DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
DONNA — Early during last week’s regular season finale against Edcouch-Elsa, Amonte Bowen found himself coaching teammate and best friend Edward Dougherty.
“I’m telling you, man, just pull (the ball),” Bowen said prior to the offensive snap. “They’re going to go with me.”
It was a familiar position. Last season, Bowen found himself mentoring Dougherty when he broke his collarbone during the last series of the last scrimmage. Dougherty listened Friday night just like he listened then.
Dougherty, the quarterback, held the ball to an oncoming Bowen at tailback and then pulled it back and raced the opposite way. Like Bowen thought, the defense followed him, leaving Dougherty with nothing but green carpet on the way to the end zone.
“We’re always telling each other stuff,” Bowen said. “The play he scored was on a regular zone and the outside linebacker was about to blitz. Before he snapped the ball, I told him he could pull the ball. He took it and scored.”
It’s been like that all season for Bowen and Dougherty as they’ve led the Redskins to their first district title since 2007. If it’s not Dougherty weaving around a defense, it’s Bowen gashing through it.
Bowen has rushed for 1,780 yards and 21 touchdowns. Dougherty has rushed for 1,098 and 13, respectively. Bowen averages 10.3 yards per carry; Dougherty averages 10.1.
And it’s plays like the one against Edcouch-Elsa, which have been by the dozens, that define the team as much as Bowen and Dougherty.
“That unselfishness of these kids … that’s special,” Donna High coach Ramiro Leal said. “It’s always about the team with them. You have your leaders as kids like that, and that’s why we’ve been successful.”
FOR A REASON
Bowen and Dougherty met in the seventh grade. Bowen had just moved to Donna from Indiana, where his mother Ruti worked as a migrant. Ruti returned her family home to the Valley after her mother passed away.
Bowen and Dougherty became good friends. But it wasn’t until they were going into their junior year of high school that they became really close.
Bowen’s late preseason injury sidelined him for all but the final two games of the 2014 season. Dougherty was forced in as the starting quarterback.
The two had entered August camp competing for the spot, a position Leal said Bowen had won going into the regular season. But Bowen never got there.
“I’m not a religious person, but things work out for a reason,” Leal said. “There was a plan there. Dougherty ends up the quarterback for a reason. Had it not been that way, and Amonte doesn’t get hurt and ends up our quarterback, maybe we don’t really find out how good Dougherty is.”
Bowen was at every practice that season, almost always near Dougherty. Dougherty asked questions. Bowen offered answers.
“During practices early in camp, he didn’t get many reps,” said Bowen, who said he felt “being injured really helped my character in being appreciative for what I have.” “But when I went down, he didn’t wait long to show he could do it. He worked just as hard as I did in the summer, and I didn’t want people to hang their heads just because I got hurt. He can produce just like I can produce.”
The Redskins went 6-4 and lost to Mission Veterans Memorial in the first round of the playoffs. But in the process, Leal found another complement to Bowen in Dougherty, who was going to play slot receiver and back up Bowen at quarterback had things worked out.
“I think Amonte knew he had to push Edward to get him to be where he needs to be,” said senior right tackle Troy Billman, a good friend of both. “To be honest, some of the guys thought our season had gone down the drain. But I gathered the guys and told them it’s not a one-man team. Edward had the breakout game against Brownsville Vets (in Week 1), and we were all like, ‘Damn, he can really play.’
“Since then, we all had our faith in him. He really found himself.”
NO REGRETS
Dougherty is now experienced and confident at arguably the most demanding position on the football field. Bowen is 20 pounds lighter than last season, having spent all summer working out with Billman and watching his diet.
“I’d eat all the calories for him,” Billman said. “My mom would make pasta and salmon and I’d eat the pasta and he’d eat the salmon. We’d do a lot of leg workouts because those burn stomach fat.”
Leal has been at Donna High 27 years. He compares this year’s team to those of 2000, 2001 and 2007, some of the best Redskins teams he’s seen. Leal said a lot of that has to do with Bowen and Dougherty.
“They entered their junior year as competitors for starting quarterback and it ended up being a friendship instead of a rivalry,” Leal said. “Their camaraderie really took off from there. The relationship they’ve made, it’s going to last a lifetime.”
Before their junior year, Bowen and Dougherty talked about winning a district title. They fell short. Before this season, they talked, again, about winning district, but also about going a few rounds deep in the playoffs.
They won district, rolling through District 32-5A unscathed at 7-0. But business is still unfinished as Mission Veterans awaits for a rematch Friday in their Class 5A, Division I bi-district playoff in Donna.
“This year, we’re just a lot closer team, and guys like me and Edward, we’re competitive and we really make ourselves better,” Bowen said. “We don’t want any regrets. We don’t want to be saying we could’ve worked harder or done whatever more. We just want to play our best, and to our best, and let the rest decide itself.”