Daniel Infante aims to rebuild Del Rio Rams football and pride

Daniel Infante is being asked to restore more than a football offense in Del Rio. After a winless season and a long slide that has shaken confidence around the Rams, the new head coach arrives with the charge of rebuilding turnout, discipline and the sense that Friday nights still belong to Del Rio High School.

Infante comes to Val Verde County with a coaching résumé built across South Texas. A Rio Grande Valley product, he graduated from Donna High School, attended Texas Tech University and got his first job back at Donna. He later worked as passing game coordinator at Mercedes ISD, co-offensive coordinator at Corpus Christi Veterans High School and, in August 2024, became offensive coordinator at Sharyland High School. At Sharyland, his first offense averaged 393 total yards per game, then 424 yards per game the next season. Quarterback Calvin Harris set school records for passing yards, total yards and touchdowns under Infante’s guidance.

Those numbers matter in Del Rio because the job is bigger than play-calling. San Felipe-Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District says athletics are an extension of the educational process, meant to help develop leaders in the Del Rio community. That puts Infante in the middle of a school-town identity project as much as a football rebuild in a county-seat city of 34,673.

He spoke at a meet-and-greet May 15 at Carl P. Guys Memorial Gymnasium, where the district and community introduced him as the face of the next phase for the Rams. Infante said he had admired Del Rio from afar and that, when the chance came to leave Corpus Christi Veterans and come home, joining the Rams was an easy decision. He also said the program had been struggling for a few years and was not the team of old, an assessment that matches the size of the task now in front of him.

The Rams finished 3-7 in 2024 and 2-4 in district play before a 23-14 loss to Eagle Pass closed that season. In 2025, Del Rio went 0-10 for the first time since 1998 and ended on an 11-game losing streak stretching back to the previous year. That 1998 team came at the end of a three-year stretch under coach Joe George in which Del Rio went 1-29. The latest loss to Eagle Pass was the Eagles’ ninth straight in a rivalry that has spanned more than 100 games and 105 years.

Infante now takes over in District 30-6A, where Del Rio will line up with Castroville Medina Valley, Eagle Pass, Laredo Alexander, Laredo Johnson, Laredo United and Laredo United South. Under UIL playoff rules, the top four district teams reach the postseason, with two teams sent to Division I and two to Division II. Dave Campbell’s Texas Football lists Del Rio as a 6A program, which means the Rams’ path back runs through one of the state’s toughest classifications. The real test will be whether Infante can turn a new hire into a return of belief at RAM Stadium.