BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
ALAMO — Following her freshman year at PSJA High in 1996-97, PSJA Memorial coach Angie Gonzales was given a choice: remain at PSJA or attend PSJA ISD’s newest public high school, opening in the fall of 1997.
“I chose to come to PSJA Memorial,” Gonzales said. “My vision as a young athlete was to start a new tradition and be a part of what I hoped the school would be.”
Gonzales finished out her last three years at PSJA Memorial, graduating in 2000. She was a captain and team MVP on PSJA Memorial’s early volleyball teams, but they didn’t accomplish much. The Wolverines didn’t sniff the postseason until 2005 — five years after her graduation from PSJA Memorial.
Since making her return to the program as a coach in 2013, Gonzales has led the Wolverines to three playoff appearances in five seasons. This year, PSJA Memorial (26-10) captured its first ever district championship in 31-6A and its first bi-district win to set up an area round matchup against McAllen Memorial at 4 p.m. today at PSJA Memorial’s gym in Alamo.
Gonzales didn’t play college volleyball, but she did leave UTPA with an English degree, which helped her quite a bit when she became an eighth-grade English teacher with Sharyland ISD.
Following the 2012 season, a former classmate of Gonzales’ at PSJA Memorial told her that their alma mater was in the market for a new volleyball coach, and she should apply for the job. Gonzales, who had no formal coaching experience, shrugged off the suggestion.
“‘Nah, I don’t want to coach. I’m happy where I’m at,’” Gonzales recalled saying at the time. “Then, he (her classmate) said, ‘Why don’t you just try? Don’t you love volleyball?’”
Former PSJA Memorial athletic coordinator Gus Cavazos received Gonzales’ application. Cavazos brought her in for one interview, then a second.
“He (Cavazos) basically told me, ‘You are the least qualified candidate. You have zero years of coaching experience. I have coaches from Corpus Christi, San Antonio and all over the state that are applying for this job that have many accolades, and you have
none,’” Gonzales recalled Cavazos telling her.
“‘But you’re the only one that has left me with the impression that you want to do more. I don’t know why, but my gut is telling me to offer you the job.’ The next day, I called him back and told him I’d take the job.”
Five years later, the results of Cavazos’ gut feeling would be hard to argue.
“I didn’t even know what the playoffs were when we made it my freshman year,” current PSJA Memorial junior libero Victoria Maldonado said. “Sophomore year, we came out guns blazing and made the playoffs again. We could have won our bi-district game, but things happened, and we fell short. This year, we knew we could win district. (Edinburg) Vela was going to be strong, the (Edinburg High) Bobcats were going to be strong, but we beat the Bobcats before and competed with Vela the last two years. We came out guns blazing even harder and accomplished that goal.”
The Wolverines accomplished another first on Tuesday night, defeating Brownsville Hanna in four games for the program’s first bi-district championship. PSJA Memorial will meet a familiar opponent in its area round matchup this weekend, clashing with the McAllen Memorial Mustangs (29-8).
The two teams met in McAllen Memorial’s makeshift Labor Day Weekend Invitational after the threat of Hurricane Harvey canceled Laredo’s Lady Longhorn Volleyball Fest in late August. The Wolverines ousted the Mustangs 25-22, 25-21 in a best-of-three format on Sept. 2.
“That team (McAllen Memorial) now will not be the same team we faced back then,” PSJA Memorial outside hitter Kristi Gomez, who had 26 kills, 20 digs, 8 assists and 2 aces on Tuesday, said. “They’re better now than they were during the tournament. It won’t give us a whole lot of confidence, but we aren’t going to give up on this. We still have more history to make.”