Ray Baca - Canyon
Last year, Coach Ray Baca won the Coach of the Year award for the Texas girls in track and field. Well, he has just cause to be considered again this year. He and his coaching staff led Canyon to another state championship when they scored 70 point to beat Stephenville (43 point) for the UIL 4A state title.
It only happened once since 2014 that a coach has won twice in a row when Juris Green, Conroe The Woodlands won the boy's COY in 2017 and 2018, but Baca has a chance to become the second coach to do it.
Canyon had another solid team all across the board once again. Their 4x400 relay won the state meet in 3:56.05 to seal the entire victory, but it was in the field events where their scoring began. They had a 13 foot pole vaulter who was runner-up and a 18 foot long jumper who also scored points.
Despite not winning the UIL 4A cross country championship for the first time in four years, they still scored big time points in the middle of the meet due to the distance events. A 2:14 half-miler added 10 point in the 800m (eight more points in the 300 hurdles) and their distance runner was second in the 1,600m and 3,200m races when she ran 4:59 and 10:45 for 16 total points.