By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZThe Paz Files
HARLINGEN, Texas - When they finally whipped Abilene this past Saturday, the boys playing for the Harlingen football Cardinals gained a needed out-of-the-Valley victory and they also got a second, perhaps more meaningful honor: a Top 25 ranking.
According to the respected people at TexasFootball.com, the Cardinals begin this week at No. 24, as they prepare to battle the always-tough Edinburg High Bobcats this coming weekend. For the team, and Coach Manny Gomez, it is the feather in the hat every Rio Grande Valley high school squad has dreamed of since that magical year of 1961, when the Donna Redskins beat a Quanah team to claim the Valley's only state championship. No RGV club has come close to repeating that achievement.
Gomez may be the coach to take the Cardinals to the next level, that being victories in bi-district play and gaining a spot in the finals against those dreaded teams from North Texas, the same teams who annually scoff at football played south of Austin.
It is a high time in this town of some 70,000 residents, a town where football quickly erases citizen discontent with its politicians and with current economic woes. It is said that when the Cardinals take the field, well, an entire citizenry goes to battle against any and all opponents. The Cardinals have swamped Corpus Christi Carroll (72-0), a fighting team from neighboring San Benito, and last weekend they climbed a mountain to beat proverbial powerhouse Abilene High School in double-overtime.
So, it was no surprise that, this morning, when the new rankings came out, Harlingen High was up there with the state's best. It's a long season, but Harlingen High School has only Valley teams left on its 2011 schedule, teams it has run roughshod over in the past few years.
Is this the magical year all over again? Is Cardinals QB Kevin Ledesma the new Luz Pedraza of Donna fame? That's the promise that the Cardinals carry onto the field each time they strap-on their helmets for Big Red.
These, then, are the latest 5A rankings:
1. Allen 3-0
2. Katy 3-0
3. DeSoto 4-0
4. Euless Trinity 4-0
5. Cibolo Steele 4-0
6. Dallas Skyline 3-0
7. Coppell 3-0
8. Arlington Martin 3-0
9. Southlake Carroll 3-0
10. Longview 3-1
11. Converse Judson 4-0
12. Pearland 2-1
13. GP North Shore 3-1
14. Cedar Hill 1-2
15. Denton Guyer 2-1
16. Lufkin 3-1
17. Klein Collins 3-0
18. Midland 4-0
19. Arlington Bowie 2-1
20. RR Westwood 4-0
21. Spring Dekaney 3-0
22. SA Brandeis 4-0
23. SA Warren 3-1
24. Harlingen 3-0
25. Abilene 2-2
San Antonio football fields have historically been cemeteries for Valley grid iron dreams. Numerous teams, from Sharyland, to Edinburg, to PSJA North, to Port Isabel have made the trip and have all met defeat at the hands of faster and bigger squads from northern schools.
Perhaps Harlingen High's win over Abilene at San Antonio's Heroes Stadium last Saturday night is an omen of what's to come this particular season...
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4 comments:
I predict they finish in the Top 10. This Harlingen team is really good!
It's good to know where we stand in football. Thankz
El De Los Fresnos, you're right. This is a damned good high school team, but we have to win the big ones. that's what counts.
HHS, is playing good solid ball all around. I predict, they will pass the third round but fall on the quarter finals.
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