July 17, just three weeks before fall practice began in Lake View.

The short turnaround presented many of the aforementioned challenges for Lake View's new head coach. Guevara, as most people involved with sports feel, loves the challenges that coaching brings. "Lake View was a traditionally good program in the past," Guevara said in a phone interview on Wednesday. "I want to bring that back to this community."

Guevara brought an aerial attack to a school that had gotten used to the 'ground-and-pound' instilled under Kuhlmann. Completely overhauling an offense in three weeks is a seemingly impossible task for any coach. "The kids are in a bit of culture shock," Guevara said about his team adapting to the new system. "But everyone is excited."

 This process, however, is starting outside of Lake View High School. "We have to build a good foundation," Guevara said. "We're starting with the kids in 7th grade and up."

The start to Guevara's tenure at Lake View would seem like a bad one when looking solely at the box score of their 75-21 defeat to Andrews last Friday. However, Guevara feels things are moving in the right direction for the Chiefs. "We saw a lot of good things Friday night," Guevara added. "We progressed really well. We made good reads. We just need to execute and we'll be fine." Guevara also cited various miscues, such as missed tackles and miscommunication, as contributing factors in their loss on Friday.

Guevara went on to say "there's no excuses" for his team. "We have to get better, as coaches and players," Guevara added.

Lake View has a daunting schedule ahead with away games in consecutive weeks against a strong Fort Stockton team this Friday and 2016 State Runner-up Sweetwater on Sept. 15.

Last year, Fort Stockton was the only victory for the Chiefs and they'll look to replicate that result at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 8.