By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
With a little more than one month until district competition, the Brownsville schools get the chance to battle for annual bragging rights.
The Brownsville City Championship track & field meet begins at noon today at Sams Memorial Stadium.
The Rivera boys and Brownsville Veterans Memorial girls took the team titles last year.
“It’s an important meet for the pride of Brownsville,” Hanna coach Armando Rocha said. “It’s also the midseason point where you want to be shining going up to the Meet of Champions (March 27-28) and see the best of best from the Valley up there.”
The one-day event commences with the boys competing in the field events, starting with the discus event, as the girls begin running events in the 3,200-meter run. The only exception is that the boys run in the 3,200 run following the girls event.
Following a 45-minute break, the girls will compete in field events, beginning with the long jump, and the boys start the running events with the 400 relay.
Teams like St. Joseph are eager to see what their full squads can do.
“We’re looking at this as our first time trials,” St. Joseph coach Meme Garza said. “We’ve got all our kids back from soccer and basketball, so we’ll be a little bit rusty but we’ll be there.”
Pace coach Sergio Sandoval is excited with a young team and eager to see what the girls squad can do with the basketball players joining recently after their season finished.
“Most of them are sophomores with experience in varsity,” he said. “After what I saw the last meet, I feel like we’re going to do a good job (today). For the girls, it’s going to be my first test to see where we are.”
Though each of the Brownsville schools wants to do well, each coach will use the meet as a litmus test for later success.
“It’s a measuring stick to see where we land, where we’re at and what we need to improve on,” Rocha said. “Alex Herrera just came off basketball season, he’s my high jumper. I’m excited to see how he does.”
The meet is held earlier in the season than it was in the past, but it doesn’t mean the competition won’t be fierce among the competitors.
“Since it’s early in the season, a lot of kids are putting on a pair of shorts and spikes for the first time. It’s more like a fast workout,” Garza said. “We’re excited, and the kids are excited. And when the gun goes off, they’re going to compete.”
Teams will also use the meet to prepare for district. The District 32-6A meet is April 15 and 16 in Los Fresnos and the District 32-5A meet is April 16 and 18 in Donna.
The Vikings, who will compete in 32-5A, will face many different teams this season. And the city meet will provide several tradition-rich programs to compete against.
“It’s going to be a good test to run against bigger teams from Brownsville,” Sandoval said. “Facing these teams is going to give us confidence for district.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @andrewmcrum.