One recent Sunday evening, Scott Brooks sat on his back porch and contemplated something that had rarely crossed his mind in nearly three decades — a football season at Canutillo High School without him.
For 28 seasons, Brooks has been responsible for preparing the Eagles for whatever came next. The offseason workouts, practices, games and development of younger players had become part of a routine that rarely stopped.
But with retirement approaching, the 60-year-old coach realized those decisions would soon belong to someone else.
“I am worried about it, because I want them to continue to be successful,” Brooks said. “But it ain’t my decision.”
Brooks has been a constant in a community that has changed dramatically around him. Farmland and rural roads have increasingly given way to commercial development, new neighborhoods and modern schools. Meanwhile, the Eagles have grown from a modest football program into one of the most successful in El Paso history.
Now, Brooks is preparing to walk away from the only high school football program he has ever led.
Canutillo enters its Nov. 6 regular-season finale at El Paso High School with a 7-2 record and a playoff berth secured. The Eagles will have at least one more game after Friday, giving Brooks and his players another opportunity to extend a season neither is eager to see end.
Since arriving in 1999, Brooks has guided Canutillo to more than 200 victories, multiple district championships and a historic appearance in the 2014 UIL Class 5A Division 2 state semifinals.
But the story of his time at Canutillo is also one of unlikely permanence.
Brooks was a 32-year-old assistant coach when he accepted the job, stepping into a program with limited resources and a small roster. He wanted to become a head coach but had little reason to believe his first opportunity would become his life’s work.
“I always joke that I wouldn’t,” Brooks said when asked whether he expected to stay so long.
A different Canutillo
In the summer of 1999, Canutillo was a small community on the northwestern outskirts of El Paso, where farmland, irrigation canals and longtime family ties helped define local life.
Its residents were fiercely protective of their independence. That June, approximately 500 people gathered in the old Canutillo High School gymnasium to protest another proposed annexation by the city of El Paso.
Canutillo High School was located along Bosque Road, across the Rio Grande from the expanding development along Interstate 10. The campus and football facilities were considerably more modest than those Brooks would eventually oversee.
Brooks arrived from Montwood High School, where the football program had enough players to provide considerable depth at nearly every position. His first practice at Canutillo offered a stark contrast.
“At Montwood, we had five positions deep. I came here, and the first day of practice, we had 38 kids, and that was (grades) nine through 12,” Brooks recalled. “So, it was a big eye-opening experience.”
The job offered something he had wanted for years: an opportunity to run his own program.
Brooks grew up around football. His father, Don Brooks, was the longtime head coach at Coronado High School and one of El Paso’s most accomplished coaches. Scott played for his father before pursuing college football, graduating from Texas State University and beginning his own coaching career, with stops at Morehead Middle School, El Paso High School and Montwood.
When the Canutillo opportunity emerged, his father encouraged him to consider the community’s potential.
“He said, ‘Look, you know, it’s gonna grow,’” Brooks recalled. “He said, ‘It’s got to.’”
Brooks took the job.
His first game came against Del Valle High School. Brooks remembered watching the Conquistadores, then coached by Chuck Veliz, another of the region’s successful coaches, arrive with roughly 55 players while Canutillo suited up about 25.
“I was, like, ‘Well, this is gonna be a long night,’” he recalled.
It was. But even amid a 33-7 defeat, Brooks saw something in his players that convinced him the program had a foundation on which to build.
“I realized our kids would fight,” he said.
The Eagles had struggled to field teams at every level, so Brooks and his assistants concentrated on younger players and strengthening relationships with the district’s feeder middle schools.
That first year, the goal was modest: Finish the season with three teams — freshmen, junior varsity and varsity.
They accomplished it. And the freshmen who entered the program that year eventually became the first group under Brooks to reach the playoffs in 2002.
As victories became more frequent, expectations changed. Younger players arrived at the varsity level accustomed to winning.
Continuity among the coaching staff reinforced those expectations. Brooks’ longtime offensive and defensive coordinators each spent approximately 25 years alongside him, and several former players eventually returned to coach.
Growing together
Meanwhile, the community surrounding the football program was undergoing its own transformation.
In January 2006, Canutillo High School opened its new $23 million campus along South Desert Boulevard.
The following year, the Outlet Shoppes at El Paso opened near Interstate 10 and Transmountain Road, and new housing and commercial development increasingly changed the landscape along the northwestern edge of El Paso.
For Brooks, the move to the new campus was more than a change of address.
The football program gained facilities that reflected its growing ambitions, including a stadium with artificial turf. The field was initially green before the district adopted the distinctive blue playing surface that would become one of Canutillo football’s most recognizable features.
Still, Brooks understood that buildings and facilities alone could not create a winning tradition.
The foundation remained the players, their families and the coaches who returned each year.
By the late 2000s, Canutillo had begun establishing itself as a regular playoff contender. In 2007, the Eagles recorded the first of five 10-win seasons under Brooks.
A season for the ages
By 2014, Brooks had spent 15 years building Canutillo into a program accustomed to competing for district championships and playoff victories.
That season, the Eagles accomplished something no El Paso-area UIL football team had done before.
Canutillo won 13 games and advanced to the Class 5A Division II state semifinals, defeating Ysleta, San Angelo Lake View, Azle and Everman before falling to Ennis, 41-13, in Lubbock.
For Brooks, the achievement was particularly meaningful because of the players who made it possible. Many had grown up together, developing friendships and chemistry long before they reached high school. Among them was his son, Bo.
Brooks credited the team’s defense, its close-knit relationships and some good fortune with injuries and playoff conditions for helping the Eagles advance farther than any Canutillo team before them.
The historic run also raised expectations for a program that had once struggled to field enough players. Canutillo continued reaching the postseason in subsequent years, including consecutive regional semifinal appearances in 2021 and 2022.
A legacy across generations
Long before LJ Martin became a standout running back at Brigham Young University, he was a Canutillo kid who looked forward to Friday nights at the Eagles’ stadium.
He remembers watching the older players and the excitement of running onto the field alongside them, dreaming of the day he might wear the same uniform.
“Coach Brooks meant a lot to me growing up,” Martin said. “I remember looking up to his football team when I was in middle school, elementary school, going to the games on Fridays.”
Martin eventually became one of the program’s most accomplished players, and Brooks helped guide him through the recruiting process and prepare for college football.
“He was a great mentor to me,” Martin said. “He’s been a great person, and he’s a great friend to me. I’m really grateful for him. I wouldn’t want anyone else to be my coach.”
Martin enters No. 9-ranked BYU’s matchup against No. 3 Utah on Saturday as a game-time decision after suffering a lower body injury Oct. 3.
For Canutillo senior running back Sylas Reyes, Martin represents the standard he hopes to reach.
Reyes, who has rushed for 1,064 yards and 15 touchdowns through nine games this season, grew up hearing about the Eagles’ historic 2014 team and the players who followed. His mother, cousins and several uncles attended Canutillo, making the opportunity to represent the school particularly meaningful.
“It feels really nice to represent them and represent this community,” Reyes said. “It’s a great community. They always come out and support us.”
Reyes hopes the Eagles can extend their playoff run and give Brooks a memorable farewell.
“It’s an honor, man. He really turned this program around,” Reyes said. “I’m glad I was able to be here for his last year.”
Senior David Rivas arrived at Canutillo with a different perspective.
A Florida native who previously lived in Georgia, Rivas transferred to Canutillo as a sophomore, drawn partly by the football program’s reputation for developing players such as Martin.
He has become one of the Eagles’ most versatile athletes, contributing as a receiver, runner and return specialist. But Rivas said Brooks’ influence has extended beyond his development on the field.
“He’s not just a coach. He’s really like family to you, a mentor,” Rivas said. “He teaches you a lot you need to know, not just inside the game, but also outside the game.”
Brooks’ influence also extends to players he coached before arriving at Canutillo.
Robert Rodriguez played for Brooks at Montwood before becoming a standout linebacker at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he earned Western Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2004. Rodriguez later coached in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals. He also coached collegiately at Arizona State University.
Rodriguez said Brooks remains one of his favorite coaches, a distinction that has only grown more meaningful as he has advanced through his own coaching career. Rodriguez said he especially appreciates Brooks’ honesty when evaluating players and his willingness to put their development ahead of personal recognition.
“He’s always so grounded,” Rodriguez said. “He’s such a good evaluator.”
Rodriguez said that approach earned his respect as both a player and a fellow coach. Brooks never needed to exaggerate a player’s abilities to demonstrate his value as a coach. Instead, he understood what players could do and how to help them improve.
“When I was a player, he made me a better player,” Rodriguez said.
That reputation has endured within Canutillo itself.
Armando Rodriguez, a former Eagles player who now serves on the Canutillo ISD school board, said Brooks’ decision to make the community his home was as important as his accomplishments on the field.
“Coach Brooks is Canutillo football,” Rodriguez said. “The culture he built, the foundation he established and the standards he set will continue to define this program long after his retirement.”
Former Canutillo ISD Superintendent Pedro Galaviz said Brooks understood that his influence carried responsibilities beyond winning football games.
“Any Texas superintendent will tell you that if you want to understand how a community is feeling, you listen to its high school football coach,” Galaviz said. “Scott Brooks has always been that kind of coach.”
Galaviz said Brooks used his position to advocate for students and alumni, ensuring their voices were heard.
“His greatest legacy isn’t measured in wins, championships or records,” said Galaviz, who was elected this week to the Canutillo school board. “It is measured in the lives he has touched, the students he has advocated for and the generations of Canutillo High School students who are better because he was their coach.”
One last season
Brooks had opportunities to leave Canutillo over the years, including an out-of-town coaching job he seriously considered.
But he stayed, drawn by the community, the relationships he had built and a belief that he could continue making a difference.
His father’s influence also remained with him.
Don Brooks coached at Coronado until he was 70, leaving in 2011. He died in 2021 at age 79. The younger Brooks grew up believing that a coach’s responsibility was to make the most of the circumstances he was given.
“I think it’s maybe how my dad raised me up,” Brooks said. “You do what you’re supposed to do with what you got.”
Still, Brooks knew his own career would eventually end.
He considered stepping away after the 2025 season, when Canutillo finished 5-5. But that record bothered him. He didn’t want to leave the program after a season that fell short of the standards he had spent decades establishing.
“I didn’t want to leave the program like that,” Brooks said.
He returned for one final season, and the Eagles responded.
On Oct. 9, Canutillo defeated Del Valle — the school that handed Brooks a resounding defeat in his first game — to give him his 200th career victory.
Canutillo has since added two more victories, bringing Brooks’ career total to 202 entering Friday’s regular-season finale.
Brooks plans to retire in January and move with his wife to rural Central Texas to be closer to family. He looks forward to spending more time with family, including his grandchildren, after decades of schedules dictated by football.
Leaving the community he has called home for so long will not be easy.
“I enjoyed my time here, and I’m going to miss it,” Brooks said. “I’m gonna miss the kids, miss the faculty and the community.”
The post Legacy of loyalty: Scott Brooks built more than a football program in 28 seasons at Canutillo appeared first on El Paso Matters.
Read: Read More