Burges High School has promoted defensive coordinator Bernardo Luna to head coach, El Paso ISD announced on Monday.

He’ll replace Neil Routledge, who was promoted to El Paso ISD assistant athletic director.

“Coach Routledge is a great mentor,” Luna said. “He took the time to prepare me by making the move to promote me to associate head coach. He let me know things were going on campus-wide and that prepared me for this job.”

Luna, is a native of McAllen, played his college football at Sul Ross State in Alpine and began his coaching career in the Rio Grande Valley as a position coach at PSJA North where he spent five seasons on staff.

He then made the move west to El Paso where he became the defensive coordinator at El Paso Jefferson for five seasons. In 2015, Luna moved over to Burges High School as the Mustangs defensive coordinator; he was retained on staff when Coach Routledge was hired in 2016.

“I was so excited when I got the call,” Luna said. “I get to continue the tradition that we’ve built at Burges, keep the legacy, but hopefully start some new traditions as well.

“I’m a full-speed, hard-nosed football coach. We want to be tough. We want to be physical. I am an emotional guy, high-energy. I can’t change. I’ll probably be jumping around and celebrating, with lots of excitement because football is an amazing sport.”