After a lot of trouble, the Carolina Panthers decided to give Dave Canales a head coaching job. Little before everyone knew, the coach started turning some heads with his steadfast decision making and other choices. This is his first year as the Panthers head coach and Canales has piqued the interest of many people, including ours.

So, why not get to know the Carolina Panthers a bit better? As it happens, faith is a very important part of Canales’ life and there’s something unique about his lineage. Let’s take a look at Dave Canales’ background.

What is Dave Canales’ ethnicity?

The former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator is of Hispanic descent and in fact, he’s the only active Hispanic head coach in the Carolina Panthers’ franchise history. At the start of the year, Adam Schefter pointed out something cool about the HC.

Schefter took to X and posted, “Dave Canales now becomes the only active Hispanic coach in the league, the second in Panthers’ franchise history, and just the fifth in league history following former Carolina HC Ron Rivera, Brian Flores, Tom Flores and Tom Fears.”

Times were hard back then and Cananles’ grandpa, Mitchell joined the army to get access to a permanent citizenship in the country. Canales’ grandparents struggled, took on various jobs, and taught him the same work ethic.

“They found pride in having a job, any job. It is a point of pride in my heritage that as Mexican-Americans, whatever our hands find to do, do it with pride and do it to the best of your ability,” the Panthers head coach said in a past interview.

But work ethic isn’t the only variable to a happy, accomplished life. Some of it also has to do with acknowledging an higher power and surrendering to it. That’s where Canales family’s background with Catholicism kicks in.

What’s Dave Canales’ religion?

Canales is Catholic by faith, but his relationship with God goes one step further. Did you know that his older brother is a pastor at the Carson’s Mission Ebenezer Family Church. Canales’ grandparents founded the church in 1959. As revealed by the Panthers head coach himself, founding a church wasn’t just a coincidence.

“My grandparents were church planters and missionaries to Mexi-Cali (Mexican side of California border),” Canales recalled. “They would travel, my grandpa would preach, and my grandma would sing. They served families and spread the love of Jesus through meeting simple needs, whether food, water, clothes or shelter.”

His relationship with God brought him closer to his wife Lizzy, who he met while attending the Azusa Pacific University. Back then, e-mails was the a very reliable source of communication and Canales used it to talk to Lizzy, who was in Bolivia, serving the community. If it wasn’t for emails, Canales would have taken a long time to ask her for a date. Fast forward to today, he has four children, Ashby, Bea, Ben and Amaya.

Canales found his passion in football, and this is his first head coaching gig for a team, ever. Unfortunately, the Carolina Panthers haven’t had a great track record for the past couple of years. Canales would have to muster all his faith to turn the franchise around.