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All the glory goes to the boys with all the hard work they’ve done. This is for the Valley. This is for back home. This is for everybody. This is for the people of the Valley. This is for the 956. We love every single one of you.
GEORGETOWN — All it took was that first one.
In 2004, Brownsville Lopez became the first RGV soccer team to win it all, with the Lobos stunning the Brenham Cubs 2-1 in the Class 4A state title game to capture the crown.
Nearly 20 years have passed since the Lobos captured the Valley’s first state soccer title. Their impact can still be felt to his day, however.
“I think it changed the mental aspect of Valley schools,” said Brownsville Lopez head coach Amadeo Escandon, who coached the Lobos to their title in 2004. “Once they saw we could do it, they started saying if Lopez could do it, so can we. The demographic is pretty much the same throughout the Valley. So, everyone started to believe if the team from Southmost could do it, they could, too. To me, I agreed that sure we all could. Thanks to that mentality we’ve had five more champions.”
Since Lopez’s 2004 state championship season, the RGV has become a regular at the state soccer tournament. The Valley has had at least one team in the state tournament 16 of the last 19 eligible seasons, excluding the 2020 campaign which ended prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Twenty-six teams have advanced to the state tournament the past two decades, including Hidalgo and Sharyland High this season. Of those 26, six more state champions have emerged, including the Pirates this season.
Their 3-0 victory over Palestine on Friday earned them the Class 4A state championship, their second state title. They join Brownsville Porter as the only other RGV team to win two state championships.
“It is surreal,” Hidalgo head coach Esteban Alegria said. “All the glory goes to the boys with all the hard work they’ve done. This is for the Valley. This is for back home. This is for everybody. This is for the people of the Valley. This is for the 956. We love every single one of you.”
The Valley’s soccer success didn’t happen overnight. The foundation was laid 40 years ago by former Brownsville Hanna head coach and Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame inductee Juan de Dios Garcia.
Garcia, who is dubbed by many Valley soccer aficionados as the “father of soccer” in the RGV, led Hanna to the 1990 state semifinals, becoming just the second RGV team at the time to reach the “Final Four.”
His 30-year run as a head coach at Hanna set the precedence for RGV soccer, amassing a 437-206-66 overall record and taking the Eagles to seven regional tournaments.
It’d be another 14 years before an RGV team made a run like Garcia’s 1990 state semifinalist squad. When Lopez became the first team to make it back to the state tournament in 2004, however, it solidified the foundation laid by Garcia.
In total, the RGV has had 29 teams advance to the state tournament. In comparison, the RGV has 30 state semifinalist teams in all other team sports combined.
Every team from the Valley can come up here and compete. We’re out here putting the Valley’s name out there. I know the next generation of teams is going after more.
The Valley’s seven soccer state titles are the most of any team sport in the RGV, despite being one of the UIL’s youngest sports. Football (1961) and cross country (1967, 1977, 1985, 1995, 2002, 2014) are the only other team sports in the RGV with UIL state championships.
Soccer’s meteoric rise is far from over, Hidalgo senior Rey Cantu said, with more state titles on the horizon as the bar continues to be raised year after year.
“Every team from the Valley can come up here and compete,” Cantu said. “We’re out here putting the Valley’s name out there. I know the next generation of teams is going after more.”
