KEVIN NARRO | Staff Writer
After their loss Friday night to Hearne in the Region IV-2A tournament, San Perlita’s historic season came to an end.
But at the same time, the standard was set by its senior class.
The Trojan 5 — Noah Olivarez, Julian Herrera, Bryan Herrera, Parker Willis and Frank Rincon — will graduate this spring, but it has left its mark on Trojans basketball.
“We have definitely set the standard for the underclassmen,” Olivarez said. “Next year they are going to do great things.”
The senior group not only got past the third-round hump and made the regional tournament for the first time since the 1996-97 season, but it also set a career high in wins in a season with 28, which also is a career high for fourth-year coach Nataniel Garza.
The main message the seniors gave to the underclassmen was to keep the same work ethic and to keep the winning tradition going.
“As seniors we just told them to keep working and the bar is set for our program and we want to keep that going,” Bryan Herrera said.
While their relationships have been lifelong, the only high school coach this group of seniors has known has been Garza.
During the final minutes of the fourth quarter, Julian Herrera fouled out and shared one final moment on the court with him.
“I just told him I’m going to miss him.” Garza said.
Looking back at his career, Julian Herrera owes to his junior year when the team came together and started working as a family.
“We lost some pieces last year, but this year we added some really good guys and we all worked hard together to get where we are at today.”
Going forward, the future is bright for the Trojans. While the Trojans are in Class 2A, they have proven themselves as one of the top programs in the Rio Grande Valley with fellow small school Santa Rosa, which has paved the way for Valley basketball.
“I told the kids this was an amazing season, we had so much fun doing it, Garza said. “As an entire body of work it was an amazing season, and I’m proud of every single one of them.”