Brooks football family tree continues with 2 generations at Canutillo

The name Brooks has been synonymous with gridiron history in the Borderland for four decades.

Don Brooks was head coach at Coronado High School for 35 years.

His son, Scott, has been head coach at Canutillo High School for 16 years.

And his son, Bo, plays for the Eagles.

Three generations of the Borderland’s Brooks family will be represented in the state football playoffs this week when Canutillo takes on Ennis in the state semifinals in Lubbock.

“There’s no better way to live,” said Bo, a hard-hitting safety for Canutillo. “Me and my dad and my grandpa can talk football all the time.”

“At home, we watch football and (Bo’s) got a very good football eye and he sees things that I don’t,” Scott said.

So don’t be surprised if, like his dad and his grandfather, Bo too is someday a coach.

Scott may have been destined to be a coach, even as a young child.

“He watched film on our kitchen door because we had the old 16 mm. He’d watch film when he was little,” Don said.

His father doesn’t mind that he’s gone further than he did.

“We had two or three opportunities, we just didn’t quite make it,” Don said. “And no one else from El Paso has either, so I’ve got to be real proud that he’s made it.”

“It’s neat because I was on the sideline in ‘79 at Texas stadium with a broken collarbone as the ball boy,” Scott said of going one round further than his father did. “So to have the chance to go back, 35 years later, is a pretty neat experience.”

The elder Brooks said his son reminds him of himself on the sidelines.

“He reminds me of when I was young,” Don said. “When I was young, he would come to all the practices and everything and I’d get on kids quite a bit. I kind of mellowed when I got older and he’s in that not-yet-mellowing stage.”

Don’s not done with coaching, however. He will be coaching in next weekend’s high school all-star football classic at the Sun Bowl.

But he’s skipping practice this Friday so he can be in Lubbock.

If Canutillo advances to next weekend’s state championship, he says they’ll need a replacement coach for the all-star game because he wouldn’t miss that game for the world.