BY NATHANIEL MATA | STAFF WRITER
La Joya Juarez-Lincoln is undefeated still 11 games into District 30-6A play, and has already clinched its third straight district championship with three games to play.
“Three years in a row, it’s not easy and doing it every year with different rosters,” Juarez-Lincoln coach Victor Ramos said. “The kids are playing really well and we don’t have a team, we have a program.”
Ramos, whose teams have reached the regional tournament the past two seasons, said that part of what makes his program almost a machine of high-end talent is integrating young athletes early.
“We have starters that are with us since their freshman year,” Ramos said. “That’s how we’ve made players and we’ve made teams. We constantly have players that are sophomores that practice with us or dedicate a lot of time with the varsity who are J.V. players. We try to expose them to different levels.”
For a majority of those past two seasons, Mission High has been hot on the tail of front-running Juarez-Lincoln. That’s why District 30-6A’s executive committee’s decision to turn five of the Eagles’ district wins into losses sent a wave of ripple effects.
La Joya High head coach Alex Davila said his team, which moves from third to second in the standing, isn’t shifting gears.
“Yeah it bumped us up to second place but it really doesn’t change the mindset, we still had a chance for second place regardless,” Davila said. “Yes, it’s a better standing and a possible favorable playoff opponent but last year we were fourth and we went against first place (San Antonio Southwest) and we had a chance to win, even though we were short starters.”
The Coyotes fell in bi-district to Southwest on penalty kicks. Davila hopes his returners and newcomers can benefit from an improved district when the postseason rolls around by month’s end.
“Every team in our district, even those that are in the bottom of the table across the board have produced close games,” Davila said.
As for the team that catalyzed the late-season drama, Mission High head coach Christos Barouhas said the forfeitures came from an honest mistake rather than cheating to get ahead.
The district executive committee ruled that use of a fifth-year senior was the reason for forfeitures, not using a player with outstanding red cards.
Mission was five points back of Juarez-Lincoln heading into its March 1 matchup that was another closely contested victory for the Huskies. After the decision and the defeat, the Eagles were eight points behind PSJA North (16 points) for the fourth and final playoff position.
The Eagles are already making their push to reach the playoffs from their unfavorable position. After taking down PSJA North on Tuesday Mission is up to 11 points with the playoff line still at 16 points.
“The rest of the games, the last two or three games are going to be competitive,” Barouhas said. “It’s going to be a championship for us. Everyone is having a good attitude about it. They are supporters of me too. We’re all together in it, we’ll do our best to make it all the way to the last game.”
Prior to the reversal, the Eagles were 6-2-1 in district play with 33 goals scored and 17 against.
Donna North wins district in first 6A season
Donna North head coach Andres Sanchez and his team were on the bus after their 10-1 win over Weslaco High when results from the district reached their cell phones.
Thanks to Edinburg High’s 3-1 win over Economedes on Tuesday, the Chiefs were home free as 31-6A champions in their first season after UIL realignment bumped them up to the state highest classification.
“It was amazing for them because they’ve been working for this,” Sanchez said. “It’s not something that just happened. Every day we remind them to do the little things so that we can get to celebrate things like that.”
After spending the last two season in the gauntlet of 32-5A with the likes of Brownsville Pace, Porter, and Lopez the Chiefs are a chiseled unit.
“It was a very strong district, some people say it was one of the top districts in the state,” Sanchez said. “I remember when we were playing with those schools every game was like a final. It was a playoff game, it was to stay alive for the playoffs.”