Behind new coach Aldo Parral, Rough Riders ready for big season

The Roosevelt Rough Riders football program has hired Aldo Parral as its

new head football coach for the 2018 season. Coach Parral was born and

raised in the Boyle Heights community and graduated in 1988 as a Rough

Rider himself. He is no stranger to the football community as he coached in

the 1990’s at Roosevelt and was associated with Boyle Heights Wolfpack

football for many years.

In 2017 the Riders ended their playoff run in the 2nd round of the Division II

City playoffs after losing to Huntington Park 32-9. The Spartans eventually

ended up winning the Division II championship over Cleveland 18-14.

Last season the Riders football program was slowly on the rise under

coach Ricardo Zepeda who had command of the squad over the last two

seasons. Suddenly, he resigned as Head Coach in February …?

Aldo  Parral was suddenly hired in March but was not a candidate for the

position when the job officially opened.

When the rider football team was in search of a new head coach, Aldo

Parral was on the hiring committee and a Head Coach was ready to be

hired but unfortunately the candidate who was going to receive the position

pulled out at the last minute.

Roosevelt principal Ben Gertner approached Aldo and asked if he would be

interested in the job. Aldo replied with, “sure why not, I guess?” One of the

main reasons Coach Parral took the job with no hesitation was because he

loves football and has been a life long Roosevelt supporter. He felt the

program and school was in a bind due to the delay of trying to hire another

coach. Every school in the Eastern League, except Garfield was looking for

a Coach and it was going to be difficult to find a qualified candidate that late

in the year. Aldo felt it was a great opportunity to step in and help the

school and kids out.

Coach Aldo also said for selfish reasons he wanted to coach this team

because he knows and has coached many of these kids when they started

playing flag football for the Boyle Heights Wolfpack in 2007. He also had

coached many of these players when they were part of the Junior Varsity

squad in 2016. He felt that it would be an easy transition to step in, “given

all the circumstances with the kids and being part of the school for many

years,” Coach Parral said, “why not me?

Aldo gives credit to former coach Richard Zepeda for doing a great job

preparing these kids the last two years. Zepeda had done an amazing job

building relationships and a strong foundation for the future. Although many

players were disappointed with Coach Zepeda’s departure, they feel that

he left them with an excellent football experience.

An interesting note is that Aldo coached Richard Zepeda in the 90’s when

he was a player in high school. Coach Aldo began coaching shortly after

graduating from Whittier College in 1992. He was hired as an ESL teacher

and then shortly transitioned to Social Studies where he has been teaching

since 1993. In 1994, the first year he coached at Roosevelt, it was the

inaugural year of the Freshman/ Sophomore system, Frosh/Soph, and

Roosevelt went undefeated. In addition Aldo has also been part of the

Boyle Heights Wolfpack football program on and off for the last twenty

years.

This season Parral has big expectations knowing he will have a great group

of kids returning but hopes they can stay healthy. The season is long but

depth is not very deep. Injuries could be a problem for the team as they

cannot afford to lose anyone. Coach mentioned that they were already

having issues as some players were already being affected by the injury

bug. He said, if everything works out, the team can easily be a contender

for the Eastern League title given that all schools except for Garfield will be

coming in with new head coaches.

There are many players to watch for this season including seniors, Santos

Rivera (LB/RB) a three year Varsity starter who will lead the defense in

search of a Championship ring; Luis Ramirez (C/DE) another three year

starter with a determination to be the best at everything he does; Jose

Suarez (TE/DE) an uncontrollable ball of energy who can change the game

with big plays; and junior Alfredo Sepulveda (TE/OLB) who plays the game

far beyond his years and always seems to be at the right place at the right

time. All four of these players will be the team leaders and have excellent

leadership, courage, respect from peers and experience to lead the team.

Other seniors that Coach expects to play a big role include, Matthew Tellez

(DB/RB) a three year Varsity starter with tremendous knowledge and skill in

the defensive backfield; Jose ‘Pepe’ Gomez (OL/DT) experienced linemen

with a mean streak; Aldo ‘AJ’ Parral (FB/LB) a tough player who is part of

the 1-2 punch at linebacker with Santos; Richard Cabrera (DB) one of the