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McAllen Memorial’s Jacob Garza runs past Rio Grande City defenders during a recent game in McAllen. Garza and the Mustangs are rewriting the school’s postseason history by qualifying for the playoffs.
Gabe Hernandez | gabrielh@themonitor.com
Not the ‘Same old Memorial’
McALLEN - As difficult as it may be, McAllen Memorial looks to be turning the corner on its less-than stellar past.
Before the 2005 season, the Mustangs made only one postseason appearance since they started playing varsity football in 1980. The 1995 Mustangs have the distinction of being Memorial's first postseason squad.
Including this season, Memorial, though, has made the playoffs three of the last four years. Yes, they were 1-9 in 2007 but Mustangs coach Bill Littleton said the program has come a long way and that one bad season wouldn't necessarily trigger years of fruitlessness.
"People think we were the same old Memorial," Littleton said. "People forget we have been in the playoffs three of the last four years. It is starting to be a habit around here and not something that happens every 15 years."
Littleton said this season's team, which takes on Los Fresnos on Saturday in the Class 5A, Division II area round, worked hard to get back in the playoffs, and they have made noise rarely heard from the Mustangs. They won an outright district championship for only the second time in school history, won nine in a row and won only the third Memorial postseason contest - a bi-district victory over Laredo Alexander last week.
"I think its team chemistry because most of us have been playing together since freshmen year," Mustangs lineman Kyle Lauterbach said. "A lot of us hang out together outside of football. A lot of us have an understanding of what we are capable of."
Senior defensive back Joe Serna said he knew the team was a lot more capable then their 0-2 start indicated, which didn't make it easy for people to forget last season.
"It was not frustrating," Serna said about the team's slow start. "I guess the team just did not want to function correctly."
The team had the confidence it could be competitive it just needed some type of spark, something to let the Mustangs know they belonged among the Valley's best. Lauterbach said that one moment was the team's win over PSJA High in Week 2, which started th Mustangs on their win streak.
"We knew we were good," Lauterbach said. "We just needed that one moment to be able to act on it and to be able to get things rolling. It felt really good to get that win and then go into La Joya and win that game. We started to just get on a roll."
As much as the Mustangs would have liked to have won those first two games, in some ways the losses paved the way for the season they are having now.
"I think in reality if we would have been 2-0 at the start, I don know that we would have been 11-0 at the end," Littleton said. "I think it made us become a tighter football team because we had to overcome some adversities. It was a test of character. After we got a taste of that winning we just got better and better."
Peter Rasmussen covers District 30-5A football for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-448 or via e-mail at prasmussen@themonitor.com.
