BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
DONNA — A stroll into morning practice at Bennie La Prade Stadium is a vivid reminder of what Donna High football is all about. High up on the scoreboard reads, “1961 2A State Football Champions.” The precedent had been set. Excellence is the standard.
Ramiro Leal is aware of the standard. Leal has been a coach at various levels in Donna ISD for 28 years and now begins his fifth season as Donna High’s head coach. Leal’s first three seasons were where they were supposed to be. A 21-11 overall record, three playoff appearances and an outright district championship in 2015. The 2016 season did not go exactly as planned for Donna, finishing with a dismal 3-7 record — a full three games out of a playoff spot.
Several factors led beyond Leal’s control led to the 2016 dip. The school split that created a second high school in Donna ISD four years ago played a big role, as well. Injuries forced Leal to improvise like he hadn’t had to before.
“We had a lot of key injuries at key positions,” Leal said. “We lost four running backs. Usually, when you lose that many and you’re based out of the I-formation, it isn’t going to be a good scenario.
“This was the first year in the 29 years that I’ve been here that our varsity players had to learn both sides of the ball. The whole varsity team would practice offense for an hour, then defense for an hour or vice versa. Before, we had our offensive personnel and our defensive personnel separate.”
The decision to have players play on both sides was made going into their game against Edcouch-Elsa on Sept. 30.
“We started switching and repeating in that game, and it worked out during that last part of the year,” Leal said. “We played Edcouch-Elsa in a real tight 14-14 game until halftime. In the second half, we just ran out of gas. Our kids weren’t in shape then to go both directions.”
After losing 53-14 to E-E, the radical change resulted in better football for Donna High. Then-senior safety turned running back Noel Perez ran for 679 yards on 88 carries in the team’s final seven games. Donna won two of their next three games, including their rivalry matchup with Donna North, where Perez ran for 229 yards on the ground.
“We noticed that this was going to give us the best chance to win, and we got two more of them, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still a struggle,” Leal said. “Every game, we had a different tailback. Every game we had to find a new mesh point between our offensive line, quarterback and the running back, but we eventually found one. In hindsight, if we had done that from the beginning, it would have increased our chances of winning by perhaps another game or two here and there.”
Leal returns three starters on the offensive side and four more on the defensive side along with a total of 16 seniors on the roster.
REVIVING THE RUNNING GAME
Not too long ago, Donna High had one of the deepest backfields in Valley football. When they ran through the gamut of district play a perfect 7-0 in 2015, Donna sported a two-headed monster at tailback in the form of Amonte Brown and Edward Dougherty. The two combined to run for 3,022 yards and 35 touchdowns during the 2015 season. The combined 35 touchdowns in 2015 nearly doubles Donna High’s output of just 19 rushing touchdowns a season ago.
After the 2016 backfield was riddled by injuries, the reins in 2017 have been handed to rising senior E.J. Alvarado.
“E.J., who is also a linebacker, spot played at tailback last year, but now he’s our starting tailback going into the year,” Leal said.
“The transition to running back was pretty easy, to be honest,” Alvarado said. “I played running back here during my freshman year and by my sophomore year, they had moved me to linebacker. When they wanted to move me back to running back, I already had an idea of what to do.”
Leal tried his best to ease Alvarado, the leading returner on campus with 233 yards in 2016, into his new role.
“He was part of our running back by committee last year,” Leal said. “We decided we weren’t going to make him start at linebacker and running back until this year. The plan is to spot him with a couple of other guys in the backfield, but he’s our top guy and we hope he takes it from there.”
STEADYING THE LINEBACKER CORE
While Alvarado will spend time on both sides of the football, Leal is counting on junior linebacker Jayp Sandoval to be a constant in the middle of his defense.
“He’s a special kid,” Leal said. “He’s played on varsity since he was a freshman. Jayp is going to be our rock, our leader and is the guy who’s going to get everybody going at that position. He’s going to be catalyst for our entire defense.
Sandoval led his team in tackles as a sophomore, stockpiling 111 stops, 66 of them solo, with eight tackles for a loss.
“The coaches have trusted me and had my back ever since I was a freshman,” Sandoval said. “It feels good to know they have your back.”
DONNA HIGH’S PROGNOSIS
With only three starters returning on offense and four on defense, Donna High will struggle to emerge from near the bottom of the district to qualify for a playoff spot in 2017.
2016 record: 3-7
Returning starters O/D: 3/4
COACH’S TENURE
Coach: Ramiro Leal
Year at school: 5th
Record at school: 24-18