(Photo by T.J. Tijerina)
By PETE BANDA
Special to the NEWS
It’s a bittersweet time in Greyhound country as one door closing leads to the optimistic opening of another.
The football team saw its season come to a difficult end last week in Corpus Christi, with a senior class walking off the field for the final time. Just one week later, a handful of those gridiron stars will be hitting the court to help the San Benito basketball team as they attempt to recreate last year’s historic campaign.
“San Benito is clearly a football school, and that’s something that was understood when I took the job here,” said Greyhound Head Basketball Coach Luis Garza, who is entering his third year running the program. “The best athletes here mostly prioritize football, but we won’t be as heavily reliant on football athletes as we have been in the past. Peter Jackson is the only starter coming from football and he just had surgery so I’m not sure when we’ll get him back. We lost some really talented seniors last year, but this program is trending in the right direction and I’m excited to see what we can accomplish this season.”
Last season, in just his second year in Purple and Gold, Garza led San Benito to its first district championship in over 60 years. While the ’Hounds ended the season winning 12 of their last 14 games, they will need to replace the two biggest stars as Chis Thrailkill and Deanthony Mireless both lost to graduation. Still, there is plenty of reason for optimism, as San Benito has never had a shortage of top-tier athletes.
Even without their full roster of athletes, the ’Hounds picked up their first win of the season last week in a 53-32 blowout against the Donna Redskins. The victory was a nice bounce back after San Benito dropped its season opener against Mission in a 43-41 defensive battle. While a 1-1 record is nothing to write home about, it’s worth noting that the Greyhounds lost seven of their first eight games last season before tearing through district play with relative ease and winning their first playoff game in more than five decades.
“The first few games for us are all about evaluating where we are with conditioning and how well we grasp the system as a team,” added Garza. “We’re still waiting on a few outstanding players to come over from the football side, and once we hit our stride, I think the sky is the limit.”
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