When Mission High’s basketball team beat Mission Veterans last year to finish a season sweep, guard Jesus Cuellar gathered his team in a huddle and started a loud, vocal celebration.
In that moment, coach Everardo Castellano knew Cuellar was a leader.
“We could tell,” Castellano said. “He had us going.”
As Mission High’s athletic coordinator, football coach Mario Peña watched a lot of basketball, and he saw the same thing. He addressed the team at the end of the season about players possibly coming out for football, and Cuellar decided to give it a shot. Now, he’s the frontrunner to be Mission’s starting quarterback.
“He was very, very shifty, and you could see the athleticism in the kid,” Pena said. “If you’re an athlete, you definitely can get somebody off the court and convert him to playing football.”
For Peña, this is nothing new. Last year’s starter at quarterback, Jerry Barrera, had also played basketball exclusively before joining the football team during his senior year. Peña has been willing to try just about anything to boost numbers and get the offense back on track.
Both Cuellar and Barrera played guard, so they were used to leading an offense. They came in knowing how to fill leadership roles, something Peña felt his team was missing last season.
When Mission basketball player Rene Diaz suffered a heart attack last October, Cuellar rallied the team and kept them focused. Even when Cuellar was a freshman, Castellano saw him stepping into a leadership role as players ahead of him went down to injury.
“He’s been a great leader,” Castellano said. “I’ve had him since he was a freshman, and he’s just a good kid overall. At the end of this year’s basketball season, the team started getting better, and it was because of Chuy and his leadership.”
At this point, Cuellar thinks of himself as more of a “silent leader,” someone who shows up every day and works. He hopes to become a vocal presence as time goes on.
“My strengths I think are being comfortable as a quarterback and being comfortable as a leader,” Cuellar said. “I would guess with basketball, that helped me out a lot, because I had to be a leader in the basketball team.”
Regardless of how ready he is to lead, stepping into the starting role after three years away from football will be a challenge.
“I never picked up a football throughout the three years until last spring,” Cuellar said.
He has some background playing the position after doing it at the middle school level. Since getting back on the field in the spring, Cuellar has increased his arm strength significantly, Peña said. Cuellar said he wants to continue to improve as a runner, and that the hardest part has been learning the offense after years away from the sport.
Peña is doing everything he can to make Cuellar’s transition easier. Under new offensive coordinator Tony Alvarez, the Eagles plan to simplify play-calling without substantially changing what they’ve done over the years.
“I’m trying to learn everything in one year: the reads, the routes, and everything that has the special code names,” Cuellar said. “That’s pretty much the hardest thing.”
NEW CHALLENGES
Mission High will be moving up a classification this year, from District 32-4A to 30-6A. Mission only narrowly made the cut to be bumped up, and the school will have the district’s smallest enrollment.
“Probably size is going to be one of the things we have to look at,” Pena said. “You might expect a little more size. And definitely if you’re 6A, you need to be looking at more numbers.”
Linebacker Eddie Garcia said he is looking forward to the test.
“I like that we’re moving up,” Garcia said. “I like the challenge. It’s going to be real nice to go up against bigger guys. I like to hit people, so I think that’ll be real fun this year.”
THE CALLING CARD
Peña is known for being multiple on defense, and that isn’t going to change even as the unit returns only four starters.
“People know me, that I’m going to come at them,” Peña said. “We’re going to blitz and play games with them.”
Mission will be undersized defensively, but Peña said they make up for it with speed. That fits well in his system, which is designed to create confusion for offensive lines.
“What we do well is we throw people off all the time,” Garcia said.
BEING RESOURCEFUL
Peña isn’t afraid to make drastic personnel moves before, or even during, a season. Last year Steven Cavazos moved from defensive line to quarterback before Barrera took over the job.
Peña continued that trend this year.
After switching from linebacker to offensive line last season, Donovan Cantu has moved to nose guard. Linebacker Steven Tamez played tight end last year. Cuellar was out of football altogether.
“Our skill people will learn two positions,” Pena said, “just because of numbers and depth.”
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PROGNOSIS
Mission won’t have the easiest time competing with the bigger and deeper schools at the 6A level, but the Eagles should be in the mix for the final playoff spot.
2014 Record: 5-6
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TENURE
Coach: Mario Peña
Year at School: 6th
Record at School: 30-22