By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
Fifteen years ago, after their daughters had endured yet another season-ending loss at the hands of a Corpus Christi or San Antonio school, Kevin Kanipe and Joe Ortiz took it upon themselves to form a travel softball team in Edinburg.
The premise was simple: schedule games against teams north of the Valley during the offseason. That familiarity, they felt, would increase their odds for playoff success down the line. Flash forward to today, and the RGV Heat has evolved into much more.
While they haven’t strayed much from their initial plan, they’ve made a concerted effort the past decade to introduce their players to college coaches and recruiters, hoping to foster the type of relationships that could land them on college rosters.
Kanipe estimates 50 RGV Heat alumni have gone on to play at the next level — a figure that rivals even the top softball programs in the Valley — leading some to wonder: how influential are these travel teams to college recruiting? How critical is it to a player’s development? And, ultimately, how valuable is that exposure?
As coach of the Heat, Kanipe swears by the process.
“Without it,” he said, “there’d be a smaller number of kids (from the Valley) who would go on to play at the college level.”
THE PERCEPTION
Kanipe will be the first to admit it: “The Valley doesn’t have a great reputation for softball.”
In fact, most teams outside of soccer — known to be competitive at the regional and state levels — suffer from the same stigma. Take Arnold Martinez, for instance. Years ago, the longtime Valley hoops coach engaged a colleague from the Dallas area at an AAU tournament. Without warning, he interrupted Martinez.
“Where you from, again?” the college coach asked.
Martinez replied, and the opposing coach excused himself. “He said, ‘Sorry, Coach. It’s hard to recruit kids from (the Valley) because there’s a bad rap,’” Martinez recalled. “‘They come up to college for a year, get homesick and go back home.’
“We’re working to change that mentality, though.”
That chatter was the subject of a September 2013 article by Rivals.com — a website owned by Yahoo that covers college recruiting — in which Valley football players and coaches dismissed outside concerns about poor grades, lack of mental toughness and potential cultural barriers, should players move away for school.
“It just takes time to build a good reputation,” Kanipe said, addressing the preconceived notions.
That’s where travel teams come into play. By scheduling tournaments statewide, they offer what Valley high schools generally cannot: a platform to go up against top-tier talent, with a bevy of college coaches and recruiters on hand, and an opportunity to rehabilitate an otherwise clouded image.
Just last month, Martinez accomplished that when his South Texas Hoopsters were invited to compete in a tournament in Las Vegas. More than 200 NCAA Division I and II personnel packed the gym as his Hoopsters finished 4-1.
Such exposure is rare for Valley athletes, whose high school teams typically bow out of the playoffs at or before the regional tournament. The 1961 Donna Redskins are still the only Valley school to win a state title in football.
In 2013, San Benito became the Valley’s first softball program to reach the state tournament. The Lady Greyhounds qualified again this year, only to come away empty-handed for the second time in three seasons.
The scouting opportunities are plentiful in these circumstances, and thus much is lost when the Valley is not represented.
“If you want a college coach to see you, you better get to the regional tournament, at least,” said Martinez, who led Hidalgo to a state appearance in 2009 as an assistant. “College coaches generally don’t have time to come down (to the Valley) because they think there’s no competition here.”
“They want to see you play top competition,” he added. “They want to see you play in the summer. If they like you, they want to visit with you in person, if they consider you a prospect. Travel ball facilitates that. That’s why they value it.”
THE COMMITMENT
Less than two decades ago, travel teams were almost non-existent in the Valley. When Kanipe and Ortiz co-founded the RGV Heat, only a couple of local squads competed, in just two age categories (12-and-under, and 14-and-under). To find a comparable organization, one would have had to look to Corpus Christi, San Antonio or Austin — not to mention paying higher fees typically associated with more affluent cities.
Today, Kanipe estimates four dozen travel teams have sprouted across the Valley since the RGV Heat’s inception, in a wide range of categories. Yet, while the costs are usually adjusted to accommodate the general income of that population, the financial responsibility can cause some to second-guess their commitment.
“You might have a kid in McAllen that has all the potential in the world, but unfortunately because of the money, they might have to play local rec ball or stay home, which could lead to distractions,” Martinez said. “It’s unfortunate.”
Because of that, Martinez said he won’t leave a deserving player off his team for any financial shortcomings, with part-time work and fundraising options available to alleviate some of the expenses. This season, that hasn’t been an issue with the South Texas Hoopsters, each of whom paid roughly $1,000 out of pocket to fly to Las Vegas for a couple days.
“Thank God we have kids that are financially stable,” Martinez said. “Sometimes I wish it was like golf, where kids are sponsored and you wear the logo and get everything paid for. But this isn’t an individual sport.”
McAllen Rowe’s Mayda Garcia, the 2014 All-Valley Volleyball Player of the Year, has been part of the travel circuit the past six years. As a member of the Texas Fierce, she’s played in San Antonio and Houston, and sometimes will go as far as Florida, Louisiana and Oklahoma to compete in tournaments.
Within her travel team, she said players are responsible for making their own travel arrangements and footing the entire bill. On average, she estimates players can rack up between $2,000-$5,000 each year in club fees, meals, tournament dues, transportation, travel accommodations and uniforms.
“It does get pricey, but it all depends where you go,” Garcia said. “My parents manage their money. They save up for it. They say, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t do this tournament. Let’s go to that one.’
“It helps that you get out of the town, because that’s where the recruiters see you. I feel like if you don’t play travel ball or don’t get out of the Valley, it’ll be hard for you to get picked up (by a college). Not a lot of big schools come down here. It’s a long way to come out to the Valley.”
IS IT WORTH IT?
Much of what would constitute as fair value for the time and money invested in travel teams depends on expectation. If the ultimate goal is to play in college — at any level — then Martinez believes it’s possible, so long as the player is active in the process early on. And, for the most part, basketball players around the country are being recruited through their AAU teams, not their high school squads.
Former McAllen High standout JJ Avila, an All-Valley Boys Basketball Player of the Year, spent his offseasons refining his skills while playing for Martinez’s AAU team. He started his college career at Navy, where he was the 2011 Patriot League freshman of the year, before finishing at Colorado State this past season.
After being bypassed in the NBA Draft, Avila drew summer league invites from the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets. Avila ultimately chose the Rockets. And just recently he signed with a team in Belgium.
Bianca Torre went through a similar process. A Harlingen South standout from 2005-09, Torre spent her summers playing in Martinez’s program. Her play had drawn so much attention that adidas eventually sponsored the team, providing free sneakers and covering tournament expenses. Torre was recruited by several schools, and ultimately chose UTPA over North Texas to stay close to home. She played from 2009-13, finishing as the program’s all-time leading scorer.
Both flourished playing for AAU teams with a specific outline in mind. When he first launched his squad, Martinez lacked in that area.
“We were lost in the woods,” he said. “We were learning the system, all the logistics, what it takes to play at the next level. I didn’t have a sense of education (for travel ball).
“I used to be like those parents, who grab a lot of kids and take them to Corpus and think they’re doing well. Their hearts are in the right place, but they don’t know what they’re doing. And that’s a lot of money to be spending, if you don’t have the proper plan in place.”
These days, Martinez — and the Valley standouts filling out his roster — believes he’s better suited for the job. He’s familiar now in dealing with Division I recruiters, especially after Colorado State, TCU and Texas contacted Martinez directly about Avila. And while he understands that Avila, at 6-foot-7, is an anomaly in the Valley, Martinez refers back to a game plan that fits the general population: dribble drive and kick out for open 3s.
“If the kids or their parents begin to doubt the process, we can point to the alumni,” Martinez said. “They see the JJ Avilas. They see the Bianca Torres. We have a blueprint. It’s easier for me now (with their success). We can say, ‘If you listen to us, if you do the things that we ask, we can help you. We have to work at it. There’s going to be some sacrifices. There’s going to be money involved. But we can help you.’”
As a sixth grader, Ryan Garza chose the South Texas Hoopsters on the strength of its reputation. Stevan Guerrero, a former Edinburg High standout, went through the program, eventually signing to play for Schreiner. Jesse Pistokache, who played his freshman year at Sharyland High, also was part of the Hoopsters, among other teams, before earning a full ride in May to play for the University of Richmond.
For Garza, who is set to begin his junior year at Edinburg Vela, the experience is invaluable. While players are not permitted to practice with their respective high school coaches during the summer, Garza doesn’t believe he’s missing a beat playing for Martinez, who shares the same offensive philosophy as Vela coach Lalo Rios.
Earlier this year, his SaberCats were one of four Valley teams to reach the UIL regional tournament. All of them lost in the third round.
At best, Garza suspects only a couple of college coaches may have been on hand to see his game in San Antonio. None of them, however, approached the All-Valley first teamer afterward.
By contrast, his trip to Las Vegas last month resulted in conversations with college scouts, who put his name in a database of players to keep an eye on.
“It’s real cool,” Garza said. “It’s like a second chance to get your name out there and get exposure. You might be playing in a game where the coach is there to watch a player from the other team. But if you’re lucky and you put on a good show, the coach might see you instead. And from there, who knows what can happen?”
For more stories, videos, photos and graphics covering recruiting in the Valley, visit themonitor.com/recruiting.