Photo by: Joel Gonzales

AURORA – The Pueblo County football team, coached by Ramon Enriquez, is 4-0 and ranked No. 3 in 3A.

Today, he is being recognized as the Broncos High School Tackle Coach of the Week. The Denver Broncos and CHSAA will continue to honor one flag football coach and one tackle football coach each week throughout the season.

Throughout the season, all Coach of the Week honorees will be recognized on the field during a pregame ceremony at Broncos home games.

Q&A with Ramon Enriquez:

What was your football background before becoming the head coach at Pueblo County?

I started coaching in 2007 at Pueblo West High School. I coached there for about 10 years, moved on to Pueblo Central for a year. Then came on as a defensive coordinator in 2019 here at County, and took over in 2022, as the head coach.

How is it playing your former teams?

I went to Pueblo West High School, so I get a lot of grief from former classmates. … To me, kids are the same everywhere. They want to work, they want to win, and they want to do the things we ask them to do. They're going to be the same no matter where we go, and I just look at that as another opportunity to work with kids and help them achieve their goals.

How would you describe your coaching style or philosophy?

I came in with the mentality that we are a family. We spend so much time with each other, and I wanted to establish this Hornet family. I put the kids first. I coach them hard, and I expect a lot out of them. In the end, I just want them to understand I care about them and want to see them succeed as people, not just down on the football field.

What does this team mean to the program and the community?The community has been great; our school is behind us. … We're kind of secluded, and everyone out here has been great. They come out and support. Last week was our homecoming, and our stadium was just packed. It was cool to see them get behind this group of kids, with the way they're working. It started off last year, but this year the stands are packed. I think it means a lot to the community to see some good football being played.

With a 4-0 start to the season, this is the strongest start Pueblo County's had since you took over as head coach. What do you think is the biggest reason for this hot start?

We have a lot of continuity, most of our offense is back from last year. A lot of our defense got experience at some point last year, but it's a credit to this group. They are a tight-knit group. They compete with each other, they expect a lot of each other, and they push each other. We've preached to them that the practice should be harder than the game, and they're just pushing each other to get better every day. My coaching staff is awesome, with a lot of continuity there. I've had the same offensive coordinator and special teams coordinator with us for five years. Just a lot of continuity, growth and maturity between us as a staff and the players.

Now that you're 4-0, do you feel extra pressure to stay undefeated?

We don't. It's not something that we thought about or talked about. It's just something that happened, but the message to the kids has been that we have bigger goals. Being 4-0 is great, but if we stumble along the way, it's just adversity that happens and we'll react to it accordingly. We still have a lot to accomplish, and we as a staff are not allowing ourselves to get any type of big head, and we won't let our players do that either.

Is there anything that I missed or anybody you want to give a shout out to that we didn't get a chance to speak about already?

I think this is awesome. I like that the program is getting attention. I don't necessarily like the attention, but my staff does an amazing job. When I got the call that this was happening, I just wanted to let them know, this is not because of me, it's because of them. It's a staff award, it's a team award, and I'm glad that the program is getting attention.