When Alex Del Barrio was in high school he played basketball for the Mission Eagles. By his own admission he was no superstar although he was enthusiastic about sports and certainly committed.

“I wasn’t the best player but I was there and never missed practice,” said Del Barrio. “When I was a junior I broke my teeth diving for a ball. The specialist didn’t want me to play. The varsity team needed someone to announce the starting lineups for the games so I offered to do it. Afterwards the coach asked me to do it for all the rest of the games because I enjoyed it so much.”

Read more: Mission man to tour with Harlem Globetrotters

Most brothers spend their young adult years butting heads, forging their identities and their personal views often by contradiction to each other if not outright conflict. However, Sharyland varsity basketball starters, Joaquin and Jesse Pistokache, are a different breed of brother altogether.

Joaquin “Quino” Pistokache blazed the trail. Quino, the 6’2, 190 pound elder Pistokache, is a senior and a fourth-year starter on the Sharyland varsity basketball team. Quino, as older brothers often are, is a natural leader. In his second year as team Captain, Quino is the vocal leader of the team. Spend just a few minutes watching the Rattlers play and that much is obvious. Quino can be seen exhorting his teammates when they’re down and admonishing them when they’re wrong. But he can also be counted on to congratulate them when they succeed. However, lest you think Quino is merely a figurehead, he has also led the Rattlers in scoring for the past two seasons. Quino also leads the team in offseason workouts.

Read more: Sharyland team features brothers in the backcourt

Now that all the preliminaries are out of the way, girls high school basketball has kicked into high gear as district play commences. Last Tuesday, in their first district game, the Mission Veterans Lady Patriots started strong with an impressive 29-50 win over Brownsville Veterans.

For Head Coach Rafael Cantu, this first win is just the latest in a season that has him fired up.

“I’m excited about this season and this team,” said Cantu. “We have a large returning group and that experience has helped us in a few games. We’re winning games at the end and holding leads. We’re making plays at the end of games that we need to make.”

Against the Brownsville Veterans Chargers, Cantu’s team certainly seemed the more comfortable team on the floor.

Read more: Lady Patriots win first district game

It is often said that basketball is the roughest non-contact sport there is. You’d be hard-pressed to disagree if you happened to witness the 32-minute scrum in La Joya between the Coyotes and the Edinburg Bobcats Tuesday night.

When the dust had settled and the bodies had picked themselves off the floor for the last time it was Edinburg that came out on top 68-63.

The game began sloppy. Both Edinburg and La Joya fumbled at passes, double-dribbling and fouling their way up and down the court. La Joya’s Alex Alaniz early on seemed to be the only player on the court who could find the net as he put the Coyotes first and last points on the board with mid-range jumpers. At the end of the first quarter, La Joya found themselves ahead by four with a score of 9-13.

The Coyotes seemed intent on not giving up their slim margin as they came out in the second quarter in a full court press that frustrated the Bobcats. However, the frantic press seemed to also inadvertently make the Coyotes manic on offense as well.

Read more: La Joya drops close one against Edinburg

Four years ago Juarez-Lincoln cross country runner  Emily Perez was like any other freshman athlete. Before cross country meets she was nervous, unsure, intimidated and all, apparently, completely without reason. Last weekend, at the UIL state cross country meet at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock, Perez took the silver prize capping a career almost unheard of for a Valley athlete in any sport as she has qualified for state competition four years in a row. Last weekend, she showed once and for all her fears were unfounded.

“My freshman year I was intimidated a lot,” said Perez. “In every race, big or small I was nervous. This year, mentally I’m strong. I have a shot of making the national and my freshman year I would have thought it was impossible.”

Even as recently as last year Perez may have thought making nationals was improbable as she finished fifth in state competition. However, this year is proving to be the breakout culmination of a running career whose accomplishment has extended beyond just its own success.

Read more: Perez adds silver medal to her remarkable running resume

On south Texas ranchland, when a longhorn and a rattlesnake cross paths it usually results in a fight to the death. At Laredo’s Student Activity Center (the SAC) Friday night, it was a fight to the gridiron death as the Laredo United Longhorns’ and the Sharyland Rattlers’ paths crossed in the first round of the Class 5-A Division 1 playoffs. The winner earning the right to move on to the next round of the state playoffs  and the loser having their otherwise successful season come to a much too sudden end.

In what turned out to be an unusually cool evening in Bordertown Laredo, it didn’t take the Longhorns long to get their vaunted offense on track once they received the opening kickoff. With 3,000 yard passer Alec Salas at quarterback, they methodically drove the ball 80 yards down the field on their very first possession.  Running back Derek Esparza capped off the Longhorn drive when he scored his first touchdown of the game and quickly gave the Longhorns a 7 – 0 lead.

Read more: Laredo United closes the season on Sharyland