Heading into the first round of the high school football playoffs, Harlandale already has won one more game than it did the past three seasons combined.
The turnaround has created a buzz that extends beyond the campus of the South Side school, located at 114 E. Gerald St., just a few blocks north of Southwest Military Drive.
“It’s great to see the community out there supporting us,” senior safety Nathan Aguilar said. “The fans are excited.”
And so are the Indians.
“You don’t have to do too much to get these kids fired up,” Harlandale head coach Isaac Martinez said. “If anything, you have to keep them even-keeled and make sure they don’t get too high, too early in the week.
“We’ve been telling them, ‘Act like you’ve been there before.’ Well, I got to thinking about it and I realized that they haven’t been there before. I’m not going to get on them for being excited, but I do want them to focus on preparing.”
The Indians made the playoffs five times in seven seasons from 1999-2005, but went 3-7, 1-9 and 3-7 the next three years.
This year’s team beat rival McCollum 49-42 before a crowd of 11,500 in the Frontier Bowl on Friday, finishing the regular season 8-2 and taking second in District 29-4A with a 5-1 record.
Harlandale plays Corpus Christi Ray (4-6) in the Class 4A Division I bidistrict playoffs at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Harlandale Memorial Stadium.
“I’m proud of our kids because they’ve worked hard,” Martinez said. “But beyond that, I haven’t thought much about how gratifying the season has been. Right now, we’re still in the middle of the grind and we’re too busy getting ready to play.”
The playoff berth is the Indians’ first since 2005, when they went 10-2 and lost to Corpus Christi Flour Bluff in the second round of the playoffs. The Harlandale-Ray winner meets the Flour Bluff-Mission Veterans Memorial survivor.
It won’t be easy – Ray could be dangerous because it throws the ball well – but the Indians will beat the Texans and face Flour Bluff for the third time in six years. Harlandale beat the Hornets 17-10 in a second-round playoff game in 2004.
Whatever way it ends, this has been a season to remember for the Indians, who were picked to finish fourth in their district in a poll of 29-4A head coaches.
Eight seniors on this year’s squad made the varsity as sophomores, and were 0-13 in district play until Harlandale beat Southside 42-7 a week after opening league play with a 26-7 loss to Medina Valley.
The Indians, who had finished 0-6 in district each of the past two seasons, have improved steadily since breaking the 29-4A losing streak.
“Going 0-6 in district the past two years definitely motivated me,” Aguilar said. “It bothered us a lot and we wanted to do something about it.”
So how did Aguilar and his teammates stop the slide?
“Hard work,” senior tight end/safety Raymond Silva said. “We knew we had to change the mentality to get out of that rut.”
The Indians not only got out of the hole, they threw their problems in it and buried the past. The turnaround has given the team something that’s been critical to its success.
“We have confidence that we can win,” senior quarterback Jonathan Silva said.
Senior running back Trenton Miller, who transferred to Harlandale from South San after his sophomore season, said the Indians’ confidence is grounded in their hard work and belief in each other.
“We knew we could do this,” Miller said. “We just had to do it.”
Miller has had an outstanding senior season, rushing for 1,363 yards on 203 carries (a 6.7 average per attempt) and scoring 15 touchdowns. He had 306 yards on 38 carries and scored one TD in a 31-14 victory over Pleasanton on Oct. 30.
Confidence was in short supply in the Harlandale field house when the Indians started offseason workouts in January, but the attitude began to gradually change.
“The mindset we had in January is not the same mindset we have now,” Martinez said. “This group just made up its mind to work harder. It’s also one of the closest teams I’ve ever had. These guys are a pretty close-knit group. That unity has been the common denominator in the turnaround.”
Martinez also credited senior leadership for the turnaround.
“You get a few kids staying after practice to put in some extra work, and the other guys look at them and ask, ‘What are those guys doing?’” Martinez said. “Before long, you have a bunch of guys putting in a little more work.”
There are 26 seniors on this year’s team. Other seniors besides Jonathan Silva and Aguilar who were on the varsity as sophomores are wide receiver Aaron Cardenas, outside linebacker Angel Contreras, two-way lineman Louis Espinoza, offensive guard Michael Garza, wide receiver Mark Moreno and defensive end Johnathan Sanchez.
“The seniors tried to encourage each other and everybody else, and I think the juniors stepped up,” Jonathan Silva said. “Leadership has been very important.”
Silva has played a key role in the Indians’ success, completing 94 of 180 passes, with only five interceptions, for 1,230 yards and nine TDs.
Martinez, 49, joined the Harlandale coaching staff in 1983 and was promoted to head coach in 1994 when Rudy De Los Santos, now athletic director of the Harlandale Independent School District, resigned to become head coach at Weslaco.
The Indians have gone 95-75-1 and made the playoffs seven times in 16 seasons under Martinez.
Martinez had to hire a new defensive coordinator in the spring after Paul Haberer left Harlandale to become head coach at Southside. He also lost defensive assistant Matt Uzell, who was hired by Haberer to be the Cardinals’ defensive coordinator.
Edward Cardenas, the brother of Harlandale offensive coordinator Oscar Cardenas, succeeded Haberer as defensive coordinator, and Adrian Trevino, an assistant at Antonian last year, was hired to take Uzell’s spot.
Martinez, like De Los Santos before him, has a well-earned reputation for getting a great effort from his players and developing them as they go through the program. The Indians are characteristically disciplined and play with a passion that reflects their love for Friday nights in the fall.
“These kids grow up wanting to play for the Indians,” Martinez said.
That says it all there.
