SAN BENITO—Separated by 586 miles from Midland to San Benito, West Texas meets South Texas in the final week of non-district play.
The Hounds as most of their district will square off against district 2-6A this weekend. San Benito will host Midland Lee at 4 p.m. Saturday at Bobby Morrow Stadium.
Harlingen, Harlingen South Los Fresnos and Brownsville Hanna will also meet teams out of district 2-6A. Ironically, enough both District 32-6A and 2-6A are the only two 6A districts with a six team district.
“At realignment they posted a list of teams that also needed games and for Midland Lee they were in the same predicament as us, with their district also being cut to six teams,” said San Benito coach Dan Gomez. “We started to see teams come up on the board and once we saw that, we got on the phone and worked on getting the games going.”
This will be the first time the Rebels face the Greyhounds. San Benito however is no stranger when it comes to facing a state power. Earlier this season, San Benito traveled to Calallen and took on the Wildcats.
“After we played Calallen, it gave us confidence,” said Gomez. “It is always good to go toe-to-toe with a strong program. Any time you get teams to come down to play in the Valley and experience football here in the Valley it becomes an eye opener,” Gomez said. “Rio Grande Valley football is football, it is Texas high school football and there isn’t any better place than here in the Valley the fans come out and they are passionate about it and when the teams come down here they realize it and see how special it is.”
For senior wide receiver Mitch Guajardo, the thought of playing against Midland Lee never crossed his mind and is taking the opportunity as not only as an experience, but seeing it as an opportunity to get better as a team.
“I’ve seen the movie Friday Night Lights when Odessa Permian plays Midland Lee and I never thought that one day I would be playing them,” Guajardo said. “In the movie you see how good they are and they get after it and that is something that excites us.”
Getting to know the Rebels:
Midland Lee opened their doors in the fall of 1961. The Rebels have won three straight 5A UIL state titles in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Those three titles are the only state titles in program history but have reached the state semifinals four times.
The Rebels became the first 5A program to win three straight state titles. The 1999 season marked a special season for the Rebels. Midland Lee went undefeated and won a national championship that same year. The offense was led by Cedric Benson and coach John Parchmann.