ODESSA, Texas — When Odessa High School Bronchos head football coach Dusty Ortiz arrived at OHS following the 2020 season, he was tasked with, among other things, righting the ship for an offense that had slowed down and bottomed out.
Two years later, and the Bronchos have not only sped up the pace, but they've scored way more points and have been more competitive on the field thanks to that.
Now, a new offensive coordinator will be helping call the shots on the west side, as Julian Mendez, who coached tight ends and was the recruiting coordinator last year, steps into a big role.
"Offensively what we what to do is, defenses are shown to be really putting force on an offense, making them have to think," said Mendez. "For me, I want to be extremely forceful on a defense. I want to make a defense have to cover us a full field of 100 yards and 52 and a third, to have to cover us the width and full field."
Mendez is well traveled in his football life, which includes stops in California, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma and now Texas as a player and coach. His promotion was unexpected, but his head coach says he's the right man for the job.
"I mean, it wasn't something that I was expecting to happen," said Mendez. "But when it happened it was something I was ready to go ahead and take. To be blessed to have that situation, and to jump into this role is awesome, obviously having coordinator experience before, to do it at this level here, it's awesome."
"You promote guys when you have openings, and we had an opening, and his background in college and what he's done, not only at Ottawa but at the other places he's been, even as a player in college, just had all the right things on his resume," said Ortiz.
The Bronchos are readying themselves already for 2023 with talent to replace, yes... But also talent returning and coming up.
"It's really nice to go into spring and let it play out," said Ortiz. "That's what we're excited about here in a couple weeks, see who wants to take the throne and make us better."
"What we've talked about with some of the guys already, we're gonna be fast physical and together," said Mendez.
Of course, returning for Odessa High at receiver in 2023 is Texas Tech committ Ivan Carreon, who will once again be the focal point of the offense. He made up a dynamic duo with senior quarterback Jaylien Jones in 2022, and the Bronchos will have to replace Jones in 2023.