Adrian Alcantara was 31
Adrian Alcantara
By Staff Report
Adrian Alcantara, Sobrato High School junior varsity football coach, died unexpectedly March 29. He was 31 years old. Alcantara loved giving back. In addition to his position with the JV team for the past two seasons, he was also the site manager for the South Valley Football League, a popular non-contact youth flag football program associated with Gridiron Football.
He is survived by his mom, Thuy “Minnie” Recinos, stepfather Mario Recinos, and stepbrothers Mikel, Matthew and Daniel Recinos.
Mario Recinos said a cause of death had yet to be determined, but a “cardiopulmonary event resulted in his demise.”
Jubenal Rodriguez, former varsity football coach, said he was loved by his players and was a caring and selfless person.
Rodriguez met Alcantara as Sobrato High football teammates in 2004, the first year the school fielded a football team. Alcantara was a groomsman at Rodriguez’s wedding.
Mario Recinos said Alcantara’s father, Gilford Alcantara — who died in 2004 when Adrian was 13 — helped instill a love of sports in his son. He played Little League Baseball and Pop Warner Football and continued playing both sports throughout his high school career.
Alcantara got into coaching in 2017 as an assistant with Rodriguez at Gilroy High School and was part of the staff that led the Mustangs to a 13-0 season and Central Coast Section championship. A couple of years later, he took the role as the site manager for Gridiron Football and as a coach at Sobrato.
In an interview with Morgan Hill Life earlier this year about his volunteering with the flag football league, Alcantara said that without football his life may have been different.
“What I get out of this partnership is the ability to give back to a community that has done so much for me and to continue to develop adolescent athletes into outstanding individuals as young adults,” he said. “For some people, sports are more than just a game played between the lines.”
Alcantara’s service was held April 7.
