BY MARK MOLINA | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
Standing at 6-foot-2-inches and weighing 170 pounds, Hanna Golden Eagles defensive back Leigh Guevara knows his assignment will be to guard the opposing team’s top wide receiver every week.
He’s got all the tools to do so with his size and length, but what is most important is that he’s confident.
“Being a player of my size, I know a lot of the pressure is on me,” said the senior defenseman. “I’m going to guard the toughest, best and fastest receiver. I know I have to have the trust from my coaches knowing that I have to play every play and every down. They trust me, I trust them and I make the plays.”
Though he has had success in the middle of this season’s historic playoff run, his road to being one of the team’s top corners wasn’t an easy one as he spent last season not only making the transition from JV to varsity, but also adjusting to a move from free safety to his current position at cornerback.
Guevara enjoyed much success at safety, grabbing a combined 12 interceptions during his freshmen and sophomore JV seasons, but his size and speed provided Hanna a chance at a big cover man on the outside in a district full of big-play athletes.
At first, Guevara did not take the change well.
“They thought with my size they would move me to corner and it was ‘Hey, let’s see how he does,’” he said. “It was a big transition and I was kind of upset. I was not fine with that I was like ‘What’s going on?’ I did get used to it and over that junior year I told myself I’d get it done.”
Guevara said one of his biggest obstacles was developing a tougher in-game mentality, but said once he had his mind right, it translated into success from one season to another.
“It was a big difference from last year,” Guevara said. “Having the short memory this year has definitely been a big change for me. Last year wasn’t my best season at all and I didn’t have many tackles, got caught on a lot and had many mistakes. This year, you can definitely tell the difference between how I play and my mentality in these games. I feel like my coaches know that as well and see me as a playmaker.”
Hanna head coach Mark Guess said that short memory is one of Guevara’s best assets.
“Leigh has been solid most of the year,” Hanna head coach Mark Guess said. “Every player has a couple of plays they’d like to have back. But anytime he might have a bad play, he’s doing well enough to have a bad memory, forget about it and moves on to the next one. That’s more important than anything when it comes to High School football.”
As a junior, Guevara recorded 18 tackles and six pass deflections, but it has been a different story this season as he has 52 total tackles, including 30 solo and two for loss to go along with seven pass deflections.
He’s also had a couple of nice outings in this season’s playoff run.
Against Weslaco East, Guevara recorded 11 tackles. Against Eagle Pass, the senior corner had just three tackles, but one saved a touchdown near the goal line and his only pass deflection of the game came in the red zone against a bigger receiver.
“Having a corner that big and that imposing certainly helps when it comes to matchups with top receivers,” Hanna head coach Mark Guess said. “We locked him up with that (receiver) from Eagle pass who is like 6’5”, 6’6” and Leigh was able to matchup with him and hold him in check most of the night. Being able to that with a versatile player like Leigh — who’s pretty big for a corner and I love him — shows he has the tools to play the position. It’s really nice to be able to have him there for matchups and things like that.”
Heading into the Class 6A Division II Regional semifinal against San Antonio Brandeis on Saturday afternoon, Guevara draws another tough task as he will lineup across from capable receivers including University of Texas San Antonio commit Oscar Cardenas.
The Hanna senior said he knows what his duty is and he’ll be ready.
“There’s going to be receiver my size that I have to go against every day and I have to keep up with them,” Guevara said. “It’s a matchup and it’s competitive. Going into this game with that 94 (Cardenas), I’ll be matched up against him. He’s a UTSA commit and that will be a good matchup, so we’ll see.”