KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
The Rio Grande Valley’s best senior football players will be on display for one last time for the 2018-19 season.
This year, Sams Memorial Stadium in Brownsville will host the Rio Grande Valley Coaches Association East-West All-Star football game Friday night at 7:30 p.m.
Brownsville Hanna’s Mark Guess and his staff will lead the East squad, while the West will be led by Mission Veterans Memorial’s David Gilpin and the Patriot coaching staff.
This will be the second time Guess will coach in an all-star game. His first was in the Costal Bend, but this year will be the first time he leads an RGV squad.
“It has been a while since we put on the pads in the spring like this,” Guess said. “I’m not a spring all guy; I like to get the two scrimmages in at the start of the year. It has been a while, but we have some great kids from across the Valley and each school is being represented well here on the East side. These are a bunch of good kids that are competitive.”
Leading the way for the East team are the Eagles, who have a team-high 10 players on the roster, including wide receiver’s Miguel Payan and Aaron Fraustro and linebackers Johnny Aleman and Jose Cruz.
In the secondary will be Alcee Flores, Leigh Guevara, Brian Duran and Andres Sustaeta. Running back Cesar Mancias and offensive lineman Sebastian Garcia will get their reps with the East offense.
The Eagles will have a little pep in their step as the seniors will have one final opportunity to play on their home turf.
“For the game to be in Brownsville and for us to be able to coach it, it is an honor to represent Brownsville in Brownsville,” Guess said. “We have some kids on the roster that will have a shot to play on their home turf one last time and that is special.”
San Benito will send quarterback Jacob Cavazos, linebacker AJ Garcia, defensive back Nick Castaneda, wide receiver Frankie Garcia and offensive lineman Chris Vargas. The Harlingen Cardinals’ wide out Joe Reyna and defensive back Justin Munivez will represent Big Red.
Harlingen South will send wide receiver Derrick Delgado and defensive back Kaleb Solis.
A few names representing the small schools are Santa Rosa running back Ryan Mesa, Lyford’s wide out Joaquin Gonzales, Raymondville’s linebacker Cole Cooley and QB Jacob Posas. Running back Danny Vasquez, QB Josiah Ortega and defensive lineman Troy Macias will represent Rio Hondo.
La Feria will send linebacker Jacob Garza and wide receiver Darius Hernandez.
Under center for the East side will be Cavazos, Posas, Ortega and Port Isabel’s Cesar Aguilera.
“We have six days of practice when really it is five; the last day is a walk through.” Guess said. “We don’t get to put in a whole lot of stuff but we will get in some base packages for our offense and defense and go from there.”