BY GREG SELBER

The ritual speaks volumes about the seriousness with which the Panthers take their football, is a testament to the love they have for the game, and serves as a warning to any team that would seek to defeat them.

It’s patterned after the heroic Spartan defense at Thermopylae in 480 BC. Every week the Weslaco kids play, they are silent as rocks in the locker room, preparing their weapons and equipment, grooming themselves, and remembering the sanctity of the cause and the desperate, glorious nature of impending battle.

“It’s really neat to watch,” says Coach Tony Villarreal, every bit the King Leonidas in modern-day incarnation. “This is what’s going on every time we prepare for a game, not a word is being said, they are totally focused, ramping up for the other team. Pretty impressive on the part of those kids.”

As Weslaco girds for a monumental collision with McAllen Memorial on the Bobby Lackey battlefield Friday, it heads forward into violence knowing that preparation, among other elements, is a strong suit. The Panthers plan every detail of the football season, keeping planners and getting evaluated on efficiency by position coaches. It’s all about accountability, something the legendary Villarreal is in intimate association with.

“They listen to us, and they buy into the whole deal,” said the coach, whose staff picks up all cell phones on game day, to make sure the Panthers are concentrating on football and not being distracted by the technological whirlwind that surrounds and bedazzles today’s teenager. “This group is organized and efficient, they know what they are doing and what’s at stake.”

At stake is a trip to the third round of the state playoffs, of course, and as Villarreal negotiated a hectic week of details himself, from an All-District meeting Wednesday to arranging the particulars for Friday’s area match, and simultaneously haggling with officials from San Antonio over a possible contest against an Alamo City club in the third round, he knew the program was in good hands.

This is because his staff is every bit as much a weapon as the awesome players on the field.

“I have to say, this group of coaches is second to none,” said Villarreal, now in his fourth stop after previously successful runs at Port Isabel, Brownsville Hanna, and Pharr North. His Panthers have won 10 games four times in his tenure in the Mid-Valley, and are gunning for a first No. 11 this week. “It starts with them, and trickles down to the kids. Today I had to miss some stuff because of all these meetings, and the coaches ran the workout…heck, they do it better than I do. You know, sometimes the kids get tired of Coach Tony always getting in their ear, it’s a good change to have the assistants in charge sometimes.”

With trusted compadres on hand, Villarreal can rest easy, assured that everything is going to come off as scheduled.

“On defense, Ross Moore and Roy Stroman, these guys are young but they are really great coaches,” he said. “Ross played for me at PI, and Roy had some great games against Calallen and G-P when he was the DC at Tuloso-Midway. They’re like two peas in a pod, they agree on everything and they have each other’s back.

“Offensively, I have two guys that played for me at Hanna, Juan Torres and John Mark Calvillo, it’s nice to have people on your staff who are on the same page. I know them and they know me, and they have all done such a super job in preparing the kids to have a great season. It has always been in my nature to try and do everything, but the older I get, I am learning to delegate some of that, and having such fine coaches makes it easier. But you know me…I always want to be in the middle of everything.”

LAST-MINUTE DETAILS

Villarreal says that the pending clash with unbeaten Memorial is an even-Steven affair that could come down to the little things.

“We match up so well, so fairly in all phases, it’s hard to find an edge,” he suggested. “There are no obvious flaws or weaknesses for either of the teams, and that should make it a great football game. This is what you play for, what you live for, to be honest.”

When the action hits like a firestorm Friday, the unit matchups will be something to see. Weslaco’s active, deep defense (13 points, 234 yards per game) will see if it can contain stellar Memorial quarterback Matthew Kaufmann, while the tricky and methodical Panther attack pits its 34 ppg against a Mustang stop troop that is among the area’s toughest.

“The defense has stepped up for us, that’s the way it’s been,” said the coach, whose D posted a dominant shutout in bi-district over P-SJ-A Memorial. “I began to appreciate how good they have been when we played Pace. A team fumbles six times, it ought to get beat 42-0…but we were right there in that game, even though we lost. That to me is a testament to the defense, they were able to keep us close when we had a bad game, execution-wise on offense.”

That unit has the great linemen in E Jose Montiel and T/E Jacob Grimaldo, plus super linebackers and a secondary that has gotten better each week.

“Tafolla is a real excellent reader of plays, and he has a unique set of stats,” Villarreal noted of senior Ernest Tafolla at ILB. “He is a three-year starter who has four touchdowns this season, three interceptions and a fumble return. Heck, he thinks he’s a free safety sometimes, we have to get him to go plug holes, he is always floating back there making big plays.”

The other second-line standout is junior Tommy Chavez, a real hitter who can also produce game-changing moments.

“A great nose for the ball and a real physical linebacker,” the scouting report from Leonidas says. “He’s got six sacks, we blitz him from all angles, he and Bobby Estevanes, you never know where they’re coming from, but they’re coming.”

Estevanes’ cousin, Joe, is a hard-hitting DB, and Villarreal notes that he and Servando Cruz can really “bring a wallop and a punch to the ball-carrier.”

That Weslaco secondary has tons of kids who can run and hit, and “Coach Stroman has done a super job hiding the coverages to confuse teams. Cover 2, Cover 3, Man-free, it’s a lot of different looks back there.”

Coaching maneuvers have played a huge part in the team’s success, which includes a second 32-5A title in a row, though this one was shared with San Benito after the Pace loss. And the kids have also been adept at making adjustments, especially on the offensive line. When star center Rudy Sanchez was lost for the year with an injury before the season even got rolling, the Panthers had to hustle to solve the problem.

“We had a scrimmage with Valley View and we were going three and out every time, we just didn’t have it going,” Villarreal recalled. “Rudy was just a phenomenal IQ guy, he made all the calls, and losing him was tough. But gradually, we filled in for him, Joe Andrade came in and worked his way into shape and has become a solid guy. And our 330-pounder, Miguel Rodriguez, has taken over as the leader of the line, pointing out who’s got who, and all that. That has been big for us, a process really, taking shape as the season has worn on.”

And process has always been tradition for Coach Tony’s ball clubs. Running the difficult Slot-T offense, dependent on ball fakes, misdirection, and execution, takes some dedicated, brainy kids.

“We don’t just put everything in on day one, we make sure the kids have mastered everything they have before we add something,” he stressed. “Now, as we get into the playoffs, everything’s there, the reverse package, the passing, etc. I think we are ready to use everything, and it’s going to take everything because Memorial is one fine team.”

AGAINST THE ODDS?

The fact that most area observers have picked Memorial to eke out a close victory in the Game of the Year doesn’t bother Villarreal or his kids, and the coach says that all that prediction business is just part of the game.

“I like our chances for several reasons,” he countered. “One, we have a lot of big-game experience, all the way back to when these seniors were sophomores and went 2-8. Losing can be a benefit to your team because it builds character and leaves a bad taste in the kids’ mouths: they learn to hate losing.

“We played a bunch of key games on the road last year, at San Benito and at Los Fresnos, and won the district. So these guys, they’ve been around, they know what it feels like to be in the big games and perform. They’re great kids, we are really blessed to have a group like this.”

Before the season began, Villarreal says he was doing some opining in the media about how good he thought the Panthers could be. His son, once a fine player in his own right, as Villarreal had been at Hanna in the 1970s, and HIS dad back in the early 1950s with the Eagles, suggested he tone down the rhetoric.

“But I wanted to give these kids some credit, because they deserved it,” Villarreal explained. “My son was telling me I was talking too much, but I figured, hey, this is a really good team in the making, so why not just say it?”

Vintage Coach Tony, and he was right, as the Panthers come into the Memorial game with 10 wins, balance on each side of the ball, and a golden opportunity in the friendly Lackey confines to advance to the third round for the second time in four seasons.

And the wild card is desire. Every time this seasoned and rugged contingent gets set to strap it on for another war, the Spartan pre-game ritual reminds them that honest talk is an excellent motivator, and yet the next step, walking the walk, awaits.

The Purple Gang advanceth into the maelstrom, pledged to fight to the death against all those that oppose them.

Got tickets? You’d better hurry.

Tags: weslaco panthers