Baker's Dish

When driving out Thursday morning to Donna, I didn’t really know what to expect. For starters, the guys from Donna haven’t exactly liked The Monitor — or any media outlet — for obvious reasons during the past three or four years.

With the heat those guys have received from the press, who can blame them?

But when I was greeted by first-year head coach Manuel Orlando Moreno when I arrived, I was caught off guard. It was the first time I officially met him in person. I was expecting an angry abrasive coach, but what I got was an over-welcoming coach, one that gave myself and videographer Travis Bartoshek full access to his upbeat Redskins team throughout the early morning practice.

You see, what I learned about Coach Manny — or Coach Orlando as he mom prefers — is that he’s a true Redskin. He graduated from Donna in 1984 and has been a loyal, loyal assistant at the school for the past 20 years. And that loyalty has been tested in recent years, with the hazing scandal that led to David Evans’ firing in 2005 and the ensuing fallout the past two seasons under Tom Chavez.

When Moreno was first named the head coach in the offseason I was a bit shocked. He didn’t have any head coaching experience, other than being the interim AD and head football coach on two brief occasions.

But after finding out his story — a 42-year-old coach who’s been biding his time until he finally could be the head coach of the Donna Redskins — I sense that he’s the best fit there.

And for Donna, that’s exactly what the program needs right now.