BY JON R. LaFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
PHARR — While the band room at PSJA High usually houses the sound of brass and percussion, Wednesday it contained applause for a pair of senior athletes who signed their national letters of intent.
Valerie Mancha and Angel Montanez will attend UTRGV this fall and compete in track and cross country, respectively.
“I’m nervous but excited at the same time,” Mancha said. “I’m ready to continue running at the next level.”
Mancha, a multi-sport athlete, leaves the PSJA track program having left a mark. On Feb. 21, she set a new school record in the 100-meter dash at the Indian Nation Relays at Bennie La Prade Stadium in Donna with a time of 11.98 seconds. The previous record of 12.03 was set in 1989.
“It’s hard because you never know how you actually did,” Mancha said of attempting to break the record. “You never know if you were slower. Sometimes you think you ran fast when you really didn’t. I always just went all out hoping to hit that time. I haven’t thought of a new time to hit in college, but I know I want to do better.”
Mancha says she wants to study biology with a focus on medicine. When she graduates, she’ll also receive her associate degree in math from South Texas College. For competing in track, she’ll receive a four-year scholarship at UTRGV which will play for the bulk of her tuition.
“She really didn’t want to go anywhere else,” track coach Rob Robledo said. “UTRGV was her first and only choice. She’s very close to her family, she thought that was important. That’s where we focused all of our attention, and it worked out.”
Mancha has been running since middle school, and realized from a young age her talents could carry her to the collegiate level.
“In middle school, I was better than the group I was with,” she said. “Then in high school I competed on varsity track my freshman year, and I won district champ my freshman year in all my events. From there, I kept working hard towards college and wanted to continue running.”
While Mancha envisioned herself competing at the next level, Montanez didn’t think about collegiate running until recently.
“I didn’t see myself doing (running) in college,” Montanez said. “I thought I was good, but it wasn’t something that crossed my mind. I’ve come up as an underdog, and now I’m here.”
Cross country coach Adolfo Anaya echoes Montanez’s self-assessment.
“If you would have told me his freshman year that he would have gone to the next level, I probably wouldn’t believe you,” he said. “His freshman year, he didn’t know anything about running. To see the growth from his freshman year to his senior year is incredible.”
Montanez says he began upping his intensity last summer after seeing other competitors he used to out-run get the better of him. The hard work paid off in the form of his first trip to the state cross country meet in Round Rock.
“It was an awesome experience,” Montanez said. “I had never been and that was my dream since my senior year.”
Montanez says he wants to study criminal justice and get accepted into the police academy, and that UTRGV was always his first choice given the school’s proximity to family.
“The way he put in the hard work and the dedication, that’s the way it’s done,” Anaya said. “That’s the way you do it. You just can’t expect to show up to a track meet and expect to win. It doesn’t work that way. He wanted to be good. He wanted to be able to go to the next level.”