Jesus Sanchez | The Brownsville Herald
Trust and accountability were the main focuses for the Cowboys this week as they began football practice and their road to redemption from last year’s 0-10 season.
“ I think we just reached that throughout all summer and spring long, talking about trusting one another and holding each other accountable,” said Carlos Uresti, Porter’s head coach and athletic coordinator. “The kids have really followed that up to now.”
Uresti, who previously served as the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator for four seasons, said he and team are excited and ready to start practicing again.
“ I think both the coaches and the kids are ready to come back to work,” he said. “We put a lot of time in the offseason and in the summer.”
This time around, during his second year at the helm, Uresti and the Cowboys will emphasize some of the same fundamentals as before.
“ I’m fortunate to have the same offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator coming back,” the coach said. “So, (we’re) really just retooling and adding a couple of wrinkles to both our offense and defense, but for the most part, are base defense and offense are already in.”
The Cowboys were ready to work hard once practice began on Monday. The young team is using last season’s results as motivation to better itself and prove it has what it takes to be a top contender.
“ Team’s looking good,” Cowboys tight end Manuel Sandoval said during Wednesday’s practice. “We’re all just hoping to make this season one to remember. For a lot of us, we’ve been through this program for three years; this is our third year on varsity, so we’re really hoping to go out and (prove) to everyone that we deserve to be here.”
Sandoval said he and some fellow players know they are looked up to by newcomers as veterans and act accordingly.
“ We try to help them out as much as we can,” the senior said. “There’s so many young guys that we got. Our quarterback, last year, he stepped up. We needed him to step up from freshmen to varsity and he did amazing for us. This year, we expect nothing but better things to come.”
Sophomore quarterback Kevin Garcia said, with a year of experience under his belt, he is ready to put last season’s winless record behind him.
“ The entire summer, I’ve been waiting for this season because this season is looking way better than any of our other seasons,” Garcia said. “Our skill players, our linemen, our defense is improving big time compared to last year. Yes, last year we went 0-10 but we want to come back for redemption. We want to come to prove that even though, yes, we’re from Porter, yes, we’re sophomores, that we could compete with the big dogs any day. That’s what we’re here to prove.”
To help improve each other’s game, the Cowboys have set a “brotherly” like atmosphere in each of their practices. That is the mentality they hope to carry out throughout the season as well.
“ Right now, practice is looking good,” Garcia said. “We’re all into it. We get excited every day. If there’s a good play, we all get hyped. If there’s a bad play, we cheer each other up. Right now, we’re trying to have a friendly atmosphere, very ‘good-teammate’ atmosphere to bring everyone up, especially freshmen, trying to motivate them.”
Sandoval said he hopes to make his last season as a Porter Cowboy one to remember.
“ The past couple of seasons haven’t been, what you can say, our best seasons where we can say, ‘We’ve shown all that we could do,’” he said. “I’m just really hoping that all my team, including myself, are able to prove that … those past two years, they didn’t reflect who we are and this year, we’re hoping to prove everybody who’s counted us out wrong.”
Sandoval said both coaches and players are ready to take on the challenges the upcoming season will throw at them and to showcase what the Cowboys can do.
“ Be ready for Porter this year,” Sandoval said. “We’re going to make some noise.”