BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
The Mission Veterans Patriots haven’t had a place to truly call home during the 2017 football season. Renovations to Mission CISD’s Tom Landry Stadium ran longer than originally thought, successfully shutting out Mission High and Mission Veterans from playing any home games this year.
The Patriots competed in eight different venues in eight different cities. They’ve played in McAllen, Donna, La Joya, Roma, Hidalgo, Mission, Mercedes and Rio Grande City thus far. Changing stadiums doesn’t seem to have affected the Patriots (8-0, 5-0), who look forward to their “home finale” at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Valley View ISD Stadium in Hidalgo against Sharyland High.
“First and foremost, we don’t concern ourselves with things that we can’t control,” Mission Veterans coach David Gilpin said. “There’s nothing I can do, there’s nothing our coaches can do, and nothing our players can do about it. We could sit around and cry and moan about it, or we could take the attitude of, ‘Whatever we got to do, we got to do.’ And that’s what we’ve done.”
Gilpin said his players don’t even ask about where they’ll be playing anymore.
“We let them know where we’re going to play like we did on Monday afternoon. They take it with a grain of salt and we move on from there,” Gilpin said. “We’ve been pretty much oblivious to it (stadium renovations). Obviously, we keep an eye on things and our ears open. We’ve been hopeful all year, but things haven’t fallen that way.”
In Week 11, Mission Veterans will conclude its regular season by traveling back to Valley View ISD Stadium in Hidalgo to clash with Valley View. Kickoff of the Patriots’ season finale will be 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 10.