Two Gilroy High athletes have spent the last few months having
their coaches tell them everything they’re doing right, and
everything they’re doing wrong. Not that it’s anything new. Vanessa
Wilkins, a senior guard on the varsity girls basketball team, and
Martin Gonzalez, a junior wrestler on the varsity squad, have been
hearing the same tips, from the same lips, all their lives.
Two Gilroy High athletes have spent the last few months having their coaches tell them everything they’re doing right, and everything they’re doing wrong.
Not that it’s anything new.
Vanessa Wilkins, a senior guard on the varsity girls basketball team, and Martin Gonzalez, a junior wrestler on the varsity squad, have been hearing the same tips, from the same lips, all their lives.
That’s what can happen when dad also serves as a demanding coach.
James Wilkins and Armando Gonzalez are Gilroy’s varsity girls basketball coach and varsity wrestling coach, respectively, and the two couldn’t be prouder, or more focused on getting the best out of their child. What makes the two coaches both successful in guiding their respective teams, however, is how that focus and expectation level knows no bloodlines.
“It’s good. I like it because he’s on me all the time. I know it’s what I need,” Martin said. “He’s not only here for me (though), he’s on everybody in this room.”
Coach Wilkins made a similar stance clear to his players from the start.
“It has not been an issue because I let them know straight up front, ‘I don’t have a favorite when it comes to sports, when it comes to coaching,’ ” he said. “If (Vanessa) makes a mistake, I’ll yank her (from the game). Whoever is doing the best and what I’m telling them to do, they’ll play.”
While it would seem possible that having a father looking over their shoulder at home as well as in the gym could cause some burnout, the opposite is true for the younger Wilkins and Gonzalez.
“It’s nothing new, he’s been my coach since birth,” Vanessa said. “I love having him as a coach. It’s an honor, especially in high school.”
While Vanessa said that basketball is a constant topic in her household, the Gonzalez family takes a different approach.
“When we go home we don’t even talk about wrestling at all,” Martin said. “We leave everything here in the (wrestling) room. He doesn’t continue on. He knows how to shut it off.
“That’s why we have such a good friendship.”
The two coaches have something in common beyond coaching their child just this season, however.
Both have actually been down this road before.
Wilkins’ son Dominic played basketball at Gilroy High two years ago while James was an assistant for the boys team. Armando coached his other son, Armando Jr., before sending him off to Cal-State Fullerton to wrestle at the collegiate level.
Coach Gonzalez compares the bond between a coach and wrestler to a father and son, which isn’t surprising considering he has watched almost the entire 2007-08 team grow up after coaching them for more than a decade, starting at the youth level with Gilroy Hawks club team.
“When you’ve been with someone since seven-years old, you see the maturity and growth,” coach Gonzalez said. “I miss them terribly (after they graduate), but the best thing is to see them grow. For me, that means the most to acknowledge the young men they’ve become after wrestling.”
As Hunter Collins put it in a Jan. 25 article, Gonzalez treats all of his wrestlers like family.
“There’s not really much I can say,” Collins said. “He taught me how to wrestle. I’m pretty much one of his boys … He’s more than a coach to all of us (wrestlers).”
Sophomore Rodney Balajadia sums it up in a manner that ensures no one is being shown favoritism.
“It’s pretty much the same (for everyone),” Balajadia said. “He’s maybe a little bit harder on (Martin) but it’s pretty much the same.
“I think he’s killing him just like he’s killing everybody else.”
From a coach’s or player’s perspective, that’s just the way it should be.
