PSJA High gearing up for area round

SAN JUAN - The doubts were something the PSJA High Bears just weren't used to experiencing.

Usually one of the strongest teams in the Rio Grande Valley, the Bears got off to an uncharacteristically slow 0-3 non-district start. There were those who were questioning whether this edition would live up to the standards of PSJA football, a program that annually advances to the area round of the playoffs.

"There was a little feeling of doubt, but once we started winning and competing we started feeling better about ourselves," senior safety Ivan Barrera said.

But coach Mel Rios, who created a challenging non-district slate that included McAllen High, Los Fresnos and McAllen Memorial, knew that his team would learn from that experience and apply that to the rest of the season.

"Losing is not planned but the schedule was planned. We were hoping we could weather the storm," Rios said. "We knew that playing those good teams early were going to help us down the stretch."

Rios was proved right late in the season. With a playoff berth and Tri-Cities championship on the line, the Bears upset District 31-5A champion PSJA North. Then in last week's bi-district game against Brownsville Pace, the Bears eased into the next round with a 24-7 victory.

After what this year's team went through, including injuries and the slow start, made Rios proud of what his Bears accomplished to get to this week's game against Sharyland.

"They showed that they are different than other teams we had," Rios said. "They had that pride that they didn't want to let anybody down."

Now that the Bears are back where they feel they belong, they can look back on what they went through and what they learned from that slow start. They now know that they can excel even if things aren't going as well as planned.

"We learned never to give up on your team. Never to give up and stay strong and stay positive," Barrera said. "(The slow start) had everybody doubt us and now we're putting everybody's doubts down."

But Rios never doubted his team and knew that it would eventually benefit from the early-season struggles. And its success might mean more, especially since the early difficulties.

"To get this team to this point was quite emotional," Rios said.

Brian Sandalow covers high school sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436 or via e-mail at bsandalow@themonitor.com.