Point Isabel ISD named Tony Villarreal, III the next head football coach and athletic director at Port Isabel High School on Wednesday, replacing Jason Strunk who resigned after two seasons to take an athletic director role in his native Pennsylvania.

Villarreal, a 2018 inductee to the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame and one of the forefathers of the Slot-T offense, returns to Port Isabel where he coached from 1990-1995 rolling up an impressive 59-13-4 record and leading the Tarpons to the Class 3A state semifinals in 1994. That season is considered one of the most memorable in the history of the Rio Grande Valley.

Villarreal departed before the 1996 season to lead PSJA North for two seasons where he won a district title in 1997. From there he went to Brownsville Hanna from 1998-2004 before taking over at Weslaco from 2005-2016 where he and Weslaco ISD had a much publicized breakup. Villarreal has been officially retired since that point but he has never closed the door on a return to coaching, as his name has popped up on the rumor mill many times, including two years ago when the Port Isabel job opened up.

The new Port Isabel head coach has an impressive career record of 200-107-4, he’s taken his teams to seventeen total district titles in 27 seasons as a head coach. He led Port Isabel to the regional semifinals in 1990 and 1993 and led Weslaco to the regional semifinals in 2007 and 2016. 

Villareal will look to turn one of the Valley’s top programs back into a winner as he’s Port Isabel’s third head coach since 2017 and he’s taking the Tarpons into a newly aligned 16-4A Division II that features the three remaining RGV 4A-Division II programs aligned with teams from the Corpus Christi area.