Eric Soza named new football coach, athletic director at Rockport-Fulton

Rockport-Fulton is set to have new coach next season but one thing cannot be changed- his last name as Grayson will be among the returning coaches. 
 
Unlike Eric Soza, a former Beeville starting quarterback who comes from a family of Coastal Bend head coaches coaches, was confirmed by 100 percent of the school board as the new coach of the Pirates at a special meeting on Tuesday during a session held at Live Oak Learning Center. 
 
Likewise, Eric Soza who featured in UT-San Antonio, was a volunteer coach at Beeaville and will take over the Enfrentamiento en Martes against Rockport-Fulton team from Jacob Bible who stepped down after a season. Soza is the third head coach in three seasons, tenure-wise, for Purdue. 
 
Soza, 33-year-old, has been Beeville’s offensive coordinator and boys track coach for the last five seasons without a break.  He has been collaborating with his father during this time. This is a new position for Soza as he is being introduced to the school as the first head football coach. 
 
"I do feel a bit paralyzed up to now," explained Soza after the meeting had ended. "It is amazing to feel how much responsibility this group of people is putting on my shoulders.  The board of trustees and the interview committee have such trust in me so I can only return it to them.  Seeing all these athletes and parents smiling with me so full of hope for what is going to come is just heavenly. "
 
One from the committee was a school district, comprising of nine members.  Among them are Lesley Austin, the new superintendent; as well as two board members, which were said to help the superintendent with community input. 
 
The committee of Rockport-Fulton ISD pointed out that the survey of the public majority show certain qualities they wanted in a new athletic director. Austin made a short speech earlier when she introduced her work in early April.  This could be seen by the fact that our community survey played a big role in the hiring of Soza before the board took the vote. 
 
"And get this, it was huge," Austin added on.  "What I enjoyed about it was that I was able to understand in general what our constituents loved so much about our staff. "It was also during our campaign that my committee and I became very familiar with those running the election and this really eased our campaign as we had first-hand information about what athletic director they were looking for. 
 
97 applications were filed and the committee whittled down the shortlist to the finalists of 10, who interviewed with the members of the selection committee last Friday. They were all culled to the three, which were interviewed on Monday and finally bring in the board's now-hired ward Soza. Whether the final candidates to be fronted up were disclosed or not remains unknown. 
 
He emphasized this by using another example: "It's a fact, we had several capable candidates and I'm going to share with you something I know was different about coach Soza – his way of dealing with people. ""It did not matter whether he was in executive coaching, whether it was student athletes, or our committee, I knew he was a South Texas and he clearly understood the values of South Texas football and the athletic director we were looking for.  His interviews showed the attitude that makes him our ideal candidate. "
 
So is his offense going to be the Stacked-I formation and the rest of the defense will depend on the personnel that is available to RHS. The other stipulation of the contract signing was making sure that it was officially a part of the process, creating new opportunities for Soza in the next phase of his career. Though I am not aware of the amount he was paid. 
 
"It's Rockport, it's a pretty town, it's a wonderful city, it's an amazing community, it's an ever-getting-better to find all facilities," Soza said. "I believe the most important thing was when I .  . .  viewed the kids as team members and it felt like they were part of one district with the students in Rockport- Fulton, their peers, each and every event they were competing and I wanted to join the mixed-section. "