BY JON R. LAFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
The La Joya Palmview Lady Lobos look like they mean business. Often outfitted in charcoal black uniforms accentuated by blood-red embroidery, the minimalist color scheme comes across as menacing — as if they’re dressed for a funeral.
“Maybe not our funeral, but the opponents’,” assistant coach Ciro Gonzalez said with a laugh.
Despite the humor, such a comment cuts to the heart of what has occurred during the past two seasons at Palmview. A team bereft of confidence now knows it can hold its own. Players once mocked are now respected. A program seemingly relegated as a doormat is playoff-bound for the first time in its history.
“Coach said our goal was the make the playoffs,” junior Samantha Gutierrez said. “At first, I didn’t think we could do it. We’re Palmview. No one expects anything from us.”
The coach in question, and the catalyst for the team’s reinvention, is Anisa Reyna, a La Joya native who has coached at all three La Joya ISD schools. She was an assistant at La Joya High — where she also played guard — before becoming head coach at Juarez-Lincoln in 2008. There, she took an upstart program to the playoffs in three years’ time. She moved to Palmview in 2013.
“My staff and I knew coming (to Palmview) that there was potential, and it hadn’t even been looked at,” Reyna said. “We just looked at (the team) and thought there was a lot to be done here.”
Gutierrez, a southpaw point guard who is as shy off the court as she is potent during game time, was hesitant about the new coach.
“Honestly, I didn’t like the idea of her coming here because I didn’t know her and I’d gotten used to my old coach,” Gutierrez said. “And now, I look back and I regret saying that, because she made a big difference in our program. If it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t be where we’re at today.”
The first task on Reyna’s agenda was conditioning players to a new offense. Where the prior regime employed a methodical half-court set, Reyna and her staff wanted a high-speed transition game to push the pace. It was a change few Lady Lobos were physically ready for.
“There was a lot of huffing and puffing,” guard Monica Noyola said.
Noyola, who attends Jimmy Carter Early College High School, is one of three seniors on the team and has played varsity ball since her freshman year. She says some of the biggest changes since Reyna’s hiring have been highly specialized practices aimed at improving basketball IQ. More important than hoops know-how, however, has been Reyna’s unwavering belief in her kids.
“She makes us think we’re better than what we assume we are,” Noyola said. “They always push us to do better and to do more than we think we can.”
Confidence was an intangible Noyola’s game lacked a season ago. Every member of Palmview’s coaching staff describes her junior campaign as one marred by inconsistencies and scattershot playing time.
“(Monica) took a backseat role last year,” assistant coach Victor Aguilar said. “It hurt us. It hurt our chances last year. We called her out. I was like, ‘I’m you’re biggest supporter. I know you have it, you just have to bring it.’”
But where Noyola was once timid, she’s now a crucial part to the Lady Lobos offense. She averages 12 points per game, the second highest on the team, and can often be seen sprinting down the court alongside her teammates.
“I told myself, ‘You’re going to be a senior, you’re going to be a leader for these girls,’” Noyola said. “Because I’m going to be the oldest one, I have to put the team before myself. Mentally checking out is not going to help anyone.”
Another surprise has been the exponential improvement of Gutierrez, who averages 15.9 points and is among the Valley’s most prolific scorers.
“It came out of nowhere,” Aguilar said. “No one expected it.”
But to pigeonhole Palmview as a two-person team would be a false representation. The Lady Lobos have one of the most even rosters in the Valley. Along with the perimeter play of Gutierrez and Noyola, the team possesses interior size in freshman Cyndar Magallon and junior Martha Bocanegra, who combine to average 17 rebounds per game. Palmview will take that balanced attack into the bi-district round as they play Del Rio on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Martin High School in Laredo.
“This week’s practice has been a little more quiet and focused,” Reyna said. “We weren’t doing that towards the end of the season. I don’t think they understood the magnitude of their accomplishment.”
That accomplishment has been one of earned respect and legitimization. Opponents are now aware of Lady Lobos basketball, but so are once-jaded La Joya students.
“My freshman year, all the kids at school would ask if we won,” Noyola said. “And they’d be like, ‘Oh, of course not. You’re from Palmview.’ This year they’d ask if we won and I’d say, ‘Yes. We beat McAllen High. We beat (McAllen) Memorial.’ People are surprised when we lose now. We put our school on the map.”
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