By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
The offensive line for most teams generally prefers to remain anonymous.
The same holds true for Hanna center Omar Leal. He knows he determines how well a play progresses.
“It’s very important, being a center, you’re getting the play started,” he said. “If you have a bad snap, you’re going to have a bad play. It’s all going to reflect back on you.”
Hanna coach Rene Medrano agreed with his senior center.
“If he gets noticed, it’s because he made a mistake and that ain’t good,” he said with a laugh. “He likes to not be noticed, that means the snaps are good.”
Leal is a two-year starter on the Golden Eagles offensive line, but it’s his first year as center, and he has made the transition seamless.
“Omar brings a lot to the table. He’s a smart kid, he’s real intense what he does. He’s real precise, a perfectionist, but that’s what we need there,” Medrano said. “He quarterbacks the line for us. He has to know what everyone does and correct things when they start doing things wrong based on the fronts that we see.
“We really depend on him to do things right all the time, but he’s more than met the challenge.”
The progress that Leal and the others have made is especially comforting to Medrano because of the loss of several seniors on the offensive line from last year’s squad.
“They were the question mark coming into the season,” he said. “We felt we had some kids that could play. We needed to protect and to get the ball off, and these kids have really come along.”
Medrano and Leal credit offensive line coach Rick Chavez.
“He has done a good job with them and continues to. He demands a lot,” Medrano said.
Leal added, “I wouldn’t be here without great, hard practices with my offensive line. My coach pushes us every day. He yells sometimes, but it’s out of love.”
This season the Eagles’ offense is firing on all cylinders. With Leal and the retooled offensive line, Hanna quarterback Andy Lopez is the top passer in District 32-6A, completing better than 52 percent of his passes and three touchdowns to go with nearly 400 yards passing through the first two games.
Although stats are good, the real desire is the postseason, something Hanna just missed last season.
“What is pushing us this year is the fact that we felt short last year (to get to the playoffs),” Leal said. “We have a desire to go to the playoffs, we have 15 guys returning, and every senior, junior and sophomore is pushing each other to make that goal (of the playoffs) every day.”
Leal said the loss in the opener was a good thing for the team.
“The Week 1 loss was a wakeup call for us,” he said. “We realized we could have done a lot better, we had a lot of key mistakes on both sides of the ball. But we’re ready to fight during this long hard season.”
Medrano feels that Leal and the offensive line will be a key for Hanna during the season and its chances for the postseason.
“Omar knows what needs to be done. We’re real proud of him and the way he’s come along,” Medrano said. “He’s not real vocal, he’s a pretty quiet guy, but he knows how to run the show.”
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.