It took 42 years for both the McAllen High boys and girls swim teams to capture their district title in the same season.

Now, they’re doing it on an annual basis after both teams won the District 31-5A title for the second straight year last week compete in the Region VIII-5A meet today and Saturday at the Corpus Christi ISD Natatorium.

The Region VIII-6A meet is also today at the Margaret Clark Aquatic Center in Brownsville.

McAllen third-year head coach Juan Gutierrez delivered success during a pandemic-stricken year, bringing 10 swimmers to regionals. The girls have prelims this morning and finals this afternoon. The boys follow the same schedule Saturday.

“I told the kids it was a good accomplishment,” Gutierrez said. “But we still have regionals. We’ve been working for regionals and trying to get our best times.”

McAllen High, McAllen Memorial and McAllen Rowe were all new additions to Class 5A this year, dropping from 6A. Gutierrez believes the regional competition may be tougher this year, facing Corpus Christi- and San Antonio-area programs.

“We did well in 6A and there was stiff competition with McAllen schools, PSJA schools and Laredo,” Gutierrez said. “Even though we dropped in classification, it’s a lot tougher. Our district was hard to get out of too.”

Making it more difficult was COVID-19 and limited gatherings. Fewer swimmers will advance than past years. Only the winner from each event, and the next eight fastest times statewide, will advance.

“We have followed protocols and it has been like walking on glass the whole time, just nerve-wracking,” Gutierrez said. “We kept telling the kids that any slip ups would have us in quarantine. This is go time. This is what we practice all season long for.”

The Bulldogs’ girls team won by around 50 points.

“They were just amazing,” he said. “I told them now we’re off to bigger things.”

Senior Katie Blackwell, the girls’ captain, won the 100 backstroke and was anchor on the winning 400 freestyle relay team with Natalie Gamboa, Kim Bazan and Regina McNamara. McHi took the top three spots in the 100 back with senior Haidee Moore and junior McNamara grabbing second and third.

“Katie is always full of spirit. She’s had some injuries the past couple of years, but you can not put her down. She’s never not smiling,” Gutierrez said. “She is a born leader. She tells her teammates to do this and do that and she makes sure it gets done and she gets it done, as well.”

Nilton Dos Santos earned the boys swimmer of the meet after firsts in the 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 400 freestyle relay, where he anchored a team with Travis Wilkins, Nyles Dos Santos and Ethan Lizzotte. That same group took second in the 200 freestyle relay. Lizzotte also won two individual events, the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle.

Gutierrez recalled Nilton Dos Santos’ first race for the Bulldogs as a freshman. Halfway through, he stopped, thinking he was about to drown.

“He started at the bottom,” Gutierrez said. “Now, he’s one of the top times in the state (in the butterfly). I think we will have a good time a good chance to go to state.”

HOW PHARR (SAN JUAN AND ALAMO) THEY’VE COME

When Jonathan Landero and PSJA ISD began the aquatics program eight years ago, there were 18 or 19 swimmers. “Almost everybody got their own lane,” he said.

Now there’s close to 30, and that’s just ones advancing to regionals.

The PSJA High girls won their fourth straight District 31-6A title, while the PSJA North boys captured the first title in school history at the newly christened PSJA Early College High School Aquatic Center.

Both swam away with titles, the girls by a 209-94 margin and the boys claiming a 50-point victory.

Senior Carina Campos won the 100 freestyle and 200 IM. Classmate Isela Ruiz won the 200 freestyle and 100 fly. They also dominated their events, each winning both races for four straight years.

“I’m excited for this accomplishment, especially for the seniors who were part of this for four years,” said Landero, the PSJA ISD Aquatics Director. “It sets a high standard for years to come.”

Senior Mark Suarez highlighted a strong day for the Raiders, winning the 200 IM and 100 breast stroke.

“This sets the tone for the future and shows the rest of the programs can be successful by following the model of hard work and discipline,” said Landers, adding the PSJA Southwest boys had won district title for four straight years, twice in 6A and twice in 5A. “The goal is if not one of our teams wins, another does.”

When the program first started, Landero and two other coaches oversaw all PSJA schools. Now, each program has a coach and is growing, this year with close to 75 swimmers across the district.

“The overall goal is to reach a regional title and produce individual state champions,” Landero said. “We started from nothing, but we’re in for the long game and we will get there.”

The UIL Swimming and Diving State Meet will take place Feb. 19-20 for the girls and Feb. 26-27 for the boys. Both will be held at the Bill Walker Pool and Josh David Natatorium.

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Three seniors are making a major run on the Valley’s all-time girls soccer scoring record and all three could surpass it by the end of a shortened season.

In fact, one of them may have surpassed it already. Research done by The Monitor shows at the top of the all-time scoring list are two girls from different ends of the Valley. Sharyland High’s Katie Watson scored 146 goals during her career, as well as Brownsville Rivera’s Yesenia Ortiz. Ortiz, however, reached that number in three seasons, not playing during her senior year due to injury.

Others had claimed that Los Fresnos star Tanya Prazelini was possibly the all-time leader. However, Prazelini said she scored 68 goals as a senior, 48 as a sophomore and 19 as a freshman. She also was injured, during her junior year, and scored only two for 137 during her career.

Ortiz is playing professional indoor soccer for Matamoros FC in the Liga Mexicana De Futbol Rapido. Prazelini is studying animal science at Texas A&M-Kingsville, but not playing soccer.

If those numbers hold, that means Sharyland High’s Xochitl Nguma is the new all-time scoring leader. Nguma currently sits at 154 career goals. Donna North’s Gabby Aviles scored twice Monday night in a 6-2 loss to Harlingen High to give her 139 goals. Edinburg Vela’s Taylor Campbell sits at 134.

COLLISION COURSE

Sharyland High and McAllen High continue to be en route to a clash of the titans. The Rattlers remained ranked No. 2 in the latest Texas High Schools Girls Coaches Association in Class 5A poll, while the Bulldogs remain No. 4 in the poll.

Both teams are 8-0 overall and their first meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at Sharyland High. Their second meeting is slated for 6 p.m., March 5 at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.

FROM HOW FAR?

Donna North’s Aviles has 14 goals on the season and 11 in the past three matches, but one in particular stands out.

Last week during a match against Harlingen South with the Chiefs leading 3-2, Aviles had a free kick coming from 59.5 yards out, according to Donna North head coach Tony Garcia.

“Gabby took about a 6-yard run at it and lifted the ball up in the air so accurately and with enough power that it bounced only once 49 yards away and then it moved away from the opposing team’s goalkeeper and into the goal,” Garcia said. “Gabby says she took the free kick with the sole intent of feeding the ball to our offense. She’s a difference maker anywhere she is situated on the field and it’s always physically and mentally geared to be a key factor.”

TALKING ABOUT SCORING

While the race for the all-time scoring leader is a hot topic, there’s a freshman making a lot of noise by showing some impressive offensive prowess as well.

McAllen Rowe’s Camila Gil started the season in the midfield but head coach John Martinez moved her to forward after the fourth game. The paid has dividends. The freshman has netted 19 goals in 11 games, scoring multiple goals in five of them.

“She’s definitely been a threat for us,” Martinez said. “She is well over her years on the field and becoming a leader out there for us. She has an extremely bring future and I have no doubt will be playing at the next level in a few years.”

LONG-AWAITED WIN

When San Benito practiced Saturday morning, they had a pep in their step not seen in two years.

A win will do that to teams, especially after a long drought.

Sophomore Jessica Perez scored during a corner kick, knocking the ball in from in front of the goal midway through the first quarter to give San Benito a 1-0 lead and, eventually a 1-0 win. The Greyhounds had gone 0-10 in each of the past two seasons and are now 1-1 in District 32-6A.

“That was big motivation, a big boost,” second-year head coach Jesse “Chief” Gaytan said. “In practice today (Saturday), you could see they believed in the system even more now. It was a very different attitude. Now they are ready to go again.”

Next for San Benito is perennial power Los Fresnos.

“It’s all about their hard work,” Gaytan said. “We’re getting results now.”

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Alex Canales won his division as a freshman at the Meet of Champions, one of the most elite cross-country meets in the Rio Grande Valley.

But he didn’t realize what division he was in. The Rio Grande City runner had been competing on the JV squad all season, but his coach decided to see what he could do and bumped him up and into the meet’s varsity division, one step below the elite division, set aside for all the top runners.

“I was surprised and jumping up and down with the rest of the guys,” he said. “Then my coaches came over and said, ‘You’re ready.’”

That day was a major step toward Friday, when Canales signed his letter of intent to continue his athletic and educational careers with UTRGV and compete at the Division I level.

“I’m really excited for this moment,” Canales said. “I’ve been waiting for this moment since I made varsity, patiently waiting and now I want to show my family I can do this. This is the next thing for the next chapter in my life.”

Rio Grande City head coach Joe Ramirez said the immediate expectations weren’t too high for Canales heading into high school.

“He wasn’t the top dog coming out of middle school and we weren’t really anticipating him to do much off the bat,” Ramirez said. “But as the season started we noticed he was doing good and getting better so we bumped him up.

“We had a really strong team that year and won that meet, then our manager came over and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to come see this. Alex is winning the varsity race. We ran over to watch him and he had broken away from the pack and won by like 30 seconds. It was unbelievable.”

That year, Rio Grande City won the district title and ran all the way to fifth place as a team in the state meet. Ramirez had three DI runners sign after that season.

As a sophomore, Canales took over as the team’s top runner. He ended up going to the state meet during three of his four high school seasons.

“He went with his team as a freshman but as a sophomore he went on his own,” Ramirez said. “It’s great to go with the team, but you always want to know if you can do it individually. He did.”

Canales credits his coaches and his teammates during his freshman year for helping him go from good to great.

“He asked me what he needed to do to take it to the next level and I told him to watch what Brandon Gracia did,” Ramirez said. “He took him under his wing.”

“Brandon’s been a guy I looked up to since my freshman year and still look up to him as a big brother,” Canales said. “After he graduated, he would still go on runs with me and it’s awesome having him around. My teammates helped me get to where I am today.”

Canales said he always has had a passion for running, since he was in elementary school. He still gets coached by his elementary coach, Omar Treviño.

Canales hit the 15-minute, 59-second mark as a personal record during his junior year at the Meet of Champions, a meet he clearly has an affinity toward. He also registered PRs in both the 1,600 (4:36) and 3,200 (9:36).

“Once those other kids took him under their wings, the sky was the limit for him and he was on pace to do great things,” Ramirez said. “It’s not easy to go DI.”

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McALLEN — Xochitl Nguma had the ball in her possession with a defender on her. She started, stopped, played with the ball like it was an extension of her leg, crossed over to her left foot and let the shot fly.

1-0, Sharyland High.

But the girl who has scored more than 150 goals in her career isn’t all that the Rattlers have, and McAllen Memorial saw that up close Tuesday night as four different players scored five goals during the first half and the state’s second-ranked Class 5A team, according to the Texas Girls Coaches Association, claimed an 8-1 victory over the Mustangs in a Class 31-5A battle between two of the district’s top teams.

Chloe Ribera scored twice during the first half and Sharyland led 3-0 in the game’s first 16 minutes. She added a third goal in the second half and Nguma scored a second one in the final 40 minutes, as well. Clarissa Gonzalez also scored twice and Yhoalibeth Alvarez added a goal for the Rattlers.

Freshman Madisyn Sosa scored the lone goal for the Mustangs.

Nguma is coming off a season in which she scored a jaw-dropping 68 goals as a junior. Last week, she passed Katie Watson as the school’s all-time leading scorer at 146.

After Nguma’s poetic like goal less than two minutes into the game. Ribera struck twice, the second goal, a screamer that came in low and fast from about 32 yards and slipped through the goalkeeper’s hands.

Memorial (1-1 in district) showed some offensive spurts, using their speed and some passing to take some stabs at scoring. For about a 10-minute span during the first half, they dominated possession and made several runs at the goal but only were able to come up with a couple shots on target. The Mustangs showed they had the speed and the ball skill to play with the Rattlers, but they couldn’t find the back of the next.

“They were fast, but didn’t have someone to finish,” Sharyland High head coach Mario Ribera said. “But they do produce and the cross the ball and had some chances. I thought we controlled the middle and the back and don’t think they knew to what extent we were able to do what with the ball.

“I scouted them and knew they had a strong midfielder, and we knew coming into this game if we could control the defensive middle we would have opportunities for Xochi, Yhoalibeth and Chloe,” Sharyland High head coach Mario Ribera said. “We like to spread the field out and attack and get out front. Fortunately, we were able to score early and that gave us the confidence to continue moving the ball.”

Sharyland had no problem finding the back of the net, however, in the first 40 minutes. The Rattlers struck twice more in the half, the final one coming on a shot from Alvarez, a freshman, from the far right side of the box, all away across the goal and into the back post side of the net with 13:19 remaining in the half.

“That was a beautiful goal,” Ribera said. “She has the leg and she puts them in. For a freshman to come in and start, that’s something. And she is something.”

The win improved Sharyland High to 11-0 overall and 2-0 in the district. The Rattlers play at McAllen Rowe at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

Rowe defeated Valley View on Tuesday and is 1-1 in district play. Memorial fell to 1-1 in the district and will play at home against PSJA Southwest.

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Sharyland High remained No. 2 and McAllen High No. 4 in the most recent Texas Girls Coaches Association Class 5A statewide poll released Monday.

Despite a 5-3 loss to city rival Donna North, a Class 6A school, Donna High (5-1-1) moved up seven spots to No. 18 and holds a 5-1-1 record according to the poll.

McAllen Rowe, No. 14 in last week’s poll in Class 5A, and Harlingen South, No. 23 in Class 6A, both dropped out of the poll.

The Rattlers (10-0-0) have rolled this season behind an offense led by senior Xochitl Nguma, Sharyland High’s all-time leading goal scorer, breaking Katie Watson’s mark of 146 career goals last week. Sharyland defeated Valley View 8-1 in the District 31-5A season opener for both schools. Nguma scored three goals and the Rattlers scored six times during the second half after leading 2-1 at the break. Sharyland faces another perennial power at 6 tonight at McAllen Memorial. The Mustangs are 3-2 overall but also won their district opener, 5-1, over PSJA Memorial behind freshman Madisyn Sosa’s three goals.

McHi (9-0-0) traveled across town Saturday to face city rival Rowe. The Bulldogs ran out to a 3-0 lead and claimed a 4-1 victory. Freshman Savannah Ruiz scored twice, closing out two corner kicks from senior Melanie Salinas. The Bulldogs play at home against Sharyland Pioneer, another team expected to be in the playoff hunt, at 6 tonight.

The No. 4 Bulldogs and No. 2 Rattlers will face off for the first time this season at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 9. The two will are also scheduled to battle the final week of the regular season, at 6 p.m. March 5 at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Donna High opens District 32-5A at 7:15 tonight at home against Brownsville Lopez. Madalyn Park leads the Donna offense. The junior striker has scored multiple goals in each of the Bravettes’ matches this season.

Dallas Highland Park (3-0-0) remained No. 1 in the Class 5A poll and Magnolia High (9-0-0) sat at No. 3, sandwiched by the two District 31-5A squads.

Team records in this story are based on the TGCA poll.

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McALLEN — In the huddle before Saturday’s match between city rivals McAllen High and McAllen Rowe, McHi head coach Patrick Arney laid out the early game plan.

“We score one in the first 10 minutes,” he told the girls. “We score two in the first 15.”

They scored two – in the first nine.

The state-ranked No. 4 Bulldogs held a 3-0 lead at the half and rolled to a 4-1 win over Rowe in a mutual District 31-5A opener. Rowe came into the match ranked No. 14 by the Texas Girls Coaches Association.

Freshman Savannah Ruiz scored from the far post off a corner kick from senior Melanie Saldaña in the eighth minute and senior Briana Claudio found the top shelf from 35 yards out a minute later as McHi set the pace and the tone for the first half.

“Obviously they got off to a very good start with the two goals and we gave up two goals on corner kicks,” Rowe head coach John Martinez said. “We’ve been struggling on corner kicks and that’s my fault. You can’t give a good team like them those mistakes.”

Saldaña and Ruiz connected again on a corner with 5:21 remaining in the first half for a commanding 3-0 lead.

“We had been working on a lot on corners during practice and finishing so I ended making the back post run like I was supposed to and it ended up working out,” Ruiz said. “We’ve been doing a lot of passing drills and patterns so I think that helped today to weave around their defense.”

“We have practices dedicated to passing and we work on corners during warm-ups before a game a lot. I’ve been taken them for four years,” Saldana said. “We position ourselves In a certain way and know who is going to be where.”

The Bulldogs dominated possession throughout most of the match and had multiple scoring attempts on goal. However, during a 20-minute span in the second half, Rowe’s physical play put them in position to score. Freshman Camila Gil drilled a shot off a touch by Natalia Vela from 25 yards that found the top corner and cut the lead to 3-1 with just about 30 minutes remaining in the match. It was Gil’s 17th goal of the season

“Our mindset going into the game was to play our style, but we didn’t start off that way,” Martinez said. “I told them at halftime to go in there like it’s the start of the game. Pressure them and be physical and let’s see what happens That is our style, but we’ve got to put those 20 minutes into a complete game against a team like this.”

Following that goal, the style of play slowly started returning toward McHi’s favor.

“I think, at first since, we were up three goals we may have laid back a little bit and then snapped into it and realized we needed to push and get back into it and stop being lazy. That’s when we started connecting more and passing again. They are aggressive and we needed to connect our passes and shoot.”

“I think it’s an easy thing to get out of our game and try to be more physical. ‘They’re pushing us so we need to push back,’ that one upsmanship,” Arney said regarding the span when Rowe scored and kept possession. “Getting that goal back at the end helped.”

Late in the half, Claudio made a charge for the net with only one defender on her and Rowe’s goalkeeper coming out of the box. Claudio punched a pass toward the middle of the field before she and the two Rowe players collided. A streaking Mallory Henderson picked up the ball in stride and notched the team’s fourth goal into an empty net.

“They have that great teamwork combination together but we worked on that this week because we thought that was a place we could get Rowe. Mallory is fast enough that if we put the ball into a certain space she’s going to get to that ball first but it’s a lot of teamwork together. It’s good self awareness and all the girls have very good special awareness.”

McHi improved to 6-0 overall and 1-0 in the district. Rowe dropped to 6-1-1 and 0-1 in district.

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EDINBURG — Lauren Moubray paused for a moment from signing her paperwork to look at her phone and double check the date.

A day she was uncertain would ever arrive turned into a day she’ll never forget.

On Tuesday, Moubray signed a letter-of-intent to play volleyball for Peru State College in Nebraska following a season in which she battled more than just COVID-19. Early during her senior season, Moubray felt a pop in her knee at the end of a rally.

“I jumped normally, landed normally and my knee just popped,” Moubray said. “I was like, ‘Don’t be my ACL,’ but it was my lateral meniscus. I just cried a lot and couldn’t move my knee.”

It was the Warriors’ third match of the season and while the pandemic hurdle seemed to be cleared, even though the volleyball season for most schools were reduced to district-only schedules, Moubray had another battle to fight.

“My thoughts were whether I would find schools that were willing to take me, and am I going to be ready to play by the time club season in order to try and get recruited,” she said. “But I dealt with it by not giving up hope, persevering and emailing schools. It was the only way I could get in contact with schools because of COVID.”

Along the way, she received a response from Peru State and conversations began. She recently visited the campus and it didn’t take long before she felt that it was the perfect fit.

“We did a virtual meeting over the summer and ended up visiting a few weeks ago and I really liked the school,” she said. “The people, the coaches and the environment was wonderful.”

Moubray is a five-year Venom club player and a three-year varsity member for McAllen Rowe. With the Warriors, Moubray played 180 sets and collected 179 kills, 49 blocks, 67 digs and six aces. As a junior, the 5-foot-10 right side hitter tallied 113 kills and had a 50.9% kill ratio. She is the 37th Venom player to continue on to playing volleyball in college.

She said she is currently in “active recovery” and just a couple weeks from getting back on the court. She added she plans to hit the court running.

Before volleyball, Moubray was involved in dancing. She began playing volleyball in third grade. She is the daughter of Liana and Jeff Moubray.

“I trained until sixth grade when I started playing club and traveling,” she said. “Last season I just tried to keep a positive attitude even though times were tough and it wasn’t easy. I kept myself happy even though I was on crutches for two weeks and kept that ‘you’re-gonna-be-back-soon’ positive attitude and that helped me.”

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Valley girls soccer has increased its assault on the Class 5A state rankings.

In rankings released Monday, four Class 5A girls teams — three from District 31-5A — and one Class 6A team were among the top 25 teams in the Texas Girls Coaches Association statewide poll.

Sharyland High (7-0) came in at No. 2, while McAllen High (5-0) and McAllen Rowe (5-0-1) were No. 4 and No. 14, respectively. Donna High also made its first appearance. The Bravettes are 2-0-1 and are No. 25.

Harlingen South (3-0-1) was ranked No. 23 in the Class 6A poll. The Hawks played the McHi Bulldogs in McAllen on Monday night.

“To have four teams ranked, that’s insane, three from the same district,” McHi head coach Pat Arney said. “It’s flattering but I’d rather be in the top 15 at the end of the season and all we can do is win the games in front of us. Due to COVID-19, everyone is in the same boat.

All three McAllen schools — McHi, Rowe and McAllen Memorial — were ranked at one point in Class 6A last year. In fact, all three rose to as high as No. 3 before the season ended abruptly due to the pandemic.

“It says lot about the district, but that’s where we are now with Valley soccer,” Arney said. “The past few years, I feel we made a name for ourselves and Valley soccer is good.”

McHi kicks off its district schedule at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at McAllen Rowe, while Sharyland High travels to McAllen Memorial, also at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

McAllen Rowe is off to another strong start, coming off a 17-0 start last year that catapulted the Warriors to No. 3 in the TGCA rankings. They finished the season 27-4 overall and third at 10-4 in district play, on a six-match winning streak (including an overtime win over La Joya Juarez-Lincoln). They were scheduled to play McAllen Memorial in the final regular season with second place in district going to the winner.

“We are kind of used to playing in a tough district the past few years and are used to that grind of a long season,” Rowe head coach John Martinez said. “What’s good about that is it prepares you for the playoffs.

“I think for the past six seasons we’ve had our first district match against McHi, but we want to make a long run in the playoffs and one of the goals is to make it to the state tournament. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best, the one at the top.”

Freshman Camila Gil has 15 goals for the Warriors this season.

Sharyland High moved up from fourth to second and sits only behind Dallas Highland Park in the state rankings. Senior Xochitl Nguma also has 15 goals, coming off a 68-goal performance last year and closing in on the Valley’s all-time goal-scoring record.

Donna High didn’t make the playoffs last year, finishing sixth out of seven teams, and only has three seniors this year, so second-year head coach Norma Medina was surprised when told of the breakthrough.

“I don’t believe we’ve been ranked before,” said Medina, who coached soccer at La Feria for nine years. “The girls have put the time and work in on fundamentals, controlling the ball, keeping possession and a lot of the girls are new at the varsity level and they are hungry and the veterans are teaching the young ones. The biggest thing has been the chemistry, the way they are playing together already.”

Junior Madelyn Park leads the Bravettes with 16 goals.

Harlingen South has had a tough schedule in its preseason, defeating Edinburg North (3-0), Edcouch-Elsa (3-1) and McAllen Memorial (2-1) before tying McAllen Rowe (3-3). The match against McHi was the final tune-up before entering District 32-6A competition at 6 p.m. Monday at Weslaco.

The Hawks are the defending District 32-6A champs, coming off an 8-2 district mark before the season was canceled.

District 31-5A is arguably the strongest girls soccer district in the Rio Grande Valley and, maybe in South Texas.

According to the latest Texas Girls Coaches Association, it could be one of the strongest in the state.

The latest poll has two teams from District 31-5A ranked in the top 5. Sharyland High (6-0) comes in at No. 3 in the state in Class 5A, while perennial power McAllen High (4-0) is ranked No. 5.

Both tops in their respective districts last season, the two squads are now in the same district, along with other teams ranked at some point last year, such as McAllen Rowe and McAllen Memorial. Add the highly competitive Sharyland Pioneer and District 31-5A is setting with at least five teams battling for four playoff spots.

Sharyland High head coach Mario Ribera, in his fourth year at the helm, has his Rattlers out and running, outscoring its first six non-district opponents 35-3, and pitching four shutouts. Senior Xochitil, coming off a 68-goal performance last year, has 13 already this season and 141 for her career.

“It’s always an honor to have a team ranked and I’m very surprised to find out where we are ranked,” Ribera said. “The girls work hard and this pumps them up.”

Sharyland High will host McHi on Feb. 9 and then the Bullodogs will host the Rattlers on March 5.

“This is one of the toughest district south of from San Antonio south. It’s very competitive,” Ribera said. “You’ve got the three McAllen schools — and, of course, McHi is always a powerhouse that has good players from different clubs. But we feel our team will stand up to that level. I haven’t seen them play yet, but I think we can hang with them.”

Last season was blindsided by the non-discriminant beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Most teams had just finished their district schedule or had, at most, one match remaining before a preseason that never happened.

This year, several matches have already been rescheduled, but after a year of dealing with the virus under their belts, coaches are feeling better about getting through the schedule.

“I’m pretty sure we can complete the season,” McHi head coach Patrick Arney said. “With what we’ve learned and with the vaccine coming out, we’re ready.”

The Bulldogs graduated three players who went on to play major Division I soccer this season. Still, they have begun the new campaign essentially where they left off, winning all four matches including 6-0 against Los Fresnos and 8-0 against Corpus Christi King in the McAllen ISD Girls Soccer Tournament.

Dallas Highland Park is the top-ranked team in Class 5A, according to the TGCA, while Dripping Springs is No. 2. Magnolia is sandwiched between Sharyland and McHi at No.4.

La Feria is the other ranked team in the poll, coming in at No. 6 in Class 4A.

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The Monitor’s All-Area Coach of the Year

BY HENRY MILLER

STAFF WRITER

Margo Iglesias-Iglesias-Cantu took over as head coach of the La Joya Palmview girls volleyball team in early 2017.

She recalls many of the comments she received like, “You’ll never win there,” and, “Why didn’t you wait for a basketball offer?”

“I heard so much of that,” Iglesias-Cantu said. “Everybody told me I couldn’t do it.

“That’s what drove me.”

Iglesias-Cantu took her team to the first playoff match in school history. The Lobos finished second in District 30-5A, behind only perennial power Mission Veterans, with a 6-4 record, winning their final three matches to make that historic first postseason appearance.

For her effort, Iglesias-Cantu has been named The Monitor’s All-Area Volleyball Coach of the Year.

“When somebody tells me I can’t do something, I go out to prove them wrong,” the fourth-year Lobos coach said. “I’m very intense.”

Iglesias-Cantu’s also a former athlete (and married to a Palmview football coach) who dabbled in just about every sport in high school before playing basketball at McPherson College in Kansas and Graceland College in Iowa. After she finished playing college basketball, she started her professional career playing overseas. However, at one of the combines she attended, she stepped on another player’s foot and ended with torn ligaments.

It was bad news at the time for Iglesias-Cantu, but a future blessing for Palmview.

She dove into teaching and coached at the middle school level for 16 years. At one point she was offered the job to be the first Palmview coach back in 2008 but initially declined, more interested in the variety of sports she coached at the middle school level.

“I did all sports. I wanted to master all the sports,” Iglesias-Cantu said. “But then after so many years I wanted to do something different and was asked if I wanted to move up.”

She took the offer and was rewarded with keys and a desk, in an office. She was on her way and ready to go.

“When I got there, it was, ‘Here you go,’” she said. “It was very different at the high school level.”

Iglesias-Cantu played at La Joya High for Diana Lerma, the accomplished coach at Mission Veterans, whose teams have gone undefeated in district for eight straight years. Lerma clearly remembers the young prodigy-turned-coach.

“What a hard-working kid from an athletic family and the sense of pride she used to have and clearly still has,” Lerma said. “Working there wasn’t easy but she brings so much excitement and high energy and enthusiasm with her kids just like when she played.

“It doesn’t surprise me that she’s one of those who knows what it takes to being the first to accomplish this, or do that. She knows how tough it is and how you can’t sit back on these kids. She doesn’t.”

In her first three years, the Lobos won just five district games, 2-12 being a normal type of year. However, in the shortened COVID-19 pandemic, the Lobos more than doubled their win output and the belief she carried with her, spread over to them.

“I promised them we would make the playoffs this year, then we almost didn’t have a season,” Iglesias-Cantu said. “That was tough.”

After each win, the Lobos would tear the name of that team off a sign that read, “Our Time.” With three matches remaining it looked like “Our Time” wasn’t going to be “This Time.”

“As soon as I got there they knew it was no ifs, and or buts — we are making the playoffs and we are going to have expectations,” Iglesias-Cantu said. “A lot of girls didn’t believe in themselves; the culture isn’t the same. Both parents may work, there’s no babysitter for a younger one, the kids have to work — sometimes they just couldn’t be here. So many trials.

“This year, these seniors believed no matter what. We started, but the next day we worked for the next game and every team had a name on that sign.”

Rio Grande City was the first name to be wiped away, the last was Roma. In that final match, the Lobos had already clinched a playoff spot. A win clinched second, a loss led to a round robin to settle a three-way tie.

Off came Roma’s name.

“Never before had the girls done well under pressure,” Iglesias-Cantu said. “I told them I promised them they would make playoffs but they had to go out and do it. They had worked so hard for four years. At one point I told them if they didn’t get on the ball, it wouldn’t happen.

“Now that’s it happened, it has to continue to happen. We want to be a team that makes playoffs every year.”

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