GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — Sharyland High’s Nikki Gonzalez, an All-Valley first team defender last season, enters 2015 with her role still in flux. The Rattlers come into the season as RGVSports.com’s No. 3 team, but with a new coach in Aaron Clemons and a portion of their talent siphoned off to Sharyland Pioneer, a lot about this year’s Sharyland High team is still to be determined.
“My freshman year I was offense, my sophomore and junior year I was defense, and now I think he might be putting me on offense more,” Gonzalez said. “I’m not really sure. It just depends on the team we’re playing and where I feel more comfortable.”
The Rattlers return just two starters from last year’s team. That number was expected to be four, but Beatriz Garza suffered an ACL tear playing with her club team, and Daniela Ortiz also suffered a torn ACL during the Rattlers’ fall league.
For that reason, Clemons will use Gonzalez’s talent everywhere he can. Although Gonzalez is one of the team’s shorter players and has a very slight build, Clemons said “she’s probably going to be our No. 1 utility player.”
“She may be little, but she’s very aggressive,” Clemons said. “Very feisty. She’s the type of player that is not going to get beat, and hates to get beat.”
That attitude fits perfectly with what Clemons hopes to build in his first year at the helm of the Rattlers: a more aggressive, physical team than what Sharyland High has had in the past. To that end, he’s been having the team run substantially more than the players were accustomed to. He expects Sharyland’s strength to lie on offense, specifically with a group of midfielders who excel at ball control.
Although the split that produced Pioneer has been a major hit to Sharyland High’s depth, Clemons is confident the team has the talent to be “just as good, if not better than what they have been in the past.” Last year’s team went 16-0 in district play and made a run to the regional quarterfinals.
“With the team we have and how everything is playing itself out,” Gonzalez said, “it looks like we could possibly go.”
No. 5 McAllen Rowe
Even with seven starters returning, McAllen Rowe will be one of the Valley’s youngest teams. Coach John Martinez calls the Lady Warriors “babies”.
Sarah Rodriguez, an all-district honorable mention, is the lone senior on Rowe’s roster.
“She’s kind of the mom on the team,” Martinez said. “All of the girls look to her for guidance. She’s been a four-year starter for us. She’s been pretty much in every situation you can think of in a high-school career. Nothing really fazes her.”
Rodriguez has plenty of young talent around her. Nyssa Davila was a first-team all-district selection on defense, and Martinez calls her Rowe’s “rock” on the back end, a player who reads the offenses like a safety reads a quarterback.
Juniors Amaris Lopez (all-district second team) and Alexis Alvarado (all-district honorable mention) are two-year starters who have developed great communication in the midfield.
Forward Victoria Castro returns after leading the team in scoring and earning all-district first-team honors last season, and Martinez expects her “amazing speed” to cause problems for defenses.
Last year, Rowe reached the playoffs but lost an overtime heartbreaker to Harlingen South in the bi-district round.
“We have high expectations for this year, with this group,” Martinez said. “We’re really looking forward to this season.”
No. 7 McAllen High
Coming off of last season’s area round loss to Sharyland High, McAllen High coach Pat Arney knows he has a lot of work to do. As the season gets underway, McAllen High is very much a team under construction.
Not only are the Lady Bulldogs losing five seniors from 2014, but Ana Hover will also not be returning after moving to Oklahoma City. Arney called Hover “an incredible dribbler and playmaker.”
“So that’s a nice chunk (of the team),” Arney said. “We’ve got girls coming back, and we’ve got some good freshmen. But we’re still really young. We’ll see. Hopefully things will work out and we’ll get where we need to be by district.”
Working in McHi’s favor are returning players Ruby Iracheta, a second team all-district goalie, and Quetzel Toren, last season’s All-Valley Newcomer of the Year.
“She’s always dangerous,” Arney said.
No. 9 Sharyland Pioneer
Even after coaching at his alma mater, Sharyland High, for 17 years, coach J.J. Lopez jumped at the chance to take the head coaching job at Sharyland Pioneer. The opportunity was perfect. His brother, Alex, coaches Pioneer’s boys team, his parents live on his drive home from work, his nieces and nephews will someday feed into Pioneer, and he was ready for a new test.
“Sometimes you’ve been at one place so long that you kind of need different challenges,” J.J. said. “To start a program, I felt that was going to reenergize me.”
J.J.’s presence is a big reason the Diamondbacks are ranked in the top 10 before even playing a game. It also helps that Pioneer poached some of Sharyland High’s varsity talent from last season, namely all-district second team defender Taylor Marquez, all-district second team midfielder Julie Alanis and all-district honorable mention midfielder Hanna Padilla. Depth will be an issue, with a few players new to the sport entirely, but J.J. and Pioneer expect to be competitive from the jump.
“We’re certainly not going to use being a new school as a scapegoat,” J.J. said. “That’s the attitude that we’re taking. That’s the mindset I want my team to have.”
RGVSports.com Girls Preseason Top 10
1. McAllen Memorial
2. Brownsville Lopez
3. Sharyland High
4. Brownsville Hanna
5. McAllen Rowe
6. Los Fresnos
7. McAllen High
8. Harlingen South
9. Sharyland Pioneer
10. Brownsville Rivera