CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — For nearly five decades, Joel Rosas has been a fixture on the baseball fields in Calallen — and at 83 years old, he's still leaving his mark.
Known to generations of players and families as "Coach Pop Pop," Rosas recently received a surprise honor from his daughters: a plaque bearing his name, installed near the field just a few houses down from the family home.
"When I started coaching my son, my son would say 'Hey Pop Pop' and then everybody started calling me Pop Pop," Rosas said.
The nickname stuck — and so did the memories he helped create.
His daughter, Belinda Alaniz, said her father's impact stretched far beyond the diamond.
"It's like my dad wasn't just our father, he was a father figure for the people that grew up in this system. Whether it was Calallen or Tuloso or Robstown kids," Alaniz said.
When Rosas had a heart attack, his daughters saw firsthand just how many people still carried those memories with them. That's when they decided to act.
They took him to the field and revealed the plaque in his honor.
"It was a big surprise, yes," Rosas said.
Those who knew him say he didn't just coach the kids — he fed them and opened his home to them.
"Some of them still come up to us and say… you know, I still remember coming to your house and eating," his wife, Maria Rosas, said.
Along the way, he collected trophies — plenty of them, spanning years of time on the field. So many, in fact, that Maria jokes she eventually told him he needed to start cleaning them himself.
But for his daughters, it's the stories they hear from former players that mean the most.
"Stories like the happiest times of their life is when my dad coached them," Alaniz said.
The plaque is their way of giving some of that love back — while he's still here to see it.
"We always knew he was special to us and so many, so we thought it was very deserving of him and the whole community to give back to him," Alaniz said.
The city plans to officially install the plaque in the next couple of weeks.
After nearly 50 years of coaching, Rosas said he is grateful for the baseball family he's built along the way — and for all the players and families who have been part of his journey.
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