I was the statistician for the Spanish radio broadcasts for UTSA football, and Jorge Rodriguez was doing the play-by-play. That was the first time I met him. We worked all the home games together in 2012, and connected through social media shortly after.
I was so nervous that first game, but he and the rest of the crew made me feel very welcome immediately. Even though I couldn’t understand a word, we communicated perfectly through numbers.
How did you get to the Univision Network?
My dream was to become a professional “Futbol” player. I was transferred from the El Paso Patriots to San Antonio in 1993 and began playing for the San Antonio Pumas. Our home field was Harlandale Stadium. We were the farm team for the Dallas Burn from the MLS.
I had an opportunity to try out in Italy at 18 years old going on 19, and a week before I was supposed to fly out to Turin, I, unfortunately, tore my ACL in practice, which pretty much ended my professional soccer career. I knew it was too late for me and my opportunity had passed. Had I not torn that ACL, who knows where my career would have taken me.
I dealt with some depression at the time, but knew I had to bounce back somehow. I decided to go back to school and obtained my Radio, Television, and Film degree from San Antonio College, where I began playing with the camera.
Shortly after that, I was hired by Univision to become the Sports Cameraman which I loved. The President for Univision at that time was Steve Giust, who was also my soccer coach for the Kazes in El Paso when I was age 11-17. Sure is a small world.
When I started with Univision, they didn’t have a weekend newscast, but when they decided to open for the weekends and start airing a 5 pm and a 10 pm newscast, I was asked to become the new weekend Sports anchor since I knew a lot about Mexican Futbol.
At first, I refused, but after much thinking and talking with my parents, I decided to take the job which later landed me in Network Television working for Rebuplica Deportiva & Contacto Deportivo in Miami covering the Germany World Cup 2006. That was probably my most memorable time on television. Though I was not on the field in Germany, I ran the show from Miami’s hub which was a party pretty much every day. Satellite to and from all the cities the games took place in Germany. It was a lot of fun.
What memorable games and players stood out during your time as a Sports anchor?
Of course, the San Antonio Spurs championships were up there as the most memorable. The time Manu Ginobili came to San Antonio and to be able to interview him in the locker room after the Championships was a ton of fun.
It was nice for San Antonio to finally have a Spanish speaker who could communicate with his Hispanic audience in San Antonio. We finally had a voice for Latinos in the NBA and in San Antonio. My job with Republica Deportiva then landed me a job in Los Angeles for Azteca America, then later with ESPN Deportes which lead me to covering some great events like the arrival of David Beckham with the Galaxy and other major soccer events at The Home Depot Center and convering the Lakers, LA Kings and Dodgers as well. Never a dull moment.
How did you get the job as the San Antonio Spurs Spanish radio broadcaster?
I was first asked to be a replacement for Paul Castro when he was doing Spanish Television for Time Warner at the time.
It was the first time we were broadcasting Spurs games on Spanish TV, and the response was amazing and the ratings were great. So when Paul would do some of the games on Spanish TV, I would fill in for him on the Radio.
I interviewed players in both in English and Spanish. If in English like with Tim, David, Parker, etc, I would translate their responses on the spot or we would translate back in the studio. Though I was able to interview Bruce Bowen, Rasho Nesterovic & Stephen Jackson in Spanish since they spoke a little Spanish and obviously Fabricio Oberto.
Another memorable moment was to interview Thierry Henry from Arsenal and France Futbol, since he was here one time to see Tony Parker play.
What memorable games and players stood out while you broadcasting the San Antonio Spurs?
Like I mentioned, the most memorable for me was when the Spurs won the championships in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014. Getting to be in those locker rooms after their victories was a ton of fun and something very special to be a part of.
I will never forget those moments and to be able to interview Manu and take that back to his people and his fans was an amazing experience. I was also able to interview his Dad and brothers as well. Very nice and humble people.
How did you get the UTSA Football job?
I was asked by Jim Goodman since he knew I did the Spurs. He called me and asked me to do the job and I clearly accepted, since I went to UTSA as well. I was flattered and honored for the opportunity.
It was the first time we had Spanish play-by-play for UTSA Football, but unfortunately the ratings weren’t there. I think we did only two seasons. Being a part of it was amazing and a lot of fun to have college football in our city. They continue to do well and represent San Antonio well.
Why did you change careers from sports to commercial real estate?
I absolutely do miss sports broadcasting. I loved my job very much, but got tired of the politics behind the scenes, especially for Network Television in L.A. It was amazing to be recognized on the streets, and I had a blast covering all sorts of sporing events, from Boxing, to Futbol, NFL, Tennis, MLB, NBA, World Cup, Formula 1, you name it, it was a dream job, but as mentioned, too many concerns behind the scenes I didn’t enjoy, which led me to take some time off, fly to Thailand and had to regroup for about a month and get my mind straight and decide where I wanted to go and where I wanted to be, mentally, physically and emotionally.
After speaking to my father, who had been doing residential and farm & ranch real estate for 30+years, he suggested I get my license and focus on Commercial Real Estate due to the Mexican Nationals influx in San Antonio. He was absolutely right. I moved back to San Antonio to be closer to my parents/family and I got my real estate license in 2011 and began working with Mexican nationals who were buying both homes and commercial investment properties in San Antonio and all over Texas. One deal led to another and so forth and it hasn’t stopped since. I later also obtained my CCIM designation, which opened up more doors in my industry and now I run the International Investment Division for my firm NAI Excel and NAI Global and we do business with clients from all over the world investing in different asset types of commercial properties such as Hospitals, Medical Office Buildings, any healthcare property, Industrial, Retail centers, Office buildings, land plays for development, etc. We are a one stop shop for our clients and we get them from contract to close with full satisfaction and to the best of our ability.
I still do the Spurs play-by-play for Spanish TV. We had a trial run again last year for Unimas and had great reviews in 10 games. We are hoping we can get more games next season and eventually a full season since our Hispanic audience deserves more games in Spanish broadcast. Especially with Wemby in town, I think San Antonio is going to be in the top of the list again like we were when we had the Twin Towers, Parker and Ginobili. Spurs are coming back with a vengeance and we need to be there to cover all the fun and new championships.
What do you do fun?
I love riding my BMW 1150 GS motorcycle, spending a ton of time with my boys (8-3 years old) teaching them sports, dates with my wife, traveling, sports, and a lot of cooking and hunting and I’m a bit of a workaholic and a deal junkie.