BY GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
McAllen High coach Kevin Brewer wants to use the non-district season to make his team tougher, so he’s not interested in scheduling cupcakes.
He wants learning experiences for his group, the type of vigorous tests McHi faces in opening against Odessa Permian, drawing Harlingen High at 7 p.m. tonight in McAllen, and traveling to take on Corpus Christi Carroll next week.
Facing the Cardinals won’t be easy, Brewer said, but it will make his team better.
“It’s going to tell us a lot about where we’re at when we play people like that,” Brewer said. “We’ll evaluate, win or lose, after and see what we need to do better against teams of that caliber to be successful.”
Harlingen High coach Manny Gomez takes a similar approach to the non-district season. With wins and losses irrelevant to playoff seeding, Gomez wants to see if his team can execute and continue to build chemistry. He’s also looking to find useful backups who potentially could fight for spots in the Cardinals rotation.
And to really answer those questions, Gomez needs top-flight competition.
“All day,” Gomez said. “That’s all I know at Harlingen. This thing about playing somebody lesser than you, it gets you nowhere, at least in my eyes.”
Harlingen opened its season with San Antonio Reagan last week, putting on a much more impressive showing than last year’s 42-0 loss. Against squad that was 12-2 in 2014, Harlingen took a 21-7 lead in the second quarter before Reagan stormed back with 35 unanswered.
“That’s really impressive — they had that program on the ropes,” McHi coach Kevin Brewer said. “I’m not surprised. Harlingen is very talented.”
Cardinals running back Leo Tienda picked up 224 yards and three touchdowns, showing big-play ability and a penchant for running inside and on the edges.
Brewer wasn’t shocked to see a newcomer step right in for Harlingen. Year after year, the Cardinals have been able to plug in productive, athletic players, a primary reason the team hasn’t suffered a losing season since 1999.
“It doesn’t seem like they ever have a down year talent wise,” Brewer said. “They just reload consistently.”
Indeed, Gomez said the Valley always expects Harlingen to be a juggernaut — the primary reason he’s struggled to find games during his eight years at the helm.
A former player himself, he understands the tradition that’s been established in the program, and how that continues to perpetuate high-level play year after year. Playing tough games, like tonight’s against McAllen High, is just a piece of the formula.
“That’s one thing we have the upper hand on a lot of programs out here: That mindset has been planted in all of these kids way, way, way back,” Gomez said. “All of our responsibilities now as coaches are to creak the whip here and there, and pull on the reins.”