By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Football practice began this week at Porter with an atmosphere of greater understanding between player and coach, along with a more confident feeling for what the Cowboys can accomplish on the field in 2014.
Coach Tom Campos is entering his second season of guiding the team. He knows his players better now, and they know him better, too.
“It’s great because we’re more comfortable now,” said Frank Alvarado, the Cowboys’ junior quarterback who will be calling signals for the second straight season. “We’re starting to know the offense better. Since last year was our first year (with Coach Campos), we had to adjust to a new offense, and now that this is his second year here, we’re starting to get into the offense more.
“We’re more comfortable with each other now because we know each other better,” Alvarado added. “I was pretty excited to get things going (when practice started Monday).”
The Cowboys played spring football in May, so under University Interscholastic League rules they couldn’t start their fall practices until Monday, while other teams in the area and across the state that didn’t have spring ball began workouts Aug. 4.
Besides their increased comfort zone with the coaching staff, another important plus for the Cowboys is seeing a lot of familiar faces again in the lineup as there are eight starters back on offense to go with six returning starters on defense.
Several of those familiar faces are attached to some pretty good-sized bodies, giving the Cowboys further confidence for what they can do in the trenches this season against their opponents.
“I think our guys are realizing how big we are (up front) and that we can move some people around,” Campos said.
“Last year, the coaches were learning the same time as the players as far as schemes and things like that,” Campos added. “Having spring ball helped us out a bunch. We got a lot of ‘knicky-knacky’ stuff that you (usually) want to take care of in (fall) two-a-days done in the spring, including our depth charts, so right now we’re brushing up on the basics in the morning and then the rest of it is breaking down into (specific) team (position work) and getting down to the ‘nitty-gritty.’ There’s no wasted time. The players are far ahead of where we were (at this time) last year.”
Campos was encouraged by how his players came to campus and worked out on their own during the summer. Now they’re taking the next step of workouts in stride, he said.
“We were limited to things like weights and speed conditioning (individually) during the summer,” Campos said. “There was no on-the-field training, so to be out here now and doing these things is great.
“The work that these players already have put in shows a lot,” he added. “They showed up for our summer program that we have with the (school) district. I told the team earlier that it’s just a good feeling to see everybody working together toward one goal.”
The challenge for the Cowboys will be to achieve the school’s first winning record in football since 2008. That was the year Porter went 6-5 with Adrian Moya at QB and made it to the playoffs the last time. Porter will play in District 32-5A again this season and face a new set of conference opponents, including Pace, Donna High, Donna North, Edcouch-Elsa, Mercedes, PSJA High and PSJA Southwest.
The Cowboys start practicing in pads Friday and will play a scrimmage at Raymondville on Aug. 22 before opening the season against Progreso on Aug. 29 at Sams Memorial Stadium.
“These first days of workouts are really good for me and for the whole team, too,” said the Cowboys’ Raul Sandoval, a senior returning starter at strong safety. “It’s helping me a lot. All of us are getting stronger, and it’s working out for all of us (in preparation for the season).
“It’s a pretty good feeling to be out here because all of the returning starters are back, and we’re getting new people, so that makes it even better,” Sandoval added. “It would mean a lot to me for us to do well this year. Coach Campos has never given up on us, and we’ve never given up on him.”