BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
ALAMO — Coming into this season, PSJA Memorial senior Alex Soto hadn’t won a district game since her freshman year. Even during her freshman year, the team finished at the bottom of the standings.
The program has never been to the playoffs.
Coach Marisa Gutierrez came on board in August 2015. Right away, the feeling around the team started to change.
Last year, the Wolverines showed growth and seemed ready to break out. But the road to success was a bumpy one.
Junior point guard Monique De Leon has been homeless at different points in her life. Her father is incarcerated. But De Leon is a fighter.
“Growing up, my sport was not basketball,” De Leon said. “I didn’t even like basketball. My sport was boxing. I love to fight. That’s just me. I love fighting.”
But the last two years, she has had a different kind of fight. She had to fight to clean up her act and keep her place on Gutierrez’s team.
“I’m a troubled kid,” De Leon said. “I’m not going to lie, I’m a troubled kid. I would always do wrong.”
But, with the help of her teammates and Gutierrez, De Leon changed her ways. Her focus shifted to school and basketball. Now, she is a shining example of how athletics can help a person find happiness.
“I feel like, for my age, I’ve been through a lot of things and I’ve seen a lot of things,” De Leon said. “So, I know how to control it, on the court. All my anger, everything that happens, it comes out on the court. I feel like that’s where I’m at my happiest.”
Just as that hurdle was being overcome, the team suffered a serious blow.
Over the summer, junior Kayla Aguiano was diagnosed with Acute Lymphatic Leukemia. She is close to most of the players on the team, and they immediately supported her and helped her any way they could.
She was an important piece to the team not only in the locker room, but on the court, as well.
“The girls would call her our tanque, like tank,” Gutierrez said. “She was always driving hard to the basket, and just solid. She was probably the strongest person on our team, not just physically, but mentally as well. That was kind of hard to lose. We had to change it around a bit.”
The team rallied around Kayla. They dedicated this season to her and pray for her before every game.
“I love to see that,” Aguiano said. “It touches my heart, and it makes me emotional.”
Aguiano says she’s only missed about three games this year. She most enjoyed the first district game.
The Wolverines drew PSJA North to open their district schedule, winning 38-34.
“That was really exciting because that was the team that we always said we have to beat them,” Aguiano said. “And when we did, we all cried.”
The wins didn’t stop there. Memorial swept that season series, as well as the series with Edinburg North and Edinburg Economedes. They finished the season 22-14, 10-4 in District 31-6A.
Aguiano said it was tough to have to watch from the sidelines rather than being the one playing.
“It was hard because, at the end of sophomore year, I had been saying, ‘Junior year was going to be our year,’” Aguiano said. “And, well, it was. So it’s really hard, because I’m really close to them. But seeing them make the playoffs makes me super happy.”
And the team has been doing it for Aguiano every step of the way.
“We had to remember our purpose, and what we go out there for,” De Leon said. “We don’t just go out there to play, we go out there, and we play for Kayla. Because she can’t do it, we are going to do it for her. We just can’t take any second of the game for granted.”
Good news came for Aguinao on Monday. Her doctors cleared her to return to full basketball workouts, a big step in her journey toward full health. Aguiano is determined to rejoin her team and take her spot on the court next season.
For Soto, this season is the culmination of a career filled with hard work and disappointment. She was on the bad end of a lot of losses throughout her career, but she never quit. She never stopped loving the game. She remembers her first hoop, a small plastic one. She credits her father for pushing her to keep playing.
“He just tells me to keep shooting,” Soto said. “‘Even Stephen Curry has an 0-13 game,’ he tells me. He’s always been there. He’s always been there to push me and to keep me going.”
The Wolverines have a chance to reach yet another milestone tonight. They travel to Harlingen High at 7 for the chance to get PSJA Memorial’s first ever playoff win.
“It would be very exciting,” De Leon said. “We have worked hard day in and day out. Everything we have been working on is for the playoffs.”