KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
HARLINGEN—On Tuesday against Brownsville Veterans Memorial, Harlingen High’s starting five included two freshman, one sophomore and two juniors. On the current roster, there is just one senior. Overall, there are eight juniors, five freshman and two sophomores.
The household names Marissa Gasca, Sami Quilantan, Nadia Flores, Taegan Dickey and Ariel Leal are all gone and a new crop of Lady Cards are ready to continue the winning ways that was left before them.
In her sixth year as Lady Cards head coach, Ashley Moncivaiz has built a model of consistency. In each of her first five years, Moncivaiz has won at least 25 or more games, including a career-high 34 wins during the 2015-16 season.
At this time last season, the Lady Cards were 12-3, this year Harlingen is 14-4 through 18 games. Despite losing nine seniors to graduation last year, Moncivaiz returned six to the varsity squad and received reinforcements from her junior varsity along with a promising freshman group.
The Lady Cards don’t rebuild but reload. This year, Harlingen High has improved with their guard play, allowing them to have flexibility with who runs the point and have the ability to rotate on defense.
“Everybody that we lost last year, we were able to fill in the gaps this year,” Moncivaiz said. “We have maturity with these girls; they are able to fill in. In years past, we have had a few girls that can handle the ball. We are trying to push for multiple girls to handle the ball this year.”
The Lady Cards have gotten some strong play from freshman Rosa Zapata and sophomore Avery Hinojosa. Zapata is one of the five freshmen that are adapting to the varsity level and will have an impact this season.
Juli Bryant, Athena Linnartz, Layla Salas and Danielle Rodriguez make up the rest of freshman class.
“It took time for me to get going, but in the summer, we put in work,” Zapata said. “I worked hard over the summer to get to their level. Right now, I feel I’m there, but I also feel I can get better. My first varsity game against Edinburg High, I came off the bench and was nervous but once I got in there, I was good.”
Zapata will be one key piece to the puzzle not only for this year but for the next three seasons. Along with Zapata are sharp shooter Alexus Coto, Alyssa Salas and Callie Cervantes, who are all juniors and are the more experienced players of the group.
“It was good that we put in work together over the summer in order to get on the same page,” Cervantes said. “As an upperclassman, I try and make sure the younger girls stay on track and make sure no one is messing around. If they have any questions or need help with anything, I’m there.”
The Lady Cards are off to a good start this year with signature wins over Weslaco High, Tuloso Midway, Brownsville Veterans and San Antonio Clark to go along with winning the Mid-Valley classic tournament and a second-place finish in the Border Bash.
“We are moving in the right direction and we are getting better each game,” Moncivaiz said. “We are not where we need to be yet but later down the road, we will get there. We are still building chemistry and we do have different rotations and different starting groups. We had a lot of depth last year with a lot of seniors. I feel we have a lot of depth in a different way this year. We can utilize different people in different spots and people won’t expect that and that is what helps us.”