McALLEN — Four District 31-5A teams — McAllen High, McAllen Memorial, McAllen Rowe and Sharyland High — as well as Brownsville Veterans and Brownsville Rivera won their pools Thursday as the first day of the McAllen Poundfest tournament concluded.
The annual three-day event is being held at McHi, Memorial and Rowe, with a second-day of pool play beginning at 9 a.m. today and the final round of elimination play Saturday. Twenty-two teams are competing in the event, playing three matches each of the first two days to determine where teams will fall for third day — the gold, silver of bronze bracket.
Five of the pool winners advanced with perfect 3-0 records. Sharyland’s pool ended with three teams tied at 2-1 and the fourth at 0-3. The Rattlers, however, advanced by virtue of the best win-loss record in sets.
Sharyland has shown it’s ready to compete in the mix of a top-heavy 30-5A, both throughout its performance in summer leagues and Thursday. The Rattlers didn’t make the playoffs last season and were one of the harder hit programs in the Rio Grande Valley in regards to COVID-19.
This year, however, eighth-year head coach Raul Castillo is excited for his Rattlers to rebound and fight for a postseason opportunity.
“I think last year, not getting a full season for the young kids or even the junior high kids really hurt and we got hit hard,” Castillo said. “We lost an entire team at one point.”
The Rattlers played in three leagues during the summer and had five weeks of strength and conditioning, Castillo said. That, he added, has helped the team tremendously.
“I think they said during the summer let’s do what we can in case we don’t get a season,” Castillo said. “Let’s put our time in with leagues, open gym, strength and conditioning and open gym and they have committed. I think they’re all on the same page.”
Last year Valley teams didn’t travel to tournaments around the state, and few were held. Poundfest, the Donna/Donna North tournament and others were put on hiatus last year. McHi first-year coach Michael Smith said tournaments give coaches and players different opportunities prior to the district season beginnings.
“Today has been great, about like the first day hosting a Poundfest for anybody the first time,” Smith said. “Tournaments are lots of fun, you compete at a little bit of a different level, you see different things back-to-back and get to go a little deeper into your depth and get to see some kids go, which is exciting. Plus, being able to be around a tournament just had a different type of feel.”
COVID-19 cases are back on the rise and many of the programs have been hit with positive cases within their teams, coaches, players and helpers. Castillo said that it’s a reminder to not take anything for granted, which could’ve been easy to do just a couple weeks ago.
“When we started the season, and we were going in there you weren’t too worried about distances and you were running drills back to normal. Other than the mask, it felt like we were back to normal,” Castillo said. “Last year, we even discussed if these drills were safe enough. You couldn’t really run game-like because you can’t be in a group for too long before you separate them.
“We’re not there this year but it feels we are going that way. It feels like we are walking on eggshells.”
Smith was in Georgia, coaching his high school soccer team (volleyball was over) when the virus hit them.
“I’ll never forget wanting to be back on the sideline and for my kids to be on the field,” he said. “Everything is a blessing every time we get to step on the court. I translate that to the girls that we have today. Go and have fun and play hard and accomplish what we can. Tomorrow is no given and tomorrow will take care of itself but today, we are going after it.”