One of the more successful high school girls basketball teams in the Valley doesn’t have its own gym. It doesn’t have a school, and it often goes days — if not weeks — without practicing.

The HOPE (Home Oriented Private Education) Home School Lady Patriots scramble for games, parents provide transportation and cover expenses for tournaments (at least five in a season), and the eight players who make up a team that has gone 55-10 over the last two years are often a curiosity to outsiders who simply don’t get it.

This is the life of a home schooled athlete. It is a life they have chosen, to be sure, but one that berths undeserving misperceptions about who and what these young ladies and the parents, coach and administrator who support them are, and why they stand for what they do.

“When people ask what school I go to and I say I’m home schooled, they just give me a look like, ‘Oh. Home schoolers,’” sophomore guard Cindy Ochoa said. “But we’re just like anyone else. We play whoever wants to play us. We’ll play anybody.

“And once they see us play, they know we’re not really home schoolers.”

This season alone the Lady Patriots have defeated Class 5A programs and competed in Class 3A tournaments en route to finishing as one of the top 10 home school teams in the state. It’s a program that has scoured south Texas for games, ready and excited for an opportunity to prove it is worthy of scheduling, even if the gaudy record speaks for itself.

When people ask Karley Patterson what school she goes to, she responds by saying she is home schooled, which receives far too often a raised eyebrow, perhaps accompanied with an eye roll.

“People think we have so much time on our hands,” the sophomore forward said. “The truth is we can go weeks and days without practicing. But it’s cool to show that you don’t have to go to public school to be someone. We’re not no one.

“We mean something.”

LIMITATIONS

There are no issues with HOPE Home School on the court. But off, it provides some headaches.

The greatest hurdle is locating a place to practice. This season alone, they rotated between three practice locations — Abundant Grace, Calvary Baptist and Mission Parks and Rec. “Home” games have also been bandied about at two locations, the Palmview Boys and Girls Club and the Mission Boys and Girls Club.

“We’ve had to go straight into games without having practice that week, and that can make things difficult,” said third-year HOPE sports coordinator Larissa Solis, who has home schooled two older kids who are now at West Coast College in California and also has two younger ones, 11 and 9 years old, home schooled as well. “It limits you.”

For the players, it’s seen as a lost opportunity. They are a strong team, yes, but how much better could they be if they could practice on a normal basis?

“It’s really hard,” Karley Patterson said. “A lot of times that’s why we don’t have practice, because we don’t have a gym to go to. We could be so much better … we could be very good.

“It’s tough when you don’t have that experience with each other.”

There’s also the issue of travel. The Lady Patriots do not have the luxury of driving to tournaments as a team on a bus. Parents tote players to and from games. And while the program had an approximate budget of $4,000 this season, that can go quickly. Half of that went to new uniforms, while the rest was primarily divvied up between insurance, gym time for practices and game officials.

As far as food and gas to and from games, which is significant since only six games this season were played at the team’s “home” gyms, those expenses come out of the parents’ pockets.

There’s also the nuisance of having to set up a competitive schedule when many public schools already have theirs set. HOPE Home School has the luxury of not being a part of the University Interscholastic League, so it is not restricted in who or where it plays, but it cannot set as tough of a schedule as it would like.

While the Lady Patriots are generally pleased with their finish in the top tier Division I bracket of the 178-team state tournament that wrapped up Saturday in Frisco, who’s to say how far they could have gone if the competition was a bit more stiff?

But players say the plusses outweigh minuses.

First, there is the flexibility. Most HOPE players have school from about 9 a.m. to around 1 or 2 p.m. From there, the rest of the day is spent at practice or attending to other extracurricular activities; senior post Lilly Bradford, for instance, is a gifted ballet and jazz dancer who enjoys those events, but only after she squeezes in some time taking history and college algebra classes at South Texas College.

Second, even considering the lack of practice time, there are plenty of games. The team played 38 games this season, winning 31; five years ago, the boys program played 51.

Games are essentially the team’s practices.

“It’s different, I guess, but I like it a lot,” Bradford said. “There’s just a lot more time. There’s a small part of me, maybe, that wishes I’d be in public school, if nothing else than to get the experience, but overall I’m really glad my parents decided to home school me.”

A NEW WAY TO LEARN

Home school is rarely about the athletics. It’s almost always about the education.

“For home schooling, it really comes down to the parents’ choice on how to do things,” said Lady Patriots coach Garry Dippel, who home schooled daughter Theresa and son Stephen, each of whom now works in north Texas. “Our attitude was if these kids are going to be screwed up, we’re gonna screw them up. Socially, academically … whatever.

“A lot of home school parents really want to have hard Christian values, but you have the extremes from really conservative to really loose.”

Sabrina Patterson, mother of Kelsey, Karley and eighth grader Koby, started home schooling her kids when Kelsey, the oldest at 17, was about to enter kindergarten. From there, it was on a year-to-year basis, as she admits she was not 100 percent committed to the system all the way through.

“It was something God just laid in my heart to do,” she said. “I was kind of resistant about it, but God worked out the details and we prayed about it and prayed about it. I was only going to do it one year, but … here I am.”

Kelsey started reading at an early age, and Patterson realized not long after that home schooling would be best for her children.

“At 4 1/2, she was already reading short stories,” she said. “From there, I was like, what am I going to send her to school for? What is she going to be doing there?

“It evolved from there.”

Patterson started immersing herself in the different educational systems, adapting her teaching methods to how each individual child learned. Kelsey is a visual learner, Karley is kinesthetic and Koby is auditory. In going to home school conferences in and out of the state, picking up on different philosophies, Patterson became attracted to classical conversations, a scripture-based educational curriculum.

Every Sunday, for 30 weeks during the year (15 in the fall, 15 in the spring), Patterson and her husband Jon, who coaches the HOPE boys basketball team, take their kids to San Antonio for Monday classes in classical conversations. They started doing this three years ago, first because they wanted to introduce it to their children and then because the kids wanted to keep going with it.

As a result of this approach, Patterson started identifying better with her children, and vice versa.

“If I was to just send them off to school, go do my own thing and be successful, it would be easy,” Patterson said. “I wouldn’t know what my kids are doing — they’re supposed to be supervised and they’re supposed to be learning … just to connect with them and get to be still and know who they are, it’s just a growing process for us as a family. It’s very real.”

Anybody can home school their kid, Patterson said. The state does not require anyone to have a degree to do so, and while other states require you to use their curriculum, that’s not the case in Texas, which features a plethora of learning tools, from secular to Christian-based.

All the state requires of someone who wishes to home school their child is to adhere to its minimum standards: arithmetic, reading, writing and good citizenship.

THE COACH

A former baseball standout for then-Pan American University from 1978-1980, Dippel holds the program’s single-season record for batting average with a .443 in 1979 when he was an All-District VI selection for a 52-12 team.

But his greatest accomplishment, he will contest, is his job as volunteer coach.

A financial advisor the last 30 years, Dippel, who also serves the community by officiating football and softball, coached the HOPE Home School boys team for five years, taking a year off after his son, Stephen, graduated. He returned to coach the girls team under one condition — all he wanted to worry about was the games. No longer did he wish to coordinate when or where to practice, what equipment to get or coming up with fundraisers.

Done deal.

“Anybody would love to coach these girls,” he said. “They’re super. Wonderful.”

Dippel has a reputation as a players’ coach, someone who knows how to respond to people and how to put people at ease in competitive situations. He is almost the perfect coach for this particular bunch, with the right amount of competitive drive but a strong grasp on perspective.

“Coach Dippel has done awesome with us,” Kelsey Patterson said. “He knows how to work with players and girls and we’re really blessed to have him.”

It helps when you have talent, too. The Patterson sisters are regarded as two of the premier talents in the Valley, having played on the vaunted AAU Hoopsters team, coached by Valley View head boys basketball coach Arnold Martinez. Kelsey is a natural scorer and shooter, comfortable with the ball in her hands, while 5-foot-11 Karley is long and athletic, using her size to get easy buckets near the rim.

Pair them alongside the 5-foot-11 Bradford and another strong inside presence in 6-foot sophomore Caro Lopez, and it’s not hard to see why the Lady Patriots have been successful on the court. They have size, lots of it, and boast the shooting and ballhandling to complement that.

Mix all that in with Dippel’s let ’em play style, and it’s no wonder they handled 5A PSJA High with ease and have a healthy rivalry with Class 3A Lyford.

“This group has been one of the greatest groups we’ve had,” Dippel said. “We have girls who are serious about basketball, and then there are others who are just good athletes. They do a really good job.”

FIGHTING PERCEPTION

Home schoolers do not stay locked in a closet all day, either being taught by their parents or being distant, awkwardly shy from the world. In fact, each player on HOPE’s girls team was social and comfortable in front of an audience, a trait even many public school kids take some time getting adjusted to.

There is, however, more self-discipline involved. Home schooled kids tend to have other activities going on, which is why some parents choose to go this route so that more time is available. Whether it’s taking college courses or even wanting more time to play sports and compete for AAU traveling teams, there are distinct advantages.

“It’s a lot of self-initiative,” said Lopez, a seventh-day Adventist who, from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, cannot compete athletically as the denomination is distinguished by its observance of Saturday as the Sabbath. “It can be tough, but you just have to know where your priorities are. It can be easy if you have discipline.”

Even for athletes, Dippel, who grew up playing sports and even fostered a brief minor league baseball career, said there are good things in store.

“If I was a kid, knowing what I know now back then, oh man, I would love to play this way,” he said. “The only reason I went to school was for sports. I didn’t go to school just to go to school.

“It’s kind of a dream.”

This will likely be the final season of coaching in the Valley for Dippel, who recently sold his house in McAllen to move to Dallas to be closer to his two kids, especially as he is about to be a grandfather. Rarely a moment goes by that he doesn’t talk about how great the girls and the program are. More than a matter of being disrespected or underappreciated, there is an effort within this community to simply be understood.

“We just want people to know we are normal,” Dippel said, with a big grin and a gentle laugh. “We just do things a bit differently. My thinking, though, is, ‘Why wouldn’t anyone home school?’ I think back to my high school days and how many real, close friends I had, and you have maybe a handful. Generally, they’re your teammates.

“That’s the way life is. Really, if these kids went to a school, they would be cut. It’s a numbers game. That’s not the case with us; sometimes we wonder if we’re even going to be able to have a team. It’s a big deal to have enough players, so it’s a big deal to have kids just play and be a part of a team.”

Dennis Silva II covers high school basketball for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4551 or at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @densilva2.

In 1957, Eloy Garza sat in the stands in Edcouch and watched his first game of the Edcouch-Elsa–Mercedes football rivalry.

Garza understood the significance of the sights taking place before him, though he just was in the fourth grade. There was Domingo Sanchez, the Yellowjackets’ top playmaker, starring on the same field as the Hinojosa brothers, Ruben and Oscar, wearing the burnt orange of Mercedes.

It was the 10th meeting between the teams, an early stage of a rivalry that would help define Valley football.

“Even then as a young child, I knew that the Mercedes game was a big game,” said Garza, a 1966 Edcouch-Elsa graduate who retired from teaching social studies in 2001. “Just talking to the people in my community, my neighbors … Domingo Sanchez lived a half-block away. My neighbor Cesar Salinas was a guard on the team. The Hinojosa brothers had come from Edcouch-Elsa.

“This was about two communities who loved their football.”

When current Mercedes head football coach Mike Uribe, going into his sixth year at the helm, speaks of the rivalry, he often uses the cliché, “It’s more than just a game.” But clichés exist for a reason, and when it comes to these two, it’s appropriately applicable.

“The atmosphere of that game is like no other,” said Uribe, who played for the Harlingen Cardinals in the late 1980s and was involved in another prominent rivalry then, Harlingen-San Benito. “Edcouch-Elsa is always on the top of our minds because of the rivalry. I think it’s great for the kids to have that type of intensity.

“It’s something they can talk about the rest of their lives.”

It speaks to Mercedes’ earlier dominance that Edcouch-Elsa’s record in the overall series is a tight 32-28-1 in spite of the Yellowjackets winning 14 of the last 17 affairs.

THE BEGINNING OF BATTLE

The Edcouch-Elsa–Mercedes rivalry began in 1948 with a 6-0 decision in the Tigers’ favor. Today it is recognized as one of the Valley’s premier tussles, but it wasn’t always that way. In the 1960s, the two teams were in the same district as Donna, and those were always looked at as the big games.

Neither team had much success beating the Redskins back in a time when only one team from each district qualified for the playoffs. Edcouch-Elsa, for instance, lost to Donna 12 years in a row after beating it in 1959.

“You talk to some of the older guys around town, and the rivalry they actually had was with Donna,” said Joe Marichalar, a native of Edcouch-Elsa and former linebacker great now serving as the varsity program’s head coach. “They got jacked up for that. I don’t know when Mercedes became the rivalry, but it is now, so we’ll run with it.”

Due to its dominance during that time, Donna was seen as more of a bully, and because it, along with Weslaco High, grew faster, the game between Mercedes and Edcouch-Elsa manifested into something greater.

“Just look at the district then and now … Roma and Rio Grande City are at the other end of the Valley, the Mission schools have always been bigger than we are, Donna and Weslaco and whoever else before grew bigger and bigger early on,” Garza said. “The teams that have been locked at the hip in this district were Mercedes and Edcouch-Elsa.”

The star years of the rivalry, when both teams were playing at a high level, were during the ’80s and ’90s, specifically when Edcouch-Elsa head coach Robert Vela went up against Mercedes head coach Pete Vela.

Brother versus brother amidst the war of a heated rivalry.

“The coaches never wanted to put added pressure on us, but it was understood that it meant a lot to Pete,” said Mike Gonzalez, a 1989 Mercedes graduate who was an all-state linebacker and three-year varsity letterman. “He wanted to win. He wanted to beat his brother, and I’m sure his brother felt the same way.”

Pete Vela went 1-1 as head coach against Robert, who passed away in 2007, and Edcouch-Elsa. The fact that the series meant so much to the communities only added to the fire.

“It was so intense, that when we played each other the stands on each side, wall-to-wall, were filled with people,” Pete Vela said. “I’ll never forget this … we were leaving to go to the game at Edcouch-Elsa one year, and there was a huge sign on one of the local banks that read ‘Last one out, turn off the lights.’ That community support was just huge. Huge.

“Entertainment was Friday night football.”

Mercedes won the district championship in 1985 and 1988. Edcouch-Elsa won the title in 1989. It didn’t take long for either of the Velas to get acclimated to how serious it was.

“When I first got an inkling was when the school boards for each high school had an ongoing bet,” Vela said. “Whoever lost would serve the other at the school cafeteria in the hometown of the winner.

“It was a friendly bet that was peculiar, but as we started playing the games we started to see the kids had an intense will to win.”

GAME ON

Joe Solis, head coach at Edcouch-Elsa from 2003-2012, went 8-2 against Mercedes and is, far and away, the winningest coach in the Yellowjackets’ illustrious history.

He has been a part of great rivalries in the Valley; having worked in Los Fresnos, Donna and Weslaco, he saw how important Los Fresnos-Port Isabel and Donna-Weslaco was. Now a rancher in Willacy County after being removed from his Edcouch-Elsa post last December, memories from the Edcouch-Elsa–Mercedes tangles are what he remembers most.

In particular, Solis brings up the game in 2008, when Mercedes was on top of the District 32-4A world with its talented duo of quarterback Albert Chavez and running back Alex Treviño.

“They were supposed to have the best team ever that year,” Solis said. “I really felt that we were outmatched. They had the size and speed. The community was concerned if we could stop them.”

And yet, Edcouch-Elsa won, and won big. Fifty-one to 25, to be exact.

“Edcouch-Elsa has always been known for its defense, and that was being questioned,” Solis said. “I told them, ‘No matter. We’ll take care of business.’”

It’s a game that also looms big in the mind of Ysmo Ybarra, a 1983 Edcouch-Elsa graduate who had two sons play for the Yellowjackets. Ysmael played on that 2008 Edcouch-Elsa team as a strong safety.

“My son got two fumbles (recoveries) that night,” Ybarra said. “Their great quarterback (Chavez) was running out of bounds. My son told me, ‘Dad, he wanted no part of us.’”

Gonzalez’s big-game moment came in his senior year in 1988, a 16-6 Mercedes decision in a year the Tigers took home the district title.

It was the only time Gonzalez was on the winning side of the rivalry.

“Just to get a win against those guys was awesome,” Gonzalez said. “There was always pressure. You knew your neighbors wanted you to win.

“You didn’t want to go to church on Sunday and face these people, knowing you had just lost to Edcouch-Elsa.”

That 1988 contest is special in Vela’s heart for another reason. It was the first time he and his brother Robert went against each other as head coaches.

“It was very unique,” Vela said. “Two brothers going against each other, especially in a big rivalry like that. Robert was very intense. He hated to lose and he took it personal.

“The difference between he and I is I wasn’t as intense as he was. To me, you lose a game and the sun still comes up the next day.”

For older gentlemen like the 66-year-old Garza, however, there was perhaps no more memorable game than in 1959, when Edcouch-Elsa beat Mercedes 36-6 after losing to it the previous two years. That ’59 ’Jackets team is regarded as one of the program’s finest, but Mercedes was a factor otherwise.

“That year, a political decision was made to play our home bi-district playoff game against Sinton somewhere else, because our stadium was so small,” Garza said. “We could’ve played anywhere, Edinburg, Weslaco … you know where we played? Mercedes! So we play Sinton at Mercedes, who had a nice stadium but not much bigger than ours, and we lose 30-28. There were four TDs of ours called back; flags all over the place.

“In Mercedes.”

ONE AND THE SAME

As heated as the rivalry has become, it is not poisonous. That is largely due to the fact that there are many family ties within the two communities, which are similar not only via population but also by economic settings.

The Hinojosa brothers of Mercedes lore got their start in Edcouch-Elsa. Albert Chavez’s father was a student under Garza and was from Edcouch-Elsa. Gonzalez’s mother was from Edcouch-Elsa and his father was from Mercedes.

Women from Mercedes marrying men from Edcouch-Elsa, or vice versa, were a dime a dozen. Kids from Mercedes grew up in the same circumstances, more or less, as the kids in Edcouch-Elsa, with sports the one binding element.

Sure, there is mischief involved. Like the time in 2005 when Edcouch-Elsa students burned the “E-E” regalia into the Mercedes football field prior to the game there that week. Or in 1995, when some Mercedes cheerleaders got caught stealing signs in Mercedes.

Or that all school buses carrying Edcouch-Elsa fans or athletes were always rerouted after football games in Mercedes because of things waiting to be thrown by people who lived in the surrounding neighborhood. Maybe even go as far back as 1979, when someone dug a big trench with a shovel into Edcouch-Elsa’s stadium, a huge “M.”

Still, through all that, there was not a semblance of ill will.

“We all hung out, we all played basketball, we all chilled,” said Artie Tanguma, a tight end great at Edcouch-Elsa from 2006-2008. “We all got to know each other. These guys were friends. That’s why I never really saw it as a rivalry.

“I’m sure there’s some hate, but more than anything it’s respect.”

And that is a common point made when speaking to Edcouch-Elsa and Mercedes residents. Even as recent as last season, Edcouch-Elsa quarterback Noe Gonzalez admitted to cheering for Mercedes to win against Mission High late in the season since a Tiger win opened the door for the ’Jackets to earn a share of the district title, which they did. Edcouch-Elsa community members and school personnel congratulated Uribe after the win.

Bad-blood rivals would never admit to such a thing.

“I still say the rivalry is as intense as it has been before, but the good thing is I still see it played in a fair manner,” Vela said. “That is a credit to today’s coaches and players.”

Edcouch-Elsa may not care for Mercedes, and vice versa, but when it comes to lining up against others, there is a mutual fondness.

In truth, a relationship like theirs is a dying breed.

“There are less true rivalries because of how many schools are popping up,” Uribe said. “Now there are 27 (Class) 5A programs, and eight soon-to-be 4A programs, and that’s 35 schools. It was only a fraction of that back then. It used to be town versus town. Now it’s inner-city rivalries.

“I don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad thing, but it makes me appreciate what we have here at Mercedes, especially when you throw in something special like what we have with Edcouch-Elsa.”

=======================

THE ALL-TIME SERIES

EDCOUCH-ELSA VS. MERCEDES

1948 – Mercedes 6, Edcouch-Elsa 0

1949 – Mercedes 21, Edcouch-Elsa 0

1950 – Mercedes 13, Edcouch-Elsa 0

1951 – Mercedes 7, Edcouch-Elsa 6

1952 – Mercedes 6, Edcouch-Elsa 6

1953: Edcouch-Elsa 18, Mercedes 13

1954 – Edcouch-Elsa 6, Mercedes 0

1955 – Mercedes 18, Edcouch-Elsa 0

1956 – Mercedes 25, Edcouch-Elsa 6

1957 – Mercedes 34, Edcouch-Elsa 7

1958 – Mercedes 20, Edcouch-Elsa 6

1959 – Edcouch-Elsa 36, Mercedes 6

1960 – Mercedes 22, Edcouch-Elsa 18

1961 – Mercedes 28, Edcouch-Elsa 18

1966 – Edcouch-Elsa 21, Mercedes 13

1967 – Edcouch-Elsa 27, Mercedes 14

1968 – Mercedes 34, Edcouch-Elsa 0

1969 – Mercedes 15, Edcouch-Elsa 6

1970 – Mercedes 8, Edcouch-Elsa 7

1971 – Edcouch-Elsa 14, Mercedes 0

1972 – Edcouch-Elsa 3, Mercedes 0

1973 – Mercedes 21, Edcouch-Elsa 0

1974 – Mercedes 17, Edcouch-Elsa 6

1975 – Edcouch-Elsa 27, Mercedes 3

1976 – Edcouch-Elsa 26, Mercedes 8

1977 – Edcouch-Elsa 14, Mercedes 12

1978 – Edcouch-Elsa 8, Mercedes 7

1979 – Mercedes 20, Edcouch-Elsa 0

1980 – Mercedes 26, Edcouch-Elsa 3

1981 – Edcouch-Elsa 28, Mercedes 14

1982 – Mercedes 31, Edcouch-Elsa 13

1983 – Mercedes 14, Edcouch-Elsa 0

1984 – Edcouch-Elsa 14, Mercedes 9

1985 – Mercedes 28, Edcouch-Elsa 6

1986 – Edcouch-Elsa 26, Mercedes 0

1987 – Edcouch-Elsa 14, Mercedes 6

1988 – Mercedes 16, Edcouch-Elsa 6

1989 – Edcouch-Elsa 14, Mercedes 9

1990 – Mercedes 7, Edcouch-Elsa 3

1991 – Mercedes 10, Edcouch-Elsa 7

1992 – Edcouch-Elsa 21, Mercedes 7

1993 – Edcouch-Elsa 27, Mercedes 21

1994 – Mercedes 20, Edcouch-Elsa 14

1995 – Mercedes 31, Edcouch-Elsa 14

1996 – Edcouch-Elsa 31, Mercedes 12

1997 – Edcouch-Elsa 32, Mercedes 7

1998 – Edcouch-Elsa 34, Mercedes 7

1999 – Edcouch-Elsa 12, Mercedes 10

2000 – Edcouch-Elsa 28, Mercedes 22

2001 – Edcouch-Elsa 31, Mercedes 12

2002 – Mercedes 21, Edcouch-Elsa 20

2003 – Edcouch-Elsa 45, Mercedes 0

2004 – Edcouch-Elsa 41, Mercedes 3

2005 – Edcouch-Elsa 46, Mercedes 7

2006 – Edcouch-Elsa 24, Mercedes 10

2007 – Edcouch-Elsa 29, Mercedes 7

2008 – Edcouch-Elsa 51, Mercedes 25

2009 – Mercedes 28, Edcouch-Elsa 0

2010 – Mercedes 14, Edcouch-Elsa 10

2011 – Edcouch-Elsa 47, Mercedes 9

2012 – Edcouch-Elsa 21, Mercedes 7

(Edcouch-Elsa leads series 32-28-1

Most people would consider a college recruiter to be little more than a salesman.

Don’t try and sell that to Ben Lopez.

“I’m not trying to sell people anything,” Lopez said. “I’m in the giving business.

“I give out scholarships.”

Lopez, a Mission native and 2012 inductee into the RGV Sports Hall of Fame, is the admissions counselor for Lindenwood University. The institution is divided between its campus in St. Charles, Mo., affiliated with NCAA Division II athletics and boasting an enrollment of 17,400, and its other site (Lindenwood-Belleville) in Illinois, which opened in 2004 and is affiliated with the NAIA with an enrollment of approximately 3,000.

Since 1995, more than 500 student-athletes from the Rio Grande Valley have been recruited to the Lindenwood system. The odd relationship between the border region and the Midwest starts with Lopez’s son, Joe, a standout football player for Mission High under Sonny Detmer in the early ’90s who graduated from Lindenwood in 1995.

Joe attended Lindenwood’s Missouri campus, then affiliated with the NAIA, on an academic leadership scholarship. He walked onto the basketball team as a freshman and played two years before focusing strictly on academics. In the meantime, he served as an ambassador of sorts for the university, which was desperate for students.

“Dennis Spellman was then the president of Lindenwood and he saw first-hand some of my leadership and the things I was doing,” Joe said. “During my freshman year, he told me, point-blank: ‘If there are any other kids from the Valley who’ve got what you’ve got, let’s get them up here.’ And that’s what we did. My dad and I facilitated that.”

By Joe’s sophomore year in college, there were six other Valley kids on campus. As of early June, Ben had signed 25 for the 2013-14 season.

“At the time, I was stationed in St. Louis, working for the airlines, and we started sending kids,” Ben said. “Three, four … then it opened up. I’d do the scouting and then we’d fly families up there and my son would take them to the school and show them around.

“Did you like the school? Yes. Do you want a scholarship? Yes. Here you go. It was that simple. Everybody was hurting for students at that time.”

Not anymore.

“They were looking at me as any other athlete,” said junior hurdler Mike Reynoso, a Mission High grad who now thrives at the NCAA DII level for Lindenwood in track and field. “They saw I went to regionals my freshman and sophomore years, and my junior and senior years I went to state. They saw that progress and offered me a scholarship.

“Mr. Ben Lopez really stressed this was about the students. It wasn’t about the university. It was about the people.”

GOOD PEOPLE

For eight years, Ben volunteered as a Lindenwood recruiter for the south Texas area. But in 2003, after serving his 33rd year working for the airlines, he was ready to retire and return home for good.

Lindenwood, however, had different plans.

“They said, ‘Oh, no you’re not (retiring). You’ve helped us for over eight years, brought in some good kids who have graduated and been successful, and you never asked for a penny. Now we’re going to put you on the payroll and you’re going to keep on doing what you’re doing,’” Ben said.

Ben agreed. His responsibilities expanded. Today, he recruits kids from all over south Texas, and even as far out as Houston, El Paso and Dallas. His M.O. has always been simple: open the door for local kids to have an opportunity to get to college, just as the university did for Joe, now heading into his third year as the principal at Mission High.

Ben doesn’t turn anyone down. What matters to him, and in effect Lindenwood, is who wants an education.

“It’s something we’re very proud of,” said Joe Parisi, Lindenwood’s dean of admissions. “It was initially a diversity issue for us, having administrators from Texas with a bunch of rich history from south Texas. And I would take it a step further … it’s not just athletes, but we have a referral system now for student recruitment in south Texas.

“We have good people who find good people.”

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

“Lindenwood has provided kids from the Rio Grande Valley a great opportunity,” Joe Lopez said. “It’s special to be a part of, and athletics are great, but it’s about the education.

“When you leave high school, it becomes about opportunity. And Lindenwood is doing that with its presence here in the Valley.”

There is a stigma that Valley athletes are homebodies. Most, it is said, are reluctant to leave the Valley, and end up at UTPA or South Texas College and then working somewhere close to home. Lindenwood is trying to break that mold, and indeed it’s this area’s moxie that has fascinated Parisi.

“There are great students down there,” Parisi said. “What has always impressed me is they’re hungry. They have the work ethic. They want to learn. They want to grow. I’ve traveled the U.S., and in some cases you see so many people who don’t have that. South Texas individuals want to learn, they want to explore.”

And while that eagerness is half the battle, Valley kids have done well and capitalized on it. Lindenwood-Belleville is more suited for Valley athletes in regard to a developmental stage. The NAIA allows for bigger roster sizes, including developmental squad opportunities, and Ben steers Valley prospects that way exactly for that reason.

Today, a top scholarship offer from Lindenwood in Missouri is $66,920 for four years, where the parents pay nothing. Several of those were given out this season, including to Weslaco East softball player Monica Ramirez. A typical Lindenwood-Belleville NAIA scholarship goes for about $55-65 thousand over four years.

As more aid, three years ago Parisi developed the Urban Scholarship, a diversity allotment for diversity initiatives. It offers an extra three thousand dollars, specifically for students from the Valley.

In all, the size of a potential scholarship simply depends on financial aid, as well as the Lindenwood coaches.

“I can tell you that the students that come from the Valley have been successful,” Parisi said. “They’re funeral directors, they’re federal agents, they’re teachers … students are getting an education and bringing that back to the Valley.”

COMMITTED TO KIDS

Former McAllen Rowe standout Raul Villarreal, now a junior athlete on the court for Lindenwood-Belleville, said it’s the university’s approach that stands out.

“It’s a difference knowing that someone wants you,” Villarreal said. “That’s what got me.”

It’s not just during the recruiting period either. It’s everywhere.

“I had trouble with classes for a bit, doing bad on my tests in my second semester of my sophomore year, and my coach kept with me,” Villarreal said. “He emphasized doing homework, and that’s all I would do. They keep on top of you, man.

“There’s no real chance to slip.”

For Ben Lopez, that’s all part of the plan. That type of commitment is what won over Rio Grande City’s Lisa Gonzalez, who signed a scholarship to wrestle at Lindenwood after winning the state title in Austin earlier this spring.

“I followed Lisa since she was a freshman,” Ben said. “I went to all her tournaments. I paid close attention, especially because every year she was getting better and better. Her senior year, of course, she went to state. I told her I’d give her what she wanted, and she said, ‘I’ll do it. Where do I sign?’

“You have to have a dedication to this. I’m the first one there and the last one to leave.”

Dennis Silva II covers sports for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4451 or at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @densilva2.

ELSA — It can be argued that there is not a livelier place in the Valley these days than Edcouch-Elsa. And for good reason, too, as the Yellowjackets’ football team (8-4) heads into its Class 4A Division II Region IV semifinal against No. 10-state ranked San Antonio Brennan (12-0) tonight at Javelina Stadium in Kingsville.

“I’ve always said there’s high school football, and then there’s ’Jacket football,” said E-E resident Albert Vasquez, a 28-year-old season ticket holder who has been attending games since he was 4. “It’s something very unique.

“When it’s football season, it’s a reunion for 10,000 fans.”

The community of Edcouch-Elsa, which holds a population of approximately 8,900, is “Friday Night Lights” on steroids. There is overwhelming affection for the Yellowjackets, who boast a strong tradition complete with 20 district championships — including a share of this year’s — and seven third-round playoff appearances, a relevant accomplishment for Valley programs.

La Maquina Amarilla. The Big Yellow Machine.

“Edcouch-Elsa is all about its football,” junior running back Miguel Mariscal said. “That’s all it’s about. We have fans that are with us every single step of the way, and they’re our inspiration.”

Indeed, it is a rabid environment brimming with intense passion for the ’Jackets. That was never more evident than this season, when the program was dealt severe punishments by the UIL for violating the eight-hour weekly practice rule in Week 0, consequences that included the suspension of longtime head coach Joe Solis, forfeiture of two non-district wins and a three-year probationary period.

Only weeks ago the community had a dark cloud lounging over it. Words were short. Faces were dour. Body language was worse.

“Gloomy,” said veteran defensive coordinator and acting head coach Joe Garcia, a 15-year citizen of Edcouch-Elsa. “And it was everybody — coaches, players, community. As a coach, you tried to get the kids going, but it was tough. They had their heads down, but then the Austin thing (where the UIL delivered its punishments on Oct. 31) happened and changes were made, and THAT was tough. It took some time.

“But we got going with everything and people started feeling what their roles were. This is where we’re at now. Everybody’s together and it’s a good feeling.”

And now, spirits are revived.

“The Edcouch-Elsa Yellowjackets pretty much represent the heart and souls of those in the community,” said Jose Rodriguez, E-E Class of 2007. “When it comes to football, there is too much at stake down here. It’s not just the students who play on Friday nights, it’s the entire city.”

As it is, the parents and uncles and cousins do enough for the kids to understand the importance of putting on the Yellowjacket uniform. Like playing for Odessa Permian, Southlake Carroll or Katy, there is tremendous responsibility for those who step between the white lines at Benny Layton Sr. Memorial Stadium on Yellowjacket Drive.

“You don’t have to do a lot to motivate the kids,” said Raul Guajardo, a native of Edcouch-Elsa and 1989 graduate who played football and also coached at the school in 2006. “It comes from the house.”

It is such that outsiders question the community’s commitment to an extracurricular program at Edcouch-Elsa High School, which received a Stage 5 designation, the harshest category, for federal Adequate Yearly Progress standards earlier this year.

So the question is, why show such strong support for an athletic club when the institution it represents is struggling where it counts?

“There’s no real outlet for the community. That’s the major thing,” Guajardo said. “Football is their thing. I don’t know if these things tie together, but the academic reports have really dropped while the athletic performance, at least on the football field, has really improved. Back then, they were both the same.

“But with more kids coming in across the border, maybe that has something to do with that. But that’s no excuse. We have to get the scores good.”

It’s an issue that stands as the elephant in the room, normal for any small city that wears its heart for sports on its sleeve. As for the now, however, there’s no question the team is passing with flying colors in the classroom that many E-E residents cherish the most, the football field.

“Small cities have big hearts,” Rodriguez said. “Once it gets to the third round of the playoffs, the road to walk on gets thin, but the hope for something — the heart and soul of the players, coaches, fans and alumni — does not falter.”

Or, as Vasquez simply puts it: “We’d follow them through the gates of hell if we have to.”

DONNA —“Go, fight, win, Redskins!”

The chant is inspired, yelled by students, fans, alumni and administrators well before kickoff of another Donna High School football game. There are fans wearing Indian headdresses. Some have their faces painted. Drums ignite Indian chants and war cries.

This is the “Reservation,” a name proudly announced early and often over the public address speaker during high school football games at Bennie La Prade Stadium, where the Rio Grande Valley’s only public school state champion, the Donna Redskins, call home.

On this brisk Friday night in early November, it is homecoming. The spirit of the Redskins, and in such the Donna community, is more alive than ever.

“It’s fantastic, it’s phenomenal,” Donna ISD Superintendent Roberto F. Loredo said. “Inspirational. Motivational. It seems that everyone gets pumped up at a game.”

The name ‘Redskins’ has been a staple of the Donna community since the 1930s. But while it is embraced within the Rio Grande Valley, it is a hot topic of discussion in national circles, particularly in the nation’s capital where the name is seen as nothing short of a racial slur.

Within this year, writers at media outlets such as Sports Illustrated and the San Francisco Chronicle have stopped using the name, and there has been a lot of attention paid toward the NFL’s Washington Redskins and whether they should change their name because of the perceived sensitivity of it.

What’s in a name?

According to a Capital News Service report, 62 high schools in 22 states use the Redskins name, while 28 high schools in 18 states have dropped the name in the last 25 years.

In Texas, Donna is one of two high schools to use the name. Houston’s Lamar High School is the other.

“If Washington has issues, maybe it’s a big enough issue to do something about it,” Donna ISD board president Ernesto Lugo said. “It comes down to peoples’ feelings. But down here, it’s never been an issue. People are real proud of our team land name. We don’t see anything wrong with it because I don’t think we’re trying to use it to be disrespectful.”

Robert Soto, vice chairman of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas that originated in the Rio Grande Valley, sees it the same way. In 2001, there was an issue when Donna High presented a mascot at a kindergarten graduation ceremony Soto was performing at that “was a big, tall, gorilla-looking character, more like a naked bear,” according to Soto.

“It was over exaggerating us,” Soto said. “It didn’t look anything like a native at all; it looked more like a bear. The feather on its head was the only thing that gave it away.”

Soto and members of the tribe wrote a letter of complaint to the district, which handled the matter and did away with the mascot.

“I don’t see anything personally wrong with Donna High School’s use of the Redskins,” Soto said. “The district has always listened to our concerns and responded, so we’ve had no problem. Most of my family feels that way. The people who only get offended over this are what we call ‘native newbies,’ people who just found out recently through genealogy or something opposed to people who have known and understood what we’re about all along.”

The Lipan Apache tribe is 4,030 strong and the only state-recognized tribe, Soto said. Soto, who was born in McAllen 61 years ago and whose family has been in the Valley for more than 97 years, said his understanding is the Redskins were a warrior society that would paint their bodies with red mud before going to battle.

The settlers, Soto said, would say, ‘Here come the Redskins’ whenever the group approached. The name is commonly believed to be a slang color metaphor for race.

“People don’t realize how many Native Americans are really out there, even in the Valley,” said Soto, adding the race makes up for the fourth largest group in the nation. “There are enough natives that go to these schools that if something would be a big deal, it would keep coming up. Today people just get offended over anything and everything.”

‘It exemplifies Donna’

Mario Ruiz has lived in Donna all his life. He works at Donna North, where he is part of a group that works on traditions. He also helps at Donna High, providing history and contacts for projects and anniversaries honoring the Redskins.

He sees the Redskins in Donna as a point of pride, not disrespect.

“You have schools like Robstown with the Cottonpickers and so on … if we’re going to go down this route, we can go after a lot of schools,” Ruiz said. “I do understand history and tradition, and it is something we have to be conscious about to shine (Redskins) in a positive light.”

Ruiz rattles off a plethora of Donna traditions: the Indian dancers that perform at events, the varsity cheerleaders’ unique night uniforms, the traditional yells, the sprinkling of dirt, the seamstress that makes the Indian-maden costumes and moccasins at games.

And there is no greater tradition than the Indian Sweetheart, which started in 1934 as first a way to raise money for the prom. The girl that raised the most votes for the contest, as well as money, was honored as the Indian Sweetheart. It has evolved into a popular contest among young ladies for any senior girl and junior girl, and the Sweetheart serves as the ceremonial figurehead for the student body and city of Donna.

“There’s a lot of history with that, and these elections are held in the spring,” said Donna High athletic trainer Mark Lozano, who has worked in Donna for three years. “These girls take this with a lot of pride and they all have different stories and different backgrounds. I’ve seen how important it is to these girls and it’s rewarding.

“It exemplifies Donna.”

Tradition speaks

Ruiz speaks of a rumor that says Donna would only consider changing the Redskins name if the NFL’s Washington team was to do so. In the past two years, four high schools have changed their name — Maine’s Wiscasset High (now the Chiefs) and Sanford High (Spartans), California’s Colusa High (RedHawks) and Montana’s Red Lodge High (Rams).

Loredo, who has lived in Donna the last seven years and was born in San Juan, says it will take more than Washington’s Redskins to change Donna’s.

“The only way Donna might do away with it is if it there was some national or federal law that says so,” he said.

As Donna High put the finishing touches on a 24-6 homecoming night victory that clinched its sixth playoff berth in seven years, with students hollering war chants and doing the tomahawk chop to help sustain lengthy offensive drives, there is not the discord that exists in Washington.

In fact, if Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who has been defiant in his defense of the name, could pick an example of what the name can mean to people, he’d likely point to Donna, a small border town synonymous with ‘Redskins,’ rich in history and richer in pride.

“Tradition is tradition,” Ruiz said, “and that’s what you must do.”

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