Former Coronado High Players Loved Nemo, Too

It was wonderful re-living the story of the 1949 Bowie High Bears’ march to the
state baseball championship in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated. It’s a
story of heart and determination overcoming almost insurmountable odds.
I, of course, lived through much of it, got to know the players and their coach
and have written countless articles about them through the years.
But I have another, more personal, connection. Their coach, Nemo Herrera,
coached my son, Victor, when he was starting out in basketball and molded him
into a two-time All-District basketball star at Coronado High School.

YES, NEMO also coached basketball and was even more successful in that sport. He won not one, but two State championships in basketball at San Antonio Lanier High School before Bowie High School lured him to El Paso. Lanier High, like Bowie, was located in the poor section of town and was predominantly Hispanic. Nemo apparently found poor kids easier to coach. He took a shot at El Paso’s
Coronado High School in the Sports Illustrated article. After coaching baseball, basketball and even football at Bowie, he went back to San Antonio. He returned to El Paso in the 1960s and, among other things, coached baseball and the freshman basketball team at Coronado High.

CORONADO HIGH at that time was in the most affluent part of town. In the Sports
Illustrated article Nemo was quoted as saying, “I couldn’t get those guys to do
a damn thing. They had a car in the parking lot and a gal on their arm.”
I thought my son would be offended. Instead, he told me “ I learned more in that
freshman year of basketball that he coached me at Coronado than the next three
years combined. Nemo was the salt of the earth.”

Another Coronado athlete, Jim Keton, who played at the same time as Victor,
echoed the sentiment. He wrote this about Nemo on Facebook: “He was a terrific
coach and wonderful human being. He helped keep us privileged kids grounded in
reality – and in terms of teaching the fundamentals (and beyond), he did not
have a peer at Coronado.”

BUT WAIT. How about Nemo’s charge that every Coronado player had a car in the
parking lot and a girl on his arm? Victor, whom I saw dating several beautiful
girls while at Coronado, could only smile.
“Surely he’s not talking about me,” he said with the trace of a wink in his
voice.

TRIVIA QUESTION: Besides winning singles championships, John McEnroe and Martina

Navratilova won doubles titles at the U. S. Open. Who were their partners?
Answer at end.

AT LAST, Nolan Richardson is on the ballot for induction into the Texas Sports
Hall of Fame. It’s incredible that the only coach in the country who has won
national championships at the NCAA, NIT and junior college levels has been
ignored this long. Thanks mostly to the efforts of KVIA-TV general manager Kevin Lovell, members of the Texas Hall will now get at least a chance to vote for him.

IT’S GOOD to see the memory of late UTEP coach Don Haskins kept alive with
various events. Coming up next: The 1st annual Don Haskins Memorial Golf
Tournament at Santa Teresa Country Club next weekend. Don’s pro golfer son,
Steve, will be on hand.

SPEAKING OF Santa Teresa Country Club, one of the hardest feats in golf is
shooting one’s age. Larry Cordero has done it every year at the upper valley
course since he was 68. But recently he outdid himself. At the age of 75, he
shot a 72. That’e three strokes under his age, folks.

ANSWER to trivia question: McEnroe: Peter Fleming and Mark Wordforde;
Navratilova: Betty Stove, Billie Jean King, Pam Shriver, Hana Mandlikov, Gigi
Fernandez.

Veteran sports journalist and author Ray Sanchez welcomes suggestions for his
column.