BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | THE MONITOR
Late Sunday morning, Edinburg Vela coach John Campbell got a call confirming his team’s game with Victoria East, scheduled for Friday, had been canceled.
Victoria East is located in the area affected by Hurricane Harvey.
After that call, Campbell went into scramble mode as he tried to put together a game for Week 1.
“It’s been a little bit of a whirlwind,” Campbell said. “We actually were reaching out to anybody and everybody. We had a bunch of calls.”
One call that could have created an instant classic matchup was to Weslaco High. Weslaco’s opponent, Richmond George Ranch, was also forced to cancel due to the effects of Harvey. Michael Salinas, Weslaco’s coach, coached at Vela last season. The SaberCats and Panthers talked, but it was a near miss.
“We did have a conversation with them,” Campbell said. “We just weren’t able to reach an agreement.”
Campbell got a call Monday, and things moved fast from there.
“Laredo Nixon returned our call early Monday afternoon, after they got confirmation on their cancellation with Tuloso-Midway,” Campbell said. “They were pretty much locked in to having a home contest. It’s their senior night, or their parent night. We were in a little bit of a pickle. Their administration wouldn’t entertain the game unless it was home. We really wanted to get the game, so we got permission from ECISD to go ahead and travel.”
Because Vela will now be on the road, that allowed Edinburg North to move their home game against Brownsville Veterans from Saturday night to 7:30 p.m. Friday.
The Panthers were unable to secure a Week 1 opponent. They’ll use the week off for the players to rest and the coaches to scout.
“We’re going to try to use anything that happens to us as an advantage,” Salinas said. “Obviously, we talked to our guys about controlling what we can control and could not control anything in terms of what was happening up north. We just needed to make sure we made an effort to get it done. But we do believe that this week will help us continue to get better as a football team.”
Another Rio Grande Valley team affected is Rio Hondo. The Bobcats were forced to cancel their game with Sinton, which was also affected by Harvey.
Monitor staff writer Nathaniel Mata contributed to this report.