Port Isabel-Los Fresnos Rivalry

[footballgal]

A Two-way perspective
Martinez knows PI-Los Fresnos rivalry from both sides

By Roy Hess
The Brownsville Herald

August 24, 2005 — Tuffy Martinez views the “Battle of Highway 100” football rivalry between Port Isabel and Los Fresnos from a unique perspective.

The former All-Valley defensive back and quarterback played for Port Isabel in the early 1980s. He was a key member of the Tarpon team that went to the state semifinals in 1981.

After assistant coaching stints at Port Isabel, Sharyland and Hidalgo, and a few years in private business, Martinez came to Los Fresnos prior to last season after being hired as the Falcons’ defensive coordinator. His son, Venus Martinez, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound outside linebacker and running back, is one of the Falcons’ senior standouts this year.

Martinez has three children who have lived with his former wife for some time in Los Fresnos. The oldest, Amberly, 22, is a re-cent Los Fresnos graduate. And besides Venus, there’s Roxanne, a 15-year-old sophomore who plays on the Lady Falcon volleyball team.

“My heart is with my kids,” Martinez said. “Where they are is where I want to be.

“When Los Fresnos plays Port Isabel, it’s always a big battle, and right now, standing in these shoes, I’m on my kids’ side, and I’ll always be on their side,” he added.

Having experienced the “Battle of Highway 100” rivalry as a player, fan and now coach, Martinez knows how much the two towns look forward to the annual showdown.

“The game means bragging rights for the winner,” Martinez said. “It’s a game played by the kids that is going to be appreciated by the fans of both communities.”

The Falcons won 16-13 in overtime last year at Port Isabel. The two teams meet again at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Leo Aguilar Sta-dium in Los Fresnos.

Martinez knows that some PI fans may think that he has done the equivalent of turning to the dark side by taking a coaching job at Los Fresnos. Over the years, there have been other Tarpon coaches, including the late Eliseo Villarreal, who went from PI to Los Fresnos — but not many. In Villarreal’s case, he eventually returned to PI after a brief stint at Los Fresnos.

Martinez said it has been approximately 14 years since he lived in Port Isabel. Prior to coming to Los Fresnos in 2004, he had re-sided in the Upper Valley.

“Even though I’ve been away from Port Isabel for awhile now, we still have family members over there and you keep up with what’s going on in the community,” he said. “I know that I’ll be getting phone calls this week from some of my buddies there that I play golf with once in a while during the summer. I’m sure I’ll get at least one phone call from a buddy (Joey Salinas) who likes to call me and say, ‘You better be ready.’

“I just tell them, ‘OK, we’ll be ready, and I’ll see you guys after the game,’” he added. “It’s a good time to get back with family and friends after the game and things like that, but we have to take care of business first.”

Venus Martinez said having his father on the Falcon coaching staff gives him extra motivation, especially when Los Fresnos plays its neighboring rival on Highway 100.

“Having my dad there as a coach gives me a little extra push,” he said. “He’s been there as a coach my whole life.

“The rivalry means a lot because my family is originally from PI, and my mom and my dad both graduated from there and a lot of my family lives over there,” he added. “It’s always a big week. This game will be pretty special this year because it’s the last time I’ll be playing in it. It will definitely give me some extra motivation. I don’t know what the score will be, but I believe we will win.”

Tuffy Martinez said he hopes he can use the lessons he learned as a Port Isabel athlete to help the Falcons regularly qualify for the state playoffs like the Tarpons.

“What I want to happen for not just for myself but for all these kids in Los Fresnos is the playoff experience that kids in some high schools unfortunately never ever experience,” he said. “Getting to the playoffs is something that I wish every student-athlete could experience.”

rhess@brownsvilleherald.com

[footballgal]

Road warriors

Battle of Highway 100 kicks off season for Falcons, Tarpons

http://www.valleymorningstar.com/content/articles/2005/08/26/sports/sports1.jpg
Gabe Hernandez/Valley Morning Star
Los Fresnos linebacker Justin Springer tries to move around a teammate during a recent practice.
By ELADIO JAIMEZ
eladioj@valleystar.com
956-430-6285

LOS FRESNOS - It's a case of the shoe being on the other foot in the latest edition of the Battle of Highway 100.

Last year, the Port Isabel Tarpons entered the 2004 season a veteran club and pressured to live up to tremendous preseason hype.

On the other hand, the Los Fresnos Falcons were young and looking to just survive their first season in Class 5A.

What a difference a year makes.


This season, the Tarpons start the season on the green side as PI lost all but three starters from last year's playoff team while the Falcons are the seasoned group. After just one season in 32-5A, Los Fresnos is already picked to win the district.

One thing's for sure, though. Neither team wants to lose this game, the 58th installment of the famed contest.

Falcons head coach Scott Ford has downplayed the game before, his rationale being that intensity should be as high for this game as the rest of the season.

But he knows the communities love the game and expects a loud crowd tonight.

"The kids know what's at stake," Ford said. "It's big for the community and they get caught up in it. But we have to understand that it's a football game and we have to go out there to win a football game."

And the Falcons can't wait to get back on a football field.

http://www.valleymorningstar.com/content/articles/2005/08/26/sports/sports1-2.jpg
Gabe Hernandez/Valley Morning Star
A pair of Port Isabel players runs through drills.
Los Fresnos closed out it's two-game scrimmage slate with a setback to Edcouch-Elsa last week.

Ford hopes to see more intensity from his defense against the Tarpons tonight.

"I want the defense to play football tonight," Ford said. "The defense needs to step up. We need to do that to win and to be a playoff contender."

PI head coach Monty Stumbaugh feels the same way.

The Tarpons looked less than fair in a practice game against Mercedes last week, too.

After that game Stumbaugh was more concerned with the lack of intensity the Tarpons played with against the Tigers.



"We challenged the kids this week," Stumbaugh said. "We need to decide whether we want to play because we love the game or we're playing because we want a letterman jacket. If we're playing for the jacket we're in trouble."

Brandon Kretz leads the veteran Falcons. The senior quarterback makes his 14th straight varsity start, not counting scrimmages, and Ford said that his experience would show tonight.

"He's so much stronger," Ford said of Kretz. "His arm strength is a lot better and he's ready to take control of the offense."

And he's got some pretty talented guys to help him out.

At receiver, Venus Martinez, Esai Rivera and Chris Garza are good targets. And Luis Campos is a big weapon from the offensive backfield.

PI isn't so fortunate.

Esteban Delgadillo, Ralph Valdez and Frankie Espinoza are the only Friday night veterans the Tarpons boast on offense and defense.

Stumbaugh hopes his charges mature quick especially at quarterback where Carr Griener takes over for 2004 Valley Morning Star All-Valley MVP Lando Ochoa.

"I want to see how they respond," Stumbaugh said. "Win or lose, I want them to play hard. Some of these guys are playing on Friday night for the first time ever and I want to see how they handle it. We have to get after it."

[footballgal]

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/images/uploads/BATTLE_FOR_HWY100.jpg
PI-Los Fresnos series could be put on hold after tonight

By ROY HESS
The Brownsville Herald

August 26, 2005 — This could be the last one.

When Port Isabel and Los Fresnos meet in their annual “Battle of Highway 100” showdown at 7:30 tonight at Leo Aguilar Memo-rial Stadium, it could mark the end — at least temporarily — of a spirited football rivalry dating back to 1950.

While Los Fresnos moved up from Class 4A to 5A last season, Port Isabel remains in 3A. The Falcons have won the last eight matchups against the Tarpons after PI had taken 24 of the previous 25 contests. The two teams played almost every year as district opponents until 1982.

Los Fresnos won 16-13 in overtime last year at Port Isabel and leads the overall series 30-26-1. In 2003, the game was rained out, marking the only year since the start of the series more than a half century ago that the two teams didn’t play.

“There is no denying that it’s being talked about,” said Gualberto Gonzalez, PI’s longtime announcer and booster club president who is an investigator for Watts Law Firm. “They’ve actually been talking about discontinuing the series since the early 1990s. It could happen.

“I know it’s a money-maker for both schools,” he added. “For one night, our friends from Los Fresnos become our rivals and both teams dig it out. Los Fresnos has won the last few years, but we always go into the game looking to win.”

Port Isabel head coach Monty Stumbaugh, whose team returns only three starters from last year’s 11-2 regional semifinalist, takes a practical approach to playing its season opener against neighboring rival Los Fresnos.

“For me, it’s just week one,” Stumbaugh said. “We’ll go over there and play hard, and then after that, it’s week two. I don’t buy into that (rivalry hype). Right now, we’re just trying to find 11 guys who want to play the game.”

If the rivalry does go on hiatus, one way it could resume is if PI moves up to 4A. It does not appear that Los Fresnos will be mov-ing back down to 4A or splitting into two high schools anytime soon.

“I’m hoping that one day PI will move up a class and start playing us again,” said Venus Martinez, a senior standout at outside linebacker and running back for the Falcons.

For the time being, no one, least of all the coaches, is looking beyond tonight’s game.

“The only thing that I can focus on right now is the fact that we do play them Friday,” said Los Fresnos head coach Scott Ford, who returns nine starters on offense and four on defense from last year’s 4-6 squad. “We need to win that game for our community, and then we can let the community, the administrators and the school board make all those decisions. If they want us to continue playing them, we will, and if not, we won’t. That (decision) is on both ends of the two schools.

“I want us to play the best football teams that we can play, and in my opinion, Port Isabel is one of those teams,” Ford added. “It’s a matter of what the communities want. You can take all of the A’s in District 32 and throw them out for this particular game. I think everyone should have learned that by now from the last two years when we’ve played them and gone down to the wire. I’d like to avoid that if at all possible this time. I don’t apologize for winning those games because PI doesn’t lose too often. It ought to be fun.”

Even though both teams have plenty of room for improvement at this point so early in the season, the Tarpons and Falcons are each projected to be among the favorites in their respective district races. A victory tonight would provide a valuable boost in con-fidence for the winner as the season unfolds.

“The rivalry is just the same as it was when it first started — nothing has changed,” Gonzalez said. “You play to win and it doesn’t matter what year it is. We’re looking forward to it and so are they.

“The key for us this year is our kids must play up to their potential and keep the ball away from the potent Los Fresnos offense,” he added. “Everyone’s looking forward to the game.”