KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN — The Harlingen Cardinals hit the floor running with plenty of familiar faces back on the court. Expectations are high in Cardinal land and rightfully so.
Harlingen is looking to build off of a 30 win season along with a trip to the regional quarterfinals.
“It’s nice to get back on the court, and a lot of these kids are back from last year so they understand the system,” said Harlingen head coach Greg Yates. “It is just a matter of fine tuning some things, and getting them in shape and executing what we are trying to do.”
The Cardinals finished 9-5 last year in district play and wound up the fourth seed. While the fourth seed was just a number, Harlingen proved it by knocking off the top seeded Cougars in the bi-district round.
Harlingen went on to beat McAllen Memorial in the area round, but the win came at a cost. Junior point guard Michael Arellano went down with a season-ending knee injury and in the regional quarterfinals, Harlingen bowed out to Laredo Alexander.
Arellano returns to the lineup as a senior and is healthy and is getting back into game shape. While Arellano hasn’t played in a meaningful game since February, the Cards feel confident in their star point guard and will lead the team into the new season.
“He (Michael) is learning that he hasn’t played in a game since February, he is a great player for us and it is just a matter of time till he gets his legs under him and will be ready and we know what he can do with the ball,” Yates said.
When Arellano went down, Diego Balzadua stepped in nicely for the Cardinals and now like Arellano, Balzadua is back for his senior year fully capable to run the Cardinal offense opening things up for Arellano to slide over to shooting guard.
“Having Diego step up for us last year was huge,” Yates said. “With him at point guard, we can have Mike at the shooting guard position and the two are inter changeable.”
Along with their depth at the point guard position, Harlingen will look to Kameryn Gonzalez and Jordan Crenshaw for size. Crenshaw is athletic as they come. Tony Aguilar and John Ortega will also have a hand in this year’s bunch. Aguilar is as sharp a shooter fans will see.
The Cardinals have depth and the experience heading into the new look six-team district and on paper should be the favorite to win the district.
“We have no control over the new district,” Yates said. “We will just play on. It is interesting, once we start district play it will be a new district but once we do get there, most of the season will be behind us. We will have played 20 plus games and it will be the final 10 games that will be the most important.”