GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER

After La Joya Juarez-Lincoln strung together back-to-back wins to enter the race for a playoff spot, coach Tommy Garcia had seniors come to his office about joining the team for its final weeks.

The effect is one La Joya High coach George Espinoza noticed last season, when the Coyotes reached the playoffs for the first time since the La Joya ISD split in 2008. Now, La Joya has two freshman teams, both of which are contending for district titles.

That’s the impact a playoff berth can have on a football program, and the reason tonight’s de facto play-in game between La Joya High and La Joya Juarez-Lincoln at 7:30 in La Joya is for more than just an opportunity to play in the postseason.

“Success breeds success,” Garcia said. “I really believe that if we get into the playoffs, that will help our program. I believe some of the younger kids, freshmen kids that got out this past year, would be willing to take another chance.”

La Joya High and Juarez-Lincoln both have just three wins this season, including 2-3 marks in District 30-6A.

Whichever team wins tonight’s clash will claim a playoff berth, while the loser will be on the outside looking in.

Neither team figures to have much of a chance in the bi-district round. Last season, La Joya High lost 62-7 to Laredo United. Regardless, simply making it to that stage can help the programs as they continue to develop.

“It did wonders for us last year as far as numbers and participation,” Espinoza said. “Making the playoffs back to back, I think that would help generate more numbers from the middle school.”

Juarez-Lincoln heads into this matchup on a high note, ending a 10-game district slide with back-to-back wins against La Joya Palmview and Mission High.

A Huskies team that starts five sophomores on either side of the ball has produced its two best offensive games of the year in the past two weeks. Juarez-Lincoln has also allowed just 230.5 yards per game in those two, compared to 462.3 per game in its first three district matchups.

“We gained some valuable experience early on in the year,” Garcia said. “Those kids are starting to believe in themselves.”

La Joya High has been on the opposite trajectory. After picking up back-to-back wins against McAllen High and Palmview — a feat that seemed to put the Coyotes in prime playoff position — La Joya has dropped consecutive games to Mission High and McAllen Rowe.

Even a Week 9 bye was not enough to heal the glut of injuries that have made it hard for the Coyotes to find consistency on either side of the ball.

“Same old scenario,” Espinoza said. “We’ve been plagued by injuries. We’re playing guys that aren’t playing 100 percent.”

Still, Espinoza said he’s seen a different attitude because of the looming matchup with a sister school. The playoff scenarios are secondary to beating a rival, Espinoza said.

For Juarez-Lincoln, Garcia has been stressing each of the past three weeks that the Huskies can make the playoffs with three straight wins. Two-thirds of the way to that goal, he sees a team that is excited to be playing for both a city championship and an opportunity to build a better future for the program.

“I told them it’s going to be something, especially for you seniors, that you guys are trailblazers, or trend setters,” Garcia said. “Hopefully, that will turn the program around and get more kids out for football.”

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Monday, Nov. 2

Class 6A Bi-district

Brownsville Veterans def. PSJA Memorial 22-25, 24-26, 25-16, 25-22, 15-12

Laredo Alexander def. McAllen High 25-21, 25-19, 25-16

Class 5A Bi-district

Sharyland Pioneer def. Edcouch-Elsa 29-27, 25-17, 25-21

Class 4A Bi-district

Rockport Fulton def. Port Isabel 25-18, 25-16, 25-21

Class 3A Bi-district

Bishop def. Edinburg IDEA 25-6, 25-10, 25-11

Class 2A Bi-district

Corpus Christi London def. San Isidro 25-10, 25-12, 25-6

Agua Dulce def. La Villa 3-1

Tuesday, Nov. 3

Class 6A Bi-district

Los Fresnos def. PSJA North 25-12, 25-12, 25-7

McAllen Rowe def. Laredo LBJ 25-15, 25-7, 25-18

Edinburg North def. San Benito 25-15, 25-19, 25-18

Edinburg High def. Brownsville Hanna 20-25, 25-22, 25-22, 25-18

McAllen Memorial def. Del Rio 25-17, 23-25, 25-16, 25-20

Laredo United def. Mission High 25-20, 25-19, 25-9

Class 5A Bi-district

Mission Veterans def. Brownsville Pace 25-8, 25-7, 25-16

Sharyland High def. Donna High 25-23, 18-25, 25-20, 30-28

Edinburg Vela def. PSJA High 25-17, 25-18, 27-25

Class 4A Bi-district

Orange Grove def. La Feria 18-25, 25-20, 19-25, 29-27, 15-8

Sinton def. Rio Hondo 25-8, 25-6, 25-12

Class 3A Bi-district

Banquete def. Monte Alto 3-2

Class 2A Bi-district

San Perlita def. Bruni 25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 25-17

Santa Maria def. Ben Bolt 17-25, 25-21, 25-20, 22-25, 15-12

TAPPS 1A Area

Juan Diego Academy def. San Antonio Gateway Christian 19-25, 25-14, 26-24, 25-21

Thursday, Nov. 5

Class 6A Area

Brownsville Veterans Memorial vs. Laredo United at Corpus Christi Ray, 7 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 6

Class 5A Area

Sharyland Pioneer vs. Victoria West at Corpus Christi Ray, 6 p.m.

Edinburg Vela vs. Flour Bluff at Bishop High, 7 p.m.

Mission Veterans Memorial vs. Corpus Christi Calallen at Alice, 7 p.m.

Class 6A Area

McAllen Memorial at Edinburg North, 6 p.m.

McAllen Rowe at Edinburg High, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 7

Class 6A Area

Los Fresnos vs. Laredo Alexander at La Joya Palmview, 3 p.m.

Class 5A Area

Sharyland High vs. Tuloso-Midway in Falfuririas, 7 p.m.

Class 2A Area

Santa Maria vs. Three Rivers at Bishop High, 2 p.m.

San Perlita vs. Charlotte in Alice, 6 p.m.

TAPPS 1A Regional Quarterfinal

Juan Diego Academy vs. San Marcos Hill Country Christian at Annapolis Christian Academy in Corpus Christi, 1 p.m.

GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER

After missing the start of the season for personal reasons, McAllen Memorial sophomore JoJo Williams has returned to the football program and given the team another dynamic option in the running game and on kick returns.

Williams has scored a touchdown in each of Memorial’s past two contests, despite toting the ball just three times.

“He didn’t come in in real good shape, but he’s battled himself back, and he’s done a good job for us,” Memorial coach Bill Littleton said. “He’s playing real well right now. We’re real pleased with where he is.”

Williams, the primary running back on the Mustangs’ undefeated freshman team last season, wasn’t even enrolled with Memorial until the second or third game of 2015, Littleton said. After the UIL’s mandatory 15-day waiting period, Williams worked his way back into the varsity rotation.

On the season he has six carries for 126 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown against La Joya Palmview in Week 10 and a 22-yard touchdown against McHi in Week 9.

Littleton said Williams has also been used on defense and in the return game. The sophomore has three kickoff returns for 78 yards and four punt returns for 65 yards.

“He’s pretty versatile,” Littleton said. “He can do pretty much any of it.”

Last year, Williams put his speed to use with the McAllen Memorial track team, running the third leg of a 400-meter relay team that set a school record with a time 50.21 seconds — the sixth-best mark in the Valley.

“He’s a good change of pace guy. He has good speed,” Littleton said. “We think he’s going to be an outstanding football player for us.”

MAJOR OBSTACLE

Mission High coach Mario Peña knows his team has its hands full this week, needing to upset undefeated McAllen Memorial to have a chance at a playoff berth.

When he looks at the Mustangs on film, he sees a well-coached group with several Division-I talents: not just running back Trevor Speights, but also wideout DJ Johnson, quarterback Jonathan Sanchez and linebacker Sam Hinojosa.

“You can’t say that about any other school,” Peña said. “To me, without a doubt right now, they’re the best football program in the Valley.”

Memorial has been nearly unstoppable this season, winning all nine games by an average margin of 38.1 points. The offense averages a Valley-best 568.7 yards and 59.2 points per game.

Mission will be trying to counter with the district’s top defense, one that allows only 250.4 yards per game.

“The bottom line is we never coach our kids to lay down for anybody,” Peña said. “Our kids are going to come, and we’re going to fight, and we’re going to get after it and do the best we can.”

The Eagles may also be entering the game without two of their leading tacklers in seniors Juan Salazar and Henry Morales. Both missed last week’s game against La Joya Juarez-Lincoln, unable to push through nagging injuries.
“They’re seniors, and it’s their last football game, so they’re telling me, ‘Coach, we’re going to try to go and give it what we can,’” Peña said.

Sophomore Steven De Leon has been the team’s leading tackler this season, racking up 115 stops. Peña also highlighted the play of Marc Garcia and Abel Compean in the secondary, plus defensive end Arnold Rodriguez and utility player Martin Cacique.

USEFUL BREAK

McAllen High coach Kevin Brewer said the Bulldogs’ Week 10 bye came at the perfect time, giving the team an opportunity to rest and recharge as it looks to the postseason. Brewer said he shortened or canceled some of the team’s before-school workouts to give his players a chance to catch up on academics.

Otherwise, practices were mostly business as usual, preparing for tonight’s road matchup against La Joya Palmview.

“We got a lot of stuff done,” quarterback Caleb Youngblood said. “It helped out with a lot of guys getting to recover. Everybody is rested up, and we’re ready for this week.”

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GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER

McALLEN — Josh McGowen’s lifelong dream had come true, but his parents and McAllen High coach Kevin Brewer thought it would be better not to let him know.

Stephen F. Austin running backs coach Jeremy Moses called early last week to tell Brewer and the McGowen family that they were planning to offer Josh a full football scholarship. But instead of breaking the news to Josh, they let him hear it from Moses in person during Saturday’s unofficial visit.

“Everybody held it as a surprise,” McGowen said. “Once I got there, they told me, and I literally almost broke down in tears. My mom, we were all excited. It was an emotional stage, right there.”

The offer was McGowen’s first, a fulfillment of his longtime goal of playing Division I football. He said his first contact with SFA was only two or three weeks ago, after one of the coaches saw his highlight video.

In his first year at McAllen High after transferring from Overhills High in Spring Lake, North Carolina, McGowen has been turning heads with his play, ranking second among Valley 6A running backs with 1,474 yards.

“I knew it was inevitable,” Brewer said of McGowen getting a Division I offer. “To break the ice and get that first one is important. Hopefully, this leads to more for him to give him more options.”

McGowen has been a driving force for McHi’s offense this season, picking up 52.2 percent of the Bulldogs’ total yardage and scoring 22 total touchdowns to provide 52.1 percent of McAllen’s total points.

His evasiveness and 4.4-second speed in the 40-yard dash have made him a threat to take any run to the house, and he’s ranked as the team’s leading receiver with 150 yards on 13 catches. He’s shown ability as a pass catcher throughout his career, hauling in 33 passes for 534 yards during his final season at Overhills.

Still, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to parlay his talents into a scholarship, at least for Division I football.

“I didn’t think I was going to get it for football as much,” McGowen said. “I always thought I was going to get it for track.”

At last season’s North Carolina 4A state meet, the state’s largest classification, McGowen finished third in the long jump and fourth in the 300-meter hurdles.

His career-best times in the 110 hurdles (14.37 seconds) and long jump (23 feet, 1 1/2 inches) would’ve ranked as the Valley’s best last season, and his time in the 300 hurdles (38.49) would’ve ranked second.

Brewer said he could see McGowen pursuing both football and track successfully at the college level, and McGowen is open to either avenue.

“I definitely will be listening out for track offers,” McGowen said. “But the main thing is since I can get a football scholarship, the chances are I can walk on to a track team.”

McGowen said he’s also gotten some attention from UTSA and Sam Houston State for football, although he admits that overall he hasn’t talked to as many interested schools as he hoped.

With McAllen High all but ensured a berth in the playoffs, McGowen will have at least two more games to draw more looks and continue his push toward the McHi record book.

He’s three touchdowns away from the single-season touchdown record (23 by Manny Mendoza in 2010), four scores away from the single-season rushing touchdown record (21 by Trey Dube in 2009), four points from the single-season scoring record (140 by Mendoza in 2010), and 410 yards from the single-season rushing record (1,853 by Mike de la Fuente in 2002).

“The season I’m having is great,” McGowen said, “but I wouldn’t be able to do it by myself without the team.”

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RGVSPORTS.COM

Mayda Garcia had 15 kills and Vanessa Lopez added 38 assists as McAllen Rowe defeated visiting Laredo LBJ 25-15, 25-7, 25-18 in the Class 6A bi-district playoffs Tuesday.

Garcia, the reigning RGVSports.com All-Valley Volleyball Player of the Year, added 22 digs, five blocks, two aces and two assists as the Lady Warriors (39-8) advance to the area round, where they will take on Edinburg High.

Rowe coach Magda Canales credited her team’s defensive schemes — a rotation set and a perimeter set — in helping them fend off Laredo LBJ’s attack.

“We were able to adjust and that made the difference in the end,” she said. “We saw a few openings that worked to our advantage. The setters had been working with the hitters, trying to make sure the game plan would work, and it paid off.”

Sophia Luna chipped in with eight kills, seven digs and three blocks. Ryela Rodriguez contributed six kills, four digs and six blocks.

EDINBURG NORTH 3, SAN BENITO 0: At Edinburg, Victoria Rodgers had 11 kills, 14 digs, two aces and two blocks to carry the Lady Cougars to a 25-15, 25-9, 25-18 victory at home.

Lizeth Cavazos posted nine kills, four blocks and one dig, and Abri Saenz added 37 digs, two kills and two aces for Edinburg North (31-11), which will take on McAllen Memorial in the area round.

“We had a little bit of a lull there (early in the season), but I think we’re beginning to peak,” North coach Adrian Cavazos said. “I think we’re playing a lot better, and right now is the right time to be doing that.

“We’ve been playing really good defense. The girls have been making really good passes, running multiples on offense, and we’ve been able to make the reads.”

McALLEN MEMORIAL 3, DEL RIO 1: At Laredo, Draik Banks delivered 21 kills and six blocks, and Lanie Nitsch added 18 kills and two blocks, as the Lady Mustangs ran away with a 25-17, 23-25, 25-16, 25-20 win at Texas A&M International University.

Taylor Marburger doled out 52 assists to go with nine digs, and Jocelyn Everage had nine kills, nine digs and two aces for Memorial, which faces Edinburg North in the next round.

LAREDO UNITED 3, MISSION HIGH 0: At Roma, the Lady Eagles saw their season end in the first round for the second time in two years.

Mission finished with a 17-20 overall record.

CLASS 5A

MISSION VETERANS MEMORIAL 3, BROWNSVILLE PACE 0: At Brownsville, Gabby Lerma posted 18 kills and Daisy Reyna added 16 as the Lady Patriots cruised to a 25-8, 25-7, 25-16 victory.

D.D. Ibarra notched 24 kills, four aces, four digs and a block, and Lerma added 25 digs, as Mission Veterans (36-3) advances to the area round.

“It was just an overall great team effort,” interim coach Vivian Ray said. “The girls have a goal they want to achieve, and this is the first step.”

The Lady Patriots will await the winner of Calallen-Medina Valley.

“Right now, our kids are just hungry,” Ray said. “Our offense was on. I wouldn’t say it was perfect, but it was beautiful. And our defense was really scrappy.”

GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER

MISSION — During every timeout Tuesday, Sharyland High’s players and coaches reminded each other of the night’s mantra: “For Aileen.”

Those two words were written on white bands and taped around each player’s wrist, a reminder to play for their teammate, Aileen Salinas, who remains hospitalized after suffering a serious head injury during a car accident over the weekend.

“Playing for her, and knowing that she’s worked hard for this win, also, that helped us out to continue to fight,” senior Paige Jones said.

The Lady Rattlers needed all the fight they could muster Tuesday, battling back from a slow start en route to a 25-23, 18-25, 25-20, 30-28 win against Donna High on Tuesday at Sharyland High.

Senior Maddie Garza said the players heard the news of Salinas’ accident on Sunday, and the majority of the team went to visit her in the hospital that day.

Typically, a small group of Sharyland players will tape a bible verse to their wrist before matches. But on Tuesday, the entire squad, including coach Raul Castillo, wore the wristband to keep Salinas in the team’s thoughts.

Castillo said Salinas is conscious and in good spirits, but her hospital stay is expected to continue for some time.

“We wanted to play this game for her so maybe, if she’s better and she’s out, she could come,” Garza said. “We know she’s here in spirit, and she helped us today, for sure.”

After what Castillo called cold, flat play during the first and second sets, the Rattlers turned the match by making a switch at setter.

Jones and Garza had become the team’s two primary setters as the year had progressed, but on Tuesday the Rattlers went back to Melanie Lazos, a sophomore who had been a major factor at the position for most of the season.

The move allowed Garza to take on more of a passing role in the back row.

“We got into the second set, and we just couldn’t pass,” Castillo said. “Putting Maddie back there, she’s a great passer. She defends well. Gives us another opportunity for an attack out of the back row. It gives us options, and it worked in our favor.”

With the new lineup, Sharyland High won the third and fourth sets to seal the team’s first playoff win since 2012.

Jones finished with 11 kills, 13 assists, and three aces, while Garza had 9 kills and eight assists. Lazos provided 10 assists off the bench.

“It’s so amazing,” Garza said of the win. “This is awesome, to be going back to the second round this year. I’m so happy and so proud of my team.”

Sharyland High next plays Tuloso-Midway at 2 p.m. Saturday in Falfurrias. The loss ends Donna High’s season in the bi-district round for the second consecutive year.

Yvette Tamez, a senior, led the Bravettes with 22 kills.

“One of her goals was to lead the team tonight,” Donna High coach Cindy Viesca said. “Stay positive. Be aggressive offensively. She’s taking it kind of hard, but she had a great four years in her career.”

Junior Melanie Arneas had 18 kills and six digs for Donna, while sophomore Adrianna Martinez had 31 assists.

Senior Kara Yanez led the team with 21 digs.

“(I told the team) keep their heads up,” Viesca said. “They played a very good team, and they were that close to going on to the next level.”

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GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER

ROMA — As the final serve of the McAllen High volleyball season smacked into the net for a match-ending error, the Lady Bulldogs looked at each other in stunned silence.

McHi entered 2015 with expectations of a deep postseason run. Instead, the team was dealt a 25-21, 25-19, 25-16 loss against Laredo Alexander on Tuesday in the bi-district round of the Class 6A playoffs.

“I think the pressure kind of got to us today,” junior Taylor Helmcamp said. “We usually fight back, and for some reason today we didn’t fight back until the very end. We usually come out more fiery than we did today.”

McHi reached the Sweet 16 last season for the first time since 2005. Returning from that group were three All-Valley underclassmen to complement a six-player senior class.

The team stormed out to a 29-1 record in non-district matches, climbing to the No. 1 spot in RGVSports.com’s top 10. Among those wins was a 25-18, 25-9 victory against this same Alexander team during the Poundfest Tournament.

“They’ve improved since last time we played them,” Helmcamp said. “And we improved since the last time we played them. So you never really have the same matchup twice. They did come out very strong, and they really wanted it. I think that they wanted it a little more than we did. It just kind of slipped away.”

McAllen High looked out of sync from the start of the match. During the first 10 points, McHi let an ace fall between defenders and sent a set into the referee stand, dropping into a 7-3 hole. As quickly as McHi pulled the score to 8-7 in its favor, Alexander answered with another run to go up 13-9. McAllen would get within two, but never any closer.

“We just didn’t execute our fundamentals very well,” McHi coach Paula Dodge said. Our passing was off, and when that happens, it’s hard to get an offensive attack going. That’s basically it. It was the fundamentals. We didn’t execute well. We had balls dropping that normally wouldn’t drop.”

McHi jumped out 14-10 in Game 2, but Alexander ripped off seven of the next eight points for a 17-15 lead.

McAllen managed to level the match at 18 before Alexander again won seven of eight points to claim a 2-0 advantage.

Despite the deficit, McHi’s players still seemed in good spirits, smiling to each other during the team huddle. Dodge said she reminded the team of how it got to this point.

“We’ve worked really hard in practice,” Dodge said. “We have to do these things right. We have to be confident about playing the ball and wanting the ball to come to us, and being able to get the job done.”

Alexander built a 9-3 lead in Game 3 and quickly extended that edge to 17-6. McHi never got closer than eight points, sealing the team’s first bi-district exit since 2012.

The loss ends the careers of six seniors, including defensive specialist Alli Amaya, middle blocker Hannah Bishop and setter Alexis Giusti.

But McAllen High also returns a number of key pieces for next season. Juniors Helmcamp, Sydney Pemelton, Julia Monday and Kellie Woodin, plus sophomore Carter Helmcamp, will all be back.

“I just told them that I’m very proud of the way they conducted themselves both on and off the court,” Dodge said of her postgame message to the team. “They’re a great group of young women and good athletes. The seniors, we definitely feel bad for. It hurts a lot.”

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GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER

EDCOUCH — Sieanna Ortiz wanted to sit on the bench with her Edcouch-Elsa teammates during Tuesday’s volleyball match, but she wasn’t sure her legs would be strong enough to handle the ups and downs during timeouts.

Her chemotherapy cycle leads her to have good weeks and bad weeks. Although last week was one of her best, the plethora of medications and antibiotics still created an array of side effects, including the possibility for numbness in her legs.

So Ortiz watched from near the top of the bleachers, all the while wishing she could be back on the court like she was as a freshman last season. She came though the team’s summer league on track to play a major role as a sophomore before a diagnosis of stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma put not just her volleyball season, but her life, in doubt.

“My life went from doing activities and being active, to basically being in bed,” Ortiz said. “My life was sports. And to find out that you’re going to have to be out for six months or three years, I thought my life was over.”

SHOCKING NEWS

As the summer wore on, Ortiz’s friends, family and coaches started to see signs that something was off. Her mother, Marisol, and E-E volleyball coach Ofelia Griffith noticed weight loss. A friend, Sam Montelongo, noticed Sieanna’s sometimes violent coughing during driver’s education classes. Sieanna’s cousin and teammate, Odessa Mata, saw that her laugh was different.

“We could tell that it changed, but we never thought she had cancer or anything like that,” Mata said.

After feeling pain in her knee and a shortness of breath, Sieanna visited a doctor. Eventually, she was sent to Doctors Hospital at Renaissance for a chest X-ray, which revealed that her lung was full of fluid — two liters of which was removed that afternoon. A few days later, on Aug. 19, a biopsy confirmed that she had Hodgkin lymphoma. The cancerous tumor sat in the middle of her chest.

“I knew it was going to be life changing, I just didn’t know how she was going to react to it,” Marisol said. “Knowing that she had to quit her activities was a major blow.”

When she first heard the diagnosis, Sieanna was terrified. She went by what she heard about cancer on TV, she said. But doctors quickly made an effort to calm her nerves.

Hodgkin lymphoma is a rare cancer — about 9,050 new cases will emerge in the United States in 2015, according to the American Cancer Society — that attacks the immune system. According to the National Cancer Institute, the five-year survival rate for stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma is about 90 percent.

“When I heard that, it was relief,” Sieanna said. “It was a little bit of hope. When she said it was six months to three years, I said, ‘OK, I can do six months.’ I don’t want to do three years, but I can do six months.”

THE BAD WEEKS

Treatment started the day after the diagnosis. A port was surgically implanted to ease the injection process, and then chemotherapy began.

Five treatments on Day 1, two treatments on Day 2, and a final treatment on Day 3.

“About an hour after I get the treatment, it’s just a bunch of throwing up,” Sieanna said.

The fourth through seventh days she spends at home, resting. On Day 8, she heads to a clinic for another treatment.

“That one, it just burns inside me,” Sieanna said. “Like my chest is burning.”

From there, Sieanna goes through a daily regimen of injections and medications at home until Day 21 starts the cycle anew.

Marisol, a pediatric nurse, said she and her daughter have not been separated since Sieanna first landed in the hospital on Aug. 11. The pair, plus Marisol’s eight-year-old daughter, Catalina, have moved in with Marisol’s sister to be away from the rodents and wildlife that live in the fields around their home. Her sister’s house is newer and more sterile, Marisol said.

Marisol’s two older children, both in their 20s, have stayed in the original home.

“All of us were under one roof, until this happened,” Marisol said. “It kind of split us apart.”

Before Sieanna turned 15, her hair ran down past her waistline. Eventually, she cut it off to donate it to a charity supporting cancer research.

By the time she started chemo in August, it had regrown past her shoulders. Within a week, it all fell out.

“When she lost her hair, she was scared. She didn’t want to let us see her,” Mata said. “I told her, ‘We’re your closest friends. No matter what, you’re still beautiful, and I’m going still going to love you, whether you have hair or not.’”

THE GOOD WEEKS

During the seven-day rest period that ends each cycle, Sieanna enjoys many of the same comforts she did before cancer.

She can go to the movies or walk through the mall, but only at off-peak hours, when a smaller crowd means less exposure to germs for her sensitive immune system.

She can keep up with her schoolwork from home, with a teacher visiting for two hours, twice per week, whenever Sieanna’s hectic schedule of treatments and appointments allows it.

She can spend time with her three closest friends since grade school: Mata, Montelongo and Jackie De Los Santos, another E-E volleyball player. Two weeks ago, to celebrate Sieanna’s birthday, they made her a sweater and a collage of photos from their times together. “Whenever she’s with us, we’re always laughing and messing around just like we used to,” Mata said. “We try to take her mind off the fact that she has cancer.”

Every third week, Sieanna can also watch Edcouch-Elsa’s home volleyball matches, getting a glimpse of what she calls the most difficult part of the entire process.

“Not being able to play,” Sieanna said. “I can do with the hair loss. There are wigs. I can deal with the home-bound (schooling), and the treatments. But just not being on the court.”

KEEPING HER CLOSE

Sieanna may not be able to play this season, but Griffith is adamant that she’s still a part of the varsity roster.

Before every match, “No. 3, Sieanna Ortiz” is announced just the same as any other player.

Portraits of each Lady YellowJacket are lined up numerically above the entrance to the gym. In Sieanna’s space is a picture of a purple awareness ribbon, with the text “No one fights alone.”

That same message is printed on the back of the group’s “Team Sieanna” t-shirts.

Posters honoring her have been taped above both the home and away stands, with messages such as “I never knew bravery until I met Sieanna.”

“That means they’re there with me,” Sieanna said. “It’s hard, but they’re there.”

That was the message Griffith said she spread to the team in the days following the news of Sieanna’s diagnosis. Don’t shy away from the problem. Face it head on, and be there for your friend and teammate in need.

When Sieanna is at the games, Griffith sees a major impact on her players. They see that she’s fighting cancer, and that she’s winning.

“That motivates us to win,” Mata said. “We’ve dedicated the season to her.”

When E-E took down Donna on Tuesday to secure the outright District 32-5A title, Sieanna lingered near the side of the court as her teammates gathered for a team picture. Almost instantly, they signaled and yelled for her to join the shot. Sieanna worried how her pink shirt would fit in with E-E’s black jerseys, but her teammates had no problem sticking her right in the middle.

“It felt good,” Sieanna said. “They still know I’m a part of the team.”

PROGRESS

By next season, Sieanna hopes to be playing with the team again. After her second round of treatment, tests showed that the Hodgkin tumor had shrunk by 80 percent. A secondary tumor had emerged behind the original, but it proved to be malignant.

“We’re not finished yet, but we’re almost done,” Sieanna said. “It’s good news.”

Today, as Edcouch-Elsa opens its postseason with a matchup against Sharyland Pioneer at Valley View, Sieanna enters her fourth, and hopefully final, round of chemo.

If tests show the expected results, Sieanna will move into radiation therapy. For how long, she’s not sure. And even that will not be the end of the road. Sieanna faces at least a year of continued medications and five years of monthly checkups.

But she’s already set her sights on a return to play with her first love: softball.

“I want to be back for softball season,” Sieanna said. “Not for preseason. I’ll condition during preseason. But for district, I want to be back. I want to go back to school, and to finish the year with my friends.”

After watching Sieanna fight as hard as she has to get to this point, Griffith said she expects to have the sophomore’s strong arm and long reach back on the volleyball court next season.

Marisol will need to be 100 percent sure Sieanna is healthy before she consents to a return to play, but she said the softball season is a realistic goal. Following a grueling schedule of treatments, getting back into playing condition hardly seems like a hurdle.

“Seeing her bounce back the following day for another day of chemo, and another day of chemo, I know it’s doable,” Marisol said. “If she gets the OK from her doctor, if she has to work 24 hours per day to get back in shape, I know she will.”

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GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER

MISSION — As some parents and onlookers have rallied to support Mission Veterans Memorial volleyball coach Diana Lerma in the wake of her Oct. 15 reassignment, a second group allege a long-standing pattern of player mistreatment, including excessive profanity and bullying.

While Lerma’s supporters call the protest an attempt to punish Lerma for not giving the deriding parents’ children more playing time, the seven sets of parents who stand against her feel the reassignment was deserved despite the success Lerma has achieved at Mission Veterans. Even without their longtime coach, the Lady Patriots are looking to put together another deep playoff run, beginning Tuesday with a match at Brownsville Pace.

Mission CISD declined comment on the reasoning behind the move. Lerma, athletic coordinator David Gilpin and assistant/interim coach Vivian Ray have steadily declined comment throughout the process, which included two suspensions leading up to Lerma’s dismissal.

“She wasn’t running it like a school,” said Melissa Lopez, aunt of varsity player Alex Jimenez. “She was running it like the army.”

The parents say they have heard Lerma’s mistreatment personally, citing a recording secretly obtained by one of the players as the coach addressed her team. A source provided The Monitor with a copy of the 28-minute recording, in which Lerma is allegedly the speaker, via email.

In the meeting, Lerma tells the players that she will always choose her starters based on merit.

“Nobody comes and questions me about playing time,” Lerma said. “If we start going, ‘Oh, let’s go up against coach Lerma.’ There’s the door. You’re going to lose, mija. You will lose. You need to go on to another sport, because my job is to win.”

Addressing complaints about playing time, specifically from parents, Lerma frequently used expletives while singling out certain girls.

She chastised any player or parent who would attack her standing in the program.

“I don’t care if they take me all the way to the superintendant,” Lerma said. “The trophy is still going to come.”

The players responded to Lerma’s criticisms calmly, talking about ways they can improve and things they need to do to expand their role. The parents, however, were alarmed by the contents of the meeting.

“If you were to hear the audio as a parent, or just as a human being, you would be floored,” Lopez said.

The parents said their complaints eventually led Lerma to receive a two-match suspension in early September. But rather than calming her down, the parents say it only riled her up.

Another parent, Jaime Salinas, said it was about this time that his daughter, who had quit the team earlier in the season, was attempting to return to the program. Salinas said Lerma, the school’s principal and his daughter met and drew up a contract outlining the circumstances for her to return to the JV team, only for Lerma to override those conditions.

Salinas’ daughter was forced to run 43 infractions in a designated time, which Salinas said made it nearly impossible for her to return to play before the end of the season. Salinas’ daughter was supposed to receive a uniform and travel with the team, but Lerma did not follow through on those conditions.

Salinas said Lerma also singled out his daughter and humiliated her in front of the team, just as she had done earlier in the season.

“My daughter came home, and she was torn apart,” Salinas said. “(Lerma) did this in front of everybody instead of being more professional about it and pulling her aside and telling her. … It’s just not tolerated. It can’t be tolerated.”

Before Mission Vets’ season opener Aug. 11, three players were removed from the varsity roster for undisclosed reasons, leaving just eight players.

Many have stepped forward in support of Lerma. In the two days after news of her reassignment was reported on RGVSports.com, The Monitor’s high school sports website, on Oct. 15, “#FreeLerma” was posted to Twitter 45 times, with some tweets receiving more than 100 retweets. One of those posts came from Lady Patriots freshman Jackie Howell and was retweeted by junior D.D. Ibarra. Freshman Makenzie Gerlach also retweeted a “#FreeLerma” post, while Lerma’s daughter, Gabby, posted “#FreeMommy.”

“I’m just going to say I’m playing the rest of the season for her,” Gabby said after the team’s Oct. 17 match, the first since the reassignment, before adding that she and the rest of the players had been told by school officials not to comment on the situation.

Lerma is one of the most successful volleyball coaches in the Valley. Mission Veterans is a perennial playoff team, winning 11 district titles and advancing to regionals four times in the past 14 years. No Rio Grande Valley program matches that success.

Gerlach’s mother, Cari, said she was sad parents in the program had pushed a winning coach out of a job through private meetings while other parents were kept in the dark.

“Everybody is left to speculate. If (coach Lerma) did something wrong that was legitimate, put it out there and quit the guessing game,” Cari said. “It’s hard to explain to my child, or anyone else on the team, not knowing if there is a legitimate complaint or if it’s parents dictating the system.”

She expressed concern that parents were trying to maneuver their daughters into varsity spots or increased playing time rather than letting the coaches and players dictate the rotations on the court.

“They ruined it for my daughter,” said one parent who chose to remain anonymous. “This is high school, and she let it go too far because the parents wanted their children to have more playing time.”

A lack of information is also a chief concern for some parents. Throughout the season, MCISD and school coaches and officials have been silent regarding the charges against Lerma and their validity.

“Why aren’t we privileged to hear the whole story?” said Roland Puente, a parent of a JV player. “That starts from the very top. … They’re creating a hostile environment for our girls.”

Since Lerma’s reassignment, some previously departed players have started to return to the program. Salinas’ daughter played in the first JV match after Lerma’s reassignment, on Oct. 17. Isela Rodriguez, a senior, was that day listed on the varsity roster for the first time since last season.

Amanda Contreras’ daughter left the program before the start of the year, but Contreras said they’ve been having discussions about her potentially rejoining the team.

“There’s so many things that played into this,” Contreras said. “They can’t even be counted on two hands. If you would know all of that, it would just open up. We’re just trying to get these girls to move forward and heal.”

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GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER

LA JOYA — Just two weeks removed from a 10-game losing streak in district games, La Joya Juarez-Lincoln is one win away from a playoff appearance.

After taking down Mission High 24-19 on Friday at La Joya ISD Stadium, Juarez-Lincoln is guaranteed a postseason berth if it can beat La Joya High next week. This after the Huskies went 0-6 in district play last year and started the 2015 season with three consecutive district losses.

“We always believed in ourselves,” junior Livan Peqeño said. “Even though everybody else didn’t believe in us, the coaches believed in us, and we believed in each other. We stayed together. We always believed we could make it.”

The win, coupled with last week’s victory over La Joya Palmview, moves Juarez-Lincoln to 2-3 in a muddled District 30-6A. Mission High, La Joya High and Palmview are also 2-3, with McAllen Rowe at 2-4 and McAllen High a notch ahead of the pack at 3-2.

McAllen Memorial has already locked up the district title, but every other spot in the standings is up for grabs, with the results of the Week 11 games potentially triggering any number of tiebreaker scenarios.

“We never lost hope,” Huskies sophomore safety Elias Gutierrez said. “We kept fighting, and thinking we were going to go. We’ve made it to that point.”

On Friday, Juarez-Lincoln pulled through behind big plays and turnovers. A 40-yard touchdown pass from Obed Fernandez to C.J. Flores and a 64-yard scoring run by Livan Pequeño staked Juarez-Lincoln to a 17-6 halftime lead.

The Eagles outgained the Huskies 177 to 124 during the first 24 minutes and ran 40 plays to the Huskies’ 16.

“We needed (those big plays), because we need to go to the playoffs for the first time in Juarez-Lincoln history,” Flores said. “It feels amazing to be this close.”

The Eagles got off to a hot start, taking a 6-0 on Steven De Leon’s 2-yard run that capped a 16-play, 79-yard opening drive. But Juarez-Lincoln’s defense adjusted, holding Mission under wraps for most of the next two quarters.

After Juarez-Lincoln extended the lead to 24-6 on a Robert Gonzalez touchdown run midway through the third quarter, the Eagles attempted to rally. De Leon scored on an 8-yard run, and Treviño punched in a touchdown from 1 yard out. But Mission could never overcome four turnovers — one interception and three lost fumbles.

“To me, that was the difference: The fact that we allowed two big plays for TDs, and the turnovers,” Mission High coach Mario Peña said. “We’re not going to win when we turn the ball over.”

Mission High’s playoffs hopes remain intact, but the team faces a tough Week 11 matchup against undefeated McAllen Memorial. Mission High needs a win and a little help to qualify for the postseason.

If form holds and McAllen Memorial can beat Mission High, next week’s game between Juarez-Lincoln and La Joya High becomes a play-in game. The Coyotes could potentially win and still miss out on the postseason, but the Huskies would secure a berth with a victory.

“The thing I told them is don’t listen to what the media is saying,” coach Tommy Garcia said. “Don’t listen to whoever is saying what. The bottom line is we have to take care of La Joya and bring that city championship back, and get ourselves some momentum going into the playoffs.”

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