Big 7 Football comes to an end

The 2023-24 Big 7 football season has come to an end after months of preparation, practice, and competition. All Big 7 football teams experienced their fair share of ups and downs this season. The excitement for this season was fulfilled by those heartbreaking losses and those blood rushing wins. For that, I thank the coaches and players who fought hard this season to make it the best one they could.

District 16-5A

The Veterans Memorial Patriots and Pioneer Diamondbacks both finished the season with a district championship. The Patriots and the Diamondbacks shared the District 16-5A II championship with the Roma Gladiators. This three-way tie was made possible by a Patriots’ 38-35 win over the Gladiators in the last game of district play.

The Patriots improved from their previous season’s overall record of 5-6 to 7-5. After starting the season 1-3, the Patriots were determined to flip a switch. Head coach David Gilpin told me, “After the game, I faced my team, we’re 1-3 and we just faced a tough schedule that we knew going in. I go in and I tell them that we’re fixing to go win the next seven football games. We had a lot of really good things happen in all three of those games. We felt about who we were and what we had lined up.”

The Patriots went on to win six out of the next seven games. Their final district win against the Roma Gladiators set them up for a tri District 16-5A II championship. “We won a gold ball. We measure our program by championships. A championship team defines success, which is what we preach in our program. We’re here to win championships. We got a gold ball. Nobody can take that away,” Gilpin said.

A playoff win against the Valley View Tigers made for a second gold ball on the year. Gilpin went on to say, “Now we got two gold balls. From a team that was down and out after San Benito, from a team that was down and out after Pioneer, all of a sudden we have two gold balls in this trophy case that you can see way after I’m gone. Nobody will take away from what this team earned. The pride that I have in this football team was that I knew we were a good team the whole year. I knew we were capable of accomplishing great things, and though we had to go through a tough early part, we just continued to never give into what was going on. I’m extremely proud of this football team and the coaching staff because those guys coached their guts out all year long.”

The Patriots season ended after a 38-6 loss to the San Antonio Pieper Warriors in the Area round of the playoffs. Patriots quarterback Braden Luedeker passed for 3,491 yards, 36 touchdowns and rushed for 1,345 yards, 15 touchdowns in his senior season. Luedeker was one part of the Tri-District MVP. The district’s defensive player of the year was junior linebacker Aiden Uribe, who posted 165 total tackles, three sacks, and an interception on the season. Congratulations to the Patriots on bringing two gold balls back to Mission and on a great season.

The Diamondbacks (10-2) improved from their previous season’s overall record of 7-4. After starting the season off on a six game win streak, the Diamondbacks were met with their first loss at the hands of the Roma Gladiators. The Diamondbacks shook off the loss and won the remainder of their games. The Diamondbacks season ended after a 62-35 loss to the Liberty Hill Panthers in the Area round of the playoffs.

This season saw an explosion of offense from senior quarterback Julian Valdez and sophomore running back Dylan Tijerina. Valdez passed for 2,652 yards and 32 touchdowns and rushed for 1,005 yards and 17 touchdowns in his senior season. Valdez makes up another third of that distinct MVP. Tijerina started off slow but came through for the Diamondbacks when they needed it the most. He rushed for 1,388 yards and a monster 22 touchdowns in his sophomore season.

The Diamondbacks’ young defense allowed 29.3 points per game to opposing teams. Junior linebackers Marcos Rauda and Jaykob Mendez and junior defensive backs Andrew Rivera and Angel Villanueva combined for 318 total tackles, seven interceptions and five sacks on the season. This team was able to bring a district championship to Sharyland due to the efforts of these players and many more, as well as head coach Eddie Galindo. Congratulations to the Pioneer Diamondbacks on a great season.

The Sharyland Rattlers finished their season with an overall 3-7 record. The Rattlers took a step back from their previous season, but they did face a number of injuries throughout the season. Rattlers’ quarterback Bo Krell passed the ball for 1,287 yards and 11 touchdowns in his senior season. The Rattlers look to improve on that record next year with junior running back Santiago Longoria, who was named to the all-district first team.

District 15-5A

The Palmview Lobos finished their season with an overall 3-7 record. The Lobos took a step back from their 7-3 record from the year prior. The Lobos averaged about 13 points per game of offense while giving up 31 points per game on defense. A turnaround for the Lobos would be ideal in the next season with this young group.

The Juarez Lincoln Huskies finished the season with an overall 0-10 record; once again a winless season. The upside is that this team is still young, as are many of the La Joya school district teams. There’s still a lot to teach and a lot to learn for this team and for the other teams in the school district.

District 31-6A

The Mission Eagles were able to clinch a playoff berth this season as they finished in fourth place with an overall 4-7 record. Junior quarterback Diego Salinas passed for 1,916 yards and 18 touchdowns, and rushed for 795 yards and 8 touchdowns. Running back Thomas Aparicio rushed for 1,189 yards and 15 touchdowns this season. This junior duo is going to play a massive role in this team’s success next year.

 

The La Joya Coyotes finished this season with an overall 0-10 record. This team, though winless, played a tough brand of football. The Coyotes finished with nearly 100 points on the season while they gave up about 400 points to opposing teams. The Coyotes are still a work in progress but with time we will see them get better. Sometimes a loss can teach more than a win can and the Coyotes have a lot to learn from this season.

Some teams could say they experienced more success than failure. To that I say: You cannot succeed without experiencing failure. Another season is to come for our teams and only then can we truly see who is going to come out on top. Congratulations to all of our Big 7 football teams on playing the absolute hardest and making us here at Progress Times very proud.