By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
Maybe Mother Nature has a grudge or something against the Hanna Golden Eagles.
For the second consecutive year, early in the football season, Hanna has had a game shelved due to inclement weather.
Considering the day-long deluge of rain, threat of lightning and even a tornado warning in the Rio Grande Valley, it was decided to forego playing Saturday’s non-district game between Hanna and Donna High, which originally was scheduled for 7 p.m. and then likely to start later at Sams Memorial Stadium.
“There were a lot of things (figuring into the decision),” Hanna coach Rene Medrano said of the cancellation. “We did our best (to try to play).”
One year ago on Sept. 7 at Sams, Hanna played Mission High in a non-district game. The contest was halted at halftime with the game in a scoreless tie. It was called due to lightning, and it wound up not counting on either team’s record.
History repeated itself Saturday, but this time, the Eagles and Redskins didn’t even make it to the field. In fact, Donna’s team never boarded its buses for the trip to Brownsville. The decision to cancel the contest came about 5 p.m., the coaches said.
Donna High coach Ramiro Leal said his superintendent and athletic director instructed him to cancel the game, mainly because of a tornado warning announced in the afternoon for Hidalgo County, plus the delayed start of the earlier game Saturday at Sams, which was between Porter and the Tigres of Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon from Monterrey, Mexico.
“Our game was canceled due to safety reasons,” said Leal, noting his team would have been returning to Donna at a later hour than originally planned and traveling back home at night under the threat of a possible tornado in the Upper Valley. “It was a safety issue.”
Mark Guess, Brownsville ISD athletic director, said the start of Saturday’s Porter-Tigres game was pushed back from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. due to lightning.
“The Porter game was moved back because of lightning only,” Guess said. “Storms kept developing (in the Valley), and then a tornado warning popped up.
“Hanna really wanted to play, but from what I understand, Donna just wanted to cancel,” Guess added. “You never want to travel with kids in buses (and returning home at night) in those kinds of situations.”
Both teams are 1-1. Hanna triumphed 23-14 over Mission High two Fridays ago, while Donna High was edged by Weslaco High 14-13 in its most recent game.
With bye dates ahead for both squads, they each now face the likelihood of going two weeks without a game unless a non-district contest can be hastily arranged for the coming week with another opponent.
Guess said rescheduling the Eagles-Redskins game for the coming week was discussed Saturday, but he added it doesn’t appear very likely to happen.
When asked about having no game during a span of two weeks, Leal said, “There’s good and bad about it. We need to play, but you’d probably have to go out of the Valley (to do it this week on such short notice).”
Leal said the game with Hanna was canceled and wouldn’t be rescheduled.
Medrano said the Eagles will be trying to schedule a non-district game against another opponent for the coming week, but added it would be difficult to do.
“I hope so,” Medrano said. “We’d like to play.”