It took the Veterans Memorial Patriots seven minutes and forty seven seconds to score their first goal of the game against the Mercedes Tigers Tuesday night. It took them only five seconds to score their second. As a result VMHS turned what had been an 11-1 deficit in the closing seconds of the first quarter into a slightly more respectable 11-5 disadvantage as the buzzer signaling the end of the opening period sounded.

Entering the game Tuesday evening, the 4-1 Patriots (19-6 overall) needed a win against the 3-2 Tigers to assure themselves of no worse than a tie for first place in what has become a very competitive District 32-4A hoops race. With Valley View and Roma both sporting identical 4-1 district records before Tuesday’s games, Coach Romeo de la Garza Jr. knew that if his VMHS squad was to remain atop the standings, his boys would have to bounce back from such a slow start. That is exactly what the Patriots did when they used an 18-point fourth quarter to pull ahead of the Tigers to pull off a 43-37 come-from-behind victory.

Read more: Patriots overcome slow start; maintain tie for first place

As a 1975 graduate of Mission High School and as a three-year varsity basketball player for Coach Roy Garcia’s Eagles, Juan Reyna was known among most of his classmates and friends as “La Palma” (the palm tree). Standing at 6’5” tall it was easy to see why he would have been given such an unusual nickname. However, what not many knew was that Reyna received that moniker long before he reached his impressive stature. That’s because it was as a child that Reyna was affectionately called “La Palmita” (little palm tree) after his 6’3” tall father…the original “La Palma”. It was not until many years later that Reyna grew into what became his size appropriate nickname.

Read more: Lady Lobos taking baby steps towards success

In three of his four seasons as the La Joya girls head basketball coach, Daniel Morales has taken the Lady Coyotes to the brink of the playoffs only to miss out on post-season play all three times. Having tied for the fourth and final playoff spot in the district with Donna twice and with Mission once, the Lady Coyotes either lost out on a tiebreaker or failed to win a one-game playoff that would’ve put them into the playoffs for the first time in many years.

Having come so close to the playoffs that they could taste it, only to be left on the outside looking in, has been extremely exasperating for Morales and his girls.

Read more: Young Lady Coyotes have high hopes

At V.F. Neuhaus Gym Tuesday night, Mission High School honored two coaches who both retired last year after having spent 16 years working side by side as the head coach and assistant coach of the Lady Eagles basketball team, Rene G. Garza and Lucy Guerra.

Read more: Mission High honors coaches Garza and Guerra

Lady Patriots’ Briana Casas gets control of a rebound away from the Lady Rattlers’ Monica Salinas. Progress Times photo by Luciano GuerraWith eight seniors on last year’s squad, the 2011-2012 Veterans Memorial High School (VMHS) Lady Patriots were as experienced as they come. Their 16-2 record earned them second place in District 32-4A and a bi-district playoff berth against Corpus Christi Moody. Unfortunately, Moody defeated VMHS 51-47 to bring their senior-packed season to a sudden end.

With so many starters having graduated last year, Lady Patriots’ fans will have lots of new players to cheer for this season. For VMHS Head Girls Basketball Coach, Rafael Cantu Jr., the challenge will be to prepare a mostly young and inexperienced group of girls for varsity level play.

Read more: Lady Patriots prepare for district action

The cold, steady rain that fell at Bobby Lackey Stadium in Weslaco may have been falling on both sides of the field, but by the end of the first quarter it must have felt colder and wetter to the Harlingen Cardinals than to the Sharyland Rattlers.

Sharyland struck hard and often, scoring three unanswered touchdowns in the opening period of the 5A Division 1 area playoff game last Friday evening. As the evening progressed, so did the lopsided score with Coach Ron Adame’s Rattlers hammering the Cardinals with a 42-2 victory.

Read more: Rattlers rain on Cardinals’ parade, advance in playoffs