WESLACO — The Weslaco East Wildcats have been one of very few teams in South Texas to play in three different levels of classifications.
East started out as a Class 4A team in 2004 and made the jump to 5A in 2012.
In 2014, the Wildcats moved up to the 6A ranks and stayed there until 2020, when they dropped back down to Class 5A.
Lucky for the Wildcats, they had some success at both the 5A and 6A levels.
“We won a few district titles both at the 5A and the 6A level which is a big accomplishment,” Wildcats head coach Mike Burget said.
East is among four teams in District 16-5A Division I trailing first-place McAllen Memorial (3-0 in district) and McAllen Rowe (3-0).
Two of those four 2-1 teams — Brownsville Pace and Weslaco East — square off against one another at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Bobby Lackey Stadium.
“There is no doubt that our district is one of the toughest in the Valley and has some quality teams in it,” Burget said.
The Wildcats come into this game still looking to gain experience in some key spots as they have played only three games in the 2021 season.
“We have started off a little slow due to the fact that we had no scrimmage games and our season opener against Weslaco High was cancelled to a health issue,” Burget said. “So, in reality, Donna High was our first game and non-district game. Then we opened district play against Brownsville Veterans and Porter.”
“With only playing three games so far, we have really had to learn on the run while getting a bunch of our new guys on the offensive line, our running backs, and linebackers up to speed. But I will say this: the kids have caught on and we are starting to play good football.”
The Wildcats are coming off a big 17-7 win over Porter and played well on both sides of the ball. They had 272 yards of total offense with 223 coming by way of the running game.
Defensively, East held Porter to 172 total yards and forced two turnovers.
As for Pace, it suffered its first district loss at the hands of Rowe, 49-21. Pace’s defense had a hard time stopping Rowe quarterback Mateo Llanes, who had five touchdowns and threw for 445 yards.
Even though Pace is coming off a loss, Burget knows his team cannot take them lightly.
“Pace is a good ballclub and is very well coached,” he said. “They have some good athletes and we cannot overlook them.”
“We need to go out there and play East football.”