Todd's Take

Since the polls on rgvsports.com more often than not leave a lot to be desired, for the 10 or so people that might periodically check todd’s take when it’s not football season let’s see if we can drum up some interest by coming up with some candidates for the best athlete in the Rio Grande Valley (2007-08 school year).

Mind you, I only cover football and golf and tennis in the scholastic ranks (although I do take phone-in box scores most every Tuesday and Friday night. I’m known to my friends as Mr. Late Page), so my thinking might not be entirely big picture but I have a little knowledge. Enough to write a blog, anyway.

Nevertheless, here’s a couple of names I’ve come up with, none of whom are my choice (you’ll have to read to the end or just scroll to the bottom now:

>> Mishak Rivas, Weslaco High football

An obvious choice for his superlatives on the field this season: 3,300 yards rushing and a million touchdowns are hard to argue with. Weslaco played in the district I covered when Rivas was a freshman, and it was obvious then that he was going to be something special. I don’t know that anyone could have seen him breaking every major area rushing record, but that’s exactly what he did. Incredible.

>> Bianca Torre, Harlingen South girls basketball and Andi Garza, McAllen High girls basketball

I can’t include one without the other if I don’t want to catch the scorn of all of the story commenters on this site and some guy named Elizondo that calls the office periodically to berate Peter Rasmussen. Torre had over 10 steals a game among her other highlights, and Garza provided McAllen High with a power double-double most every game.

>> Neo Sanchez, PSJA North boys basketball

McAllen High’s J.J. Avila is also a strong choice, but it’s not every day that someone from the area is nominated to play in the McDonald’s All-America game as Sanchez was recently.

Finally, my choice. Drum roll please ….

>> Felicia Espericueta, Edinburg North golf

I dare you to find someone who has accomplished more on the high school level and is only a junior. She won the regional golf tournament as a freshman and advanced to state. She was squeezed out of a state berth as a sophomore last year and is playing with a renewed vigor this season. She has won all six of the tournaments she’s played in 2007-08, many of which are out-of-the-Valley against some of the best competition in the state.

Espericueta is already getting boxes of mail from college recruiters and will be playing golf at a major Division I university (not UTPA) in 2009. I would be shocked if she doesn’t win at least one Class 5A title before she’s done. I followed her in a cart with then Edinburg North coach Hector Guerra for the two rounds of the 2007 Region IV tournament and what struck me most was the poise she showed as a sophomore. A couple of bad holes that featured a lip-out or two tripped her up, costing her a state berth by one stroke. I don’t expect that to happen again.

What I do expect is to see her on the LPGA Tour in a few years. Pretty high expectations, for sure. But I think Espericueta can live up to them.

So again, here’s the list I came up with for the Valley’s athlete of the year:

>> Mishak Rivas, Weslaco High football
>> Bianca Torre, Harlingen South girls basketball
>> Andi Garza, McAllen High girls basketball
>> Neo Sanchez, PSJA North boys basketball
>> Felicia Espericueta, Edinburg North girls golf

Shoot me a comment with your choice. If it’s one of the ones I listed, great. If it’s someone else, that’s good too. I’ll post all of your comments and maybe this could become a true poll question before the end of the year. And Elizondo, Peter is waiting for your call.

The excitement here is palpable a few minutes before 9 a.m. Some elderly gentleman is addressing the banquet room full of coaches at Region One in Edinburg.

The Monitor has a small table against the wall ready to bang out some realignment stories. Video man Travis Bartoshek is also at Region One to record the moment live for all.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many coaches in the same place. Most greeted each other like they were finding long-lost friends. Dave Evans, currenty at Valley View, was joking around and exchanging pleasantries with the Donna coaching contingent, no doubt reminiscing about the good old days.

One of the only coaches I see not wearing his coaching gear is Weslaco High’s Tony Villarreal. Wearing a suit jacket, no tie, Villarreal is chatting up Orlando Garcia, a former coach of his who is now the PSJA ISD Athletic Director.

The coaches have made sure to steer clear of our table. Our time to talk to them will come soon enough.

Looking forward to seeing if Mission High moves to Class 5A and just what the Class 5A districts in the Valley will look like. And will there be one or two local 3A districts? Aah, the intrigue. If it wasn’t for those two Lunestas I took last night I’d probably be jumping out of my seat.

If anyone out there is reading this, I’ll be trying to update this as events warrant. We’re T-minus 3 minutes and counting …

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on this site (most of the blogging since high school football ended is done on themonitor.com except for my mistakenly posting a Vipers vs. Idaho blog here) but there’s been some news in the high school football ranks of late. Let’s get to the district I know:

District 31-5A activity

I cover District 31-5A for The Monitor and have seen some surprising shake ups. Since the end of the season, Edinburg High’s Joey Caceres lost the interim tag and became the Bobcats’ full-time head coach; Joe Sanchez left PSJA Memorial to become the athletic director for the Mission CISD (although my sources tell me he was reassigned at Memorial before Mission threw him a life raft); and PSJA North’s Orlando Garcia became the new AD for the PSJA ISD, replacing interim AD Richard Flores.

>> The Caceres move wasn’t popular with some in the Edinburg community since he was 0-10 last season. Even though I’m not a part of that community, I don’t have a problem with giving him another chance at the job. He took over during a difficult time for everyone associated with the program. Another bad season though and he’ll probably be looking for work elsewhere.

>> Sanchez’s move to Mission was little more than a blip on the radar screen to most, except for a fired-up group of Mission dissenters that are questioning Sanchez’s hiring. I don’t know if it was that PSJA Memorial was overmatched in its two years as a Class 5A school (1-13 in District 31-5A games) but something was missing. I do remember covering their games and seeing a lot of penalties and failure to execute at the end of close games. Take that for what you will.

>> Garcia’s move to PSJA ISD AD has generated a few comments on the story I linked to earlier in this posting. I pretty much knew the entire football season the AD job was going to come down to Garcia and PSJA High coach Mel Rios. I thought that with Rios’ many years of experience he would have the edge, but I’d also heard from various people that Garcia was well-connected in the district’s political hierarchy and thus had the advantage. In any case, Garcia got the job and now PSJA North and PSJA Memorial are searching for new head coaches.

Good job Peter

After what McHi Lady Bulldogs fans might say was a slow start Peter Rasmussen, the girls basketball beat reporter for The Monitor, has been doing an excellent job.

I always see Peter in the office, working a ton of hours (I know this because I’m continually fixing missed punches on his time card — that’s one of my duties of an assistant sports editor) to get his girls basketball coverage top notch.

Peter’s even getting more active on his blog and, along with boys basketball reporter Jason McDaniel, does an amazing job putting together the high school basketball page that appears every Thursday in The Monitor.

Kudos to Peter for a job well done.

The Vipers look to be on their way to moving to 7-2 as they’ve come out guns a blazin’ in the second half. They’ve pushed their lead to 13 with 2:50 remaining on 3 pointers by Steve Novak and Kenny Taylor.

George Gervin is on hand tonight to watch the team he helped put together with Bob Hoffman, Brian Walsh and Spencer Wright bounce back from Tuesday’s loss to Austin.

The Vipers eclipsed the franchise record for points, which previously was 113, when Novak drained a turnaround jumper with 6:59 remaining.

2006-07 D-League MVP Randy Livingston has been ineffective. The Idaho point guard has just 10 points and six assists and has been a non-factor.

Not much defense played in this one, which plays into the Vipers’ hands since they want to play at a fast tempo. That’s just what we have here as the Vipers are coming off a 42-point third-quarter eruption.

C.J. Watson leads the way with 23 points, while Gabe Muoneke has 20 and Steve Novak 17.

Lance Allred has 25 points for Idaho, who at last check was shooting 62.2 percent from the field.

Had to forego the halftime update as Monitor photographer Joel Martinez needed somewhere to sit and send his photos. At The Monitor, we’re all team players.

Anyway, the Vipers broke free from a 64-64 halftime tie by shooting 9-of-13 to start the third quarter. Steve Novak and Kenny Taylor have hit deep 3 pointers and each has five points in the period.

Idaho’s Cory Violette leads all scorers with 26 points with 5:13 left to play in the third quarter.

Just went to the quarter break after a scintillating alley-oop slam dunk off the fast break by Idaho’s Brent Petway.

Petway, who played for Portland in the preseason, reached over Vipers’ defender Jarred Merrill to catch Taurean Green’s underthown pass and slammed it down in one motion. That got the crowd’s attention.

The Vipers’ C.J. Watson already six points in the quarter to give him a game-high 17 for the game.

Cory Violette is abusing the Vipers down low and has 16 points, eight of which came on layups in the first six minutes of this quarter.

The Vipers are in big trouble. Starting center Kevin Bookout is out with a shoulder injury and his backup, Jesse Smith, picked up three fouls in the first quarter.

Excuse me while I watch the Hornets dancers perform …

Ok. Back to the blog.

The Vipers’ C.J. Watson has 11 points, while Lance Allred, taking advantage of the Vipers’ lack of size inside, has a game-high 14 points and five rebounds.

The undermanned Vipers are getting worked on the boards without Kevin Bookout playing and Jesse Smith drawing two quick fouls.

Lance Allred and Taurean Green, recently assigned to the Stampede by the Portland Trailblazers, each have six points.

Gabe Muoneke has five points and C.J. Watson four for the Vipers. Watson looks like a different player than the one who shared the backcourt with Aaron Brooks the last two games. He is much more aggressive.

Wow. A lot going on here at Dodge Arena. First off, the Houston Rockets recalled point guard Aaron Brooks just before the Vipers’ game tonight. Talked to Rockets GM Daryl Morey and he said the move was made because Rockets coach Rick Adelman wanted Brooks available for Saturday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks.

In addition to being without Brooks, they’ll also have to survive without center Kevin Bookout, who is out this weekend with a shoulder injury. He is flying to Oklahoma after tomorrow’s game to be evaluated by his doctor there.

It’s affiliate night which means the teams are dressed in the uniforms of one of their affiliates. As such, the Vipers are dressed as New Orleans Hornets. The Stampede is wearing the standard D-League uniform.

A special perk (especially for a reporter on press row) is the appearance of the New Orleans Hornets cheerleaders. Nice.

Check back during the game for updates on the action. It’s already been a wild night and we haven’t tipped off yet.