By MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
Despite a blowout loss to Amarillo Tascosa and a 2-3 record to end the non-district season, Hanna quarterback Victor Campos believes his team is still among the area’s elite.
The senior signal-caller also believes he and the team will have to take a good long look in the mirror if they are going to prove it and hoist another gold ball this season.
“We’re one of the best teams in the Rio Grande Valley,” Campos said. “We’ve just had a lot of mistakes, a lot of mental mistakes that have slowed us down a lot. As for myself, I feel like I need to make smarter and quicker decisions and after that, we’ll be all right.”
Campos is in his third season as the Hanna starting quarterback, but unlike his first two seasons, the Golden Eagles’ offense starts with him.
The senior QB has passed for 971 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions on 48 of 72 passing, and has racked up 260 yards and eight touchdowns on 60 rushing attempts this season.
Even with a lot of the offensive load on his shoulders, Campos didn’t change his approach to his final year.
“I kept the same mindset,” he said. “It’s always going to be about the team. I always put them before myself. I think that works out for us, because the better we work together, the better we are going to be.”
Hanna coach Mark Guess said Campos stepping up as the offense’s top playmaker was almost a must as the days of handing the ball off to Cesar Mancias and Aaron Frausto or throwing long to receiver Miguel Payan ended last season.
“(Campos) doesn’t have the same targets that he had last year,” Guess said. “Not to take anything away from the guys this year, but they’re different. We haven’t been coming up with the big catch or sometimes simple catches because we’re dropping too many balls. Some of that is on the receivers, some of that is on the quarterback and some of that is on the offensive line. There’s plenty of places to put the blame. The ultimate deal is that we haven’t gotten it done.”
Campos will admit being a leader of young, new players has been trying at times, but through that he has grown up a lot.
“I feel that this year, I have to be a lot more patient,” the senior QB said. “We have a lot of young guys. You tell them something and sometimes they might break down or something, but after that, we just come out and work — that’s what’s good about this team. Our offense loves to work. We all have the same mindset of wanting to get better each and every day.”
Handling that role as the top option and as a leader was a bumpy road early on, but it’s something Campos has grown into, specifically after coming off the blowout loss to Tascosa before the bye week.
“Once we got past the Amarillo game, that kind of opened Victor’s eyes as far as leadership goes.” Guess said. “He’s turned the corner as far as that aspect of his job goes. He has to be a leader. The quarterback position demands it and the biggest guy on the team demands it — he should demand it. Hopefully, that has occurred, and he’s going to take these guys to their next level.”
With District 32-6A play set to begin Thursday night at Sams Memorial Stadium, Campos is relishing what will be the final five regular-season games of his high school football career.
“It’s (possibly) my last five games,” he said. “I have to just take them as I can. I just have to be smart with whatever I do, and just have fun with it and put God in everything I do. We’re on a mission, and we’re going to get that gold ball. Whoever comes in our way, I feel bad for them because we have a good team here.”