BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
McALLEN — Early in her career, shooting guard Jovanni Solis was part of McAllen Rowe teams that piled up victories by the bowlful.
As a reserve, Solis participated in the Warriors’ climb to a district championship during her freshman year, then witnessed another district title as a sophomore. Catching Rowe on an off night was seldom, as the team posted a 22-2 district record from 2014-16.
“When I was with those back-to-back district championship teams, it was kind of easy,” Solis said. “There were older girls on the team, so everyone had their own role, and there wasn’t that much pressure. It was fun.”
Then the core of the program’s success graduated. Solis was one of the few left who had to pick up the pieces and build up a winner again.
“Since last year, it’s gotten a lot more serious,” Solis said. “Everyone was new to the varsity level, so they were getting used to it. It’s a different pace, and everybody was trying to learn how to play in it. You have to go out there hard every time and make sure you’re all doing well as a team.”
“As a head coach for 20 years now, there’s a constant reevaluation of the program,” McAllen Rowe coach Raul Vega said. “You have to change some things from year to year, even though we have the same team we had last year. We can throw in a wrinkle here and there now, whereas last year was a matter of getting the girls experience. The hardest part of winning is learning how to win.”
While the Warriors earned the fourth and final playoff spot last season, Solis’ offensive output has been on a steady incline. Solis is averaging 19.3 points per game this season, which is good for second among players in the Upper Valley.
“Taking on a bigger role hasn’t been that hard, because my teammates have made it easy for me by getting in open spots,” Solis said. “There’s no pressure whenever I attack. I know they’re going to be open, so I know I won’t get stuck.”
Scoring isn’t the only area of improvement Vega has seen from Solis.
“Believe it or not, I think she’s one of the best defensive players I’ve ever coached,” Vega said. “Her first two years, because of the team we had, we played a lot of man defense. She learned those concepts extremely well. She’s got the length and the quickness. This year, we’ve gone to a zone. Her knowing those man-to-man concepts so well has helped her guarding in a zone. She’s got a great nose for the ball.”
“Defense is the one thing you can control,” Solis said. “You can have a bad game on offense, but everyone can play good defense. You have to go hard every time. There’s no excuse to play bad defense. Even if we have a bad offensive game, Coach cares about us putting in effort on defense.”
Solis’ mom and dad have always supported her and kept her grounded throughout her four seasons at Rowe.
“My parents go to almost every one of my games,” Solis said. “My mom especially. She needs to be there, because she wants to be there. She likes to be supportive. She’s even taken days off work whenever we’ve had all-day tournaments. If she can be there, she’ll be there.”
“She’s got a great set of parents,” Vega said. “If you listen to them from the stands during a game, it’s easy to accept that her dad knows the game. He’s not yelling random stuff. He’s actually sending out some pretty good pointers to everyone out on the court. Sometimes, we’ll have a small crowd and he’ll yell out, ‘Go over the screen,’ or ‘Cut to the basket.’ I’ll acknowledge it by turning around and giving him a smile. You have to acknowledge it when someone knows the game.”
Once again, the Warriors (9-19) are in the hunt for a playoff spot. They currently sit in a three-way tie for third place in District 30-6A with McAllen High and La Joya Juarez-Lincoln. All three teams are at the 3-3 mark halfway through district play.
Solis doesn’t have any personal goals to meet between now and the end of the season. She wants another shot in the playoffs.
“Making the playoffs are our main goal,” Solis said. “We have to take it one game at a time and make sure we do what we’re supposed to.”