CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — After a 40-year baseball coaching career, Hector Salinas passed away in April 2021.
His legacy lives on through his kids and three of them are coaching at different schools across the Coastal Bend. Texas A&M University-Kingsville Javelinas Softball Head Coach Orlando Salinas spoke about his father's influence across Corpus Christi high school baseball.
"There was a time when every high school coach, baseball coach, was one of my dad's former players," Orlando Salinas said. "So, his legacy, it's just unmatched and we miss him tremendously."
Hector coached at Moody High School and at the college level—restarting the TAMU-K baseball program and becoming the first head coach of the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Islanders.
Orlando, now in his second year as Javelinas Softball head coach, said his dad always made sure players were ready for life off the field, which he does now as a coach.
"That's what we do as a family," Orlando Salinas said. "We want to make sure that these young ladies, and the young men that my brother coaches, that they're ready for the real world and that we'd inspired them or we've, you know, made a difference in their life."
Orlando said some of Hector's former players' daughters are currently on the Javelinas Softball roster. His sister Paula is the head softball coach at Veterans Memorial High School and his brother Trey is an assistant baseball coach at London High School. Paula said coaching came naturally for the siblings because of their dad.
"We wouldn't be doing what we're doing if it wasn't for my dad," Paula Salinas said. "It was just something we always saw."
The Salinas family legacy stretches further with another generation of players. Orlando's daughter Dominque played softball for Duke and Paula's son MJ Rodriguez plays baseball at TAMU-K. All are proud to call Hector their dad and grandfather, and she said he felt the same way when he was alive.
"He was super proud, and he would be very proud today," Paula Salinas said.
The Salinas family is known as the "First Family of Corpus Baseball." Paula said they are blessed to pass on Hector's legacy over time. She said she learned more about him even after he passed away in 2021.
"With him gone now, I hear so many stories and I realize that, man, my dad was a pretty special person," Paula Salinas said. "Not only to his family, but to so many in the community."
Orlando said it is awesome to see how South Texas baseball and softball grew because of his dad.
There are a couple future college players in the Salinas family, too. Trey's son Landon is committed to play for the Javelinas and his son Aiden is committed to play for the Miami Hurricanes.