Family, tradition, excellence
Javelina baseball was nonexistent from 1930 until it was reinstated in 1993 with the help of Head Coach Hector Salinas, father of current Head Softball Coach Orlando Salinas who played for his father on that historic 1993 Javelina baseball team.
Hector Salinas led his teams with an unwavering will to succeed, through his time coaching he passed these traits down to his son.
That legacy continues as Coach Orlando Salinas is now passing them down to his son and the teams new volunteer Assistant Coach Orlando Salinas Jr.
“With our family, we don’t know anything else. Since I was one or two years old, he’s coached his whole life, he coached for over 40 years, and the one thing I realize the more I’m doing it I see what motivated him. It’s that you’re giving people an opportunity of a lifetime, so when I go into a house or a school or a showcase, and they commit, I’m having parents and the kid cry right in front of me because their dream has become a reality,” Salinas said.
Hector Salinas also passed down the “all in” mentality.
“The culture has to be about family, our culture is you’re either in or you’re out, there is no in between like I’m half in I’m half out. You’re gonna be all in and we’re going to root on each other, that’s what A&M Kingsville’s about, it’s about family, you know familia. That’s what people don’t understand is that here at A&M Kingsville when I bring in recruits the parents say everyone is so friendly, everyone’s here to help, and I say it’s different everywhere and this place is so special. Our pillars for success are just family, commitment, unity and total buy in,” Salinas said.
Through his three seasons of coaching the team, Head Coach Salinas is proud to recruit talent out of South Texas. This is reflected in the South Texas dominant roster that has been built.
“I started very late with trying to get recruited and felt I was going to miss my opportunity to play my first year of college. My high school coach, Matt Molina, reached out to Coach O. Initially I was supposed to go to Kingsville so they could see me practice but my schedule didn’t allow me. In June, they drove down to Los Fresnos and well now I am here. I am truly thankful and blessed with the opportunity he gave me on such a late notice,” sophomore player Dakota Martinez said.
Through his coaching career, Coach Salinas was able to coach with his father during the 1995 baseball season at TAMUK, an opportunity that now 30 years later his son Orlando Salinas Jr. is now presented with as an assistant coach for the Javelina Softball team.
“This opportunity means the world to me I knew as soon as I finished up my career I said if I was able to go and do what my dad did with his, my grandpa, then I would definitely take that opportunity. Like I said, when I’m on that field with my dad there’s no place I’d rather be in the world. The long road trips, the long weekends – there’s no place I’d rather be and being able to come on this staff and have this opportunity from the university to instill some of my knowledge into these girls, and help anyway I can, like I said it means the world to me and there’s no place I’d rather be than beside my pops on the field,” Orlando Salinas Jr. said.
