By ANDREW CRUM
Staff Writer
With six high schools in Brownsville, Sams Memorial Stadium gets a lot of use during the football season.
Unfortunately, that also means that some teams must play games on a short week, on a Thursday, to accommodate the schedule.
“I think if you poll the audience of coaches, we would all rather play on Friday than any other day. That’s why they wrote a book called Friday Night Lights,” Lopez coach Jason Starkey said. “We’re very fortunate this year that eight of our 10 games are on Friday.”
Lopez, Hanna and Rivera are all preparing for Thursday games this week. Lopez travels to La Joya Palmview, Hanna is on the road at Edinburg Economedes and Rivera plays host to Weslaco East at Sams Stadium.
It may not seem like much, just one less day of preparation, but coaches were adamant about that day and its importance.
“When you’re opening the season on a Thursday, both opponents have a limited time to prepare, so there’s no disadvantage on a Week 1 Thursday, in my opinion,” Starkey said. “Ideally you don’t want to play on a short week, but it’s a short week for both teams.”
Hanna coach Rene Medrano felt the same and was already planning to get his team prepared for Week 1 the following day.
“We need to make some adjustments, catch our breath,” he said after last Friday’s scrimmage against PSJA Memorial. “We need to regroup, piece everything together and put it together for Thursday.”
Brownsville Veterans Memorial coach David Cantu likes Thursday games for a few reasons.
“It doesn’t allow a full length of time as a normal week would, but I feel we have a coaching staff that is able to prepare in a quick, efficient way that by Thursday we’re ready to go,” he said. “The advantage of a Thursday is an extra day of rest for our guys for the next week. They can be a blessing after a physical contest.”
Rivera actually plays all of its non-district games on Thursday. Next Thursday, the Raiders travel to Edinburg North and play host to Sharyland one week later. Rivera plays each district game on either a Friday or Saturday for the remainder of the season.
It does create a similar situation for both teams.
“They have to prepare for us in a matter of two or three days, then we’ll see who is the most ready to preform, so it’s a level playing field in that regard,” Starkey said. “We look forward to the opportunity. I’m excited actually because I’m ready to get this (season) started.
NO DIFFERENT GAMEPLAN
Despite the news that Donna High junior starting quarterback Amonte Bowen broke his collarbone during the previous Friday night’s scrimmage against Rivera, Cantu insisted that Brownsville Veterans isn’t preparing differently during practice.
“We were able to see the young man who is now their starting quarterback, and we were very impressed by him,” he said. “He’s athletic, throws the ball well and poses a lot of challenges for our defense.”
The player under center wasn’t the concern for the Chargers during Week 1. It was the players in front of the quarterback.
“Their offensive line is big and physical,” Cantu said. “So that fueled our game plan more than anything.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.