HARLINGEN — It’s not everyday that an individual gets to fulfill a longtime dream.

Harlingen High’s Gabriella Vargas, however, did just that on Monday morning.

Vargas, a 3-year varsity soccer player for the Lady Cardinals, signed her name to the dotted line that officially made her a future student-athlete at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie.

SAGU competes in the Sooner Athletic Conference and is a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Division I university. This past season, the women’s soccer team went 9-9 and finished 3-6 in SAC play.

Full story at RGVSports.com

LYFORD — Jacob Serna’s got golf in his blood.

For him, the game’s a family tradition.

Serna’s grandfather taught his father, who taught him the strokes.

“He taught me to really work hard and not take anything for granted,” said Serna, 16, a junior at Lyford High School.

After an undefeated season, Serna won the regional competition April 12 to go on to the state championships for the second year in a row.

Last year, he settled for an 18th-place finish in Austin.

But this year, he’s ready to take home the state title.

“Last year, it was for experience. It was to get my feet in the water,” Serna said. “This year, it’s strictly business. This year, my goal is to win it all.”

At about 6, he learned his first strokes.

Two years later, he began competing.

“I love the game,” he said.

Guadalupe Serna, his grandfather, started the family tradition.

Now, Lupe Serna II’s a golf pro who’s teaching his son what it takes to win.

For years, Serna has teed off on his father’s golf course, the Raymondville Municipal Golf Course.

“It’s one fairway, one green, one hole at a time,” he said.

Serna thinks he’s got what it takes to be a champ.

“You’ve got to be smart and you’ve got to be patient,” he said. “You’ve got to be short-minded. You’ve got to keep moving forward.”

On weekdays, he practices from 6 p.m. to dusk.

“On weekends, I practice pretty much all day,” he said.

Serna’s taking his father’s lessons to heart.

“Putting is the main thing,” he said. “You can be the longest hitter in the world but if you’re short game of putting isn’t good, it doesn’t really matter.”

This year, he’s ready to make his mark with a win in Austin.

“This year, it’s expected of me,” Serna said.

MERCEDES — Hector Sosa grew up shopping at Emilio’s Grocery, just like many locals did over the decades.

Now he owns the store and has renamed it Sosa’s Stop N Go.

Today, you can find Sosa working the register and greeting the neighborhood customers with a friendly smile.

When the store closed suddenly last year, he jumped at the opportunity to take over a successful small business and accomplish his dream of becoming a business owner.

Sosa, 44, now a Harlingen resident, took over the store in November. Emilio’s opened for business 55 years ago.

“I love the store, honestly,” said Justin Daniel Rodriguez. “It’s a lot closer to home, and a lot better.”

Rodriguez stopped at Sosa’s for a three liter soft drink to take home yesterday and has been promoting the store since it reopened.

The store opened officially this month. Sosa gave the inside of the store a complete makeover.

What hasn’t changed is the selection of snacks, cooked to order burgers, burritos, corndogs, cold drinks and convenience.

“I have always wanted my own business and I got it,” Sosa said. “My wife Diana stood by me taking over the store and it’s going very well.”

Sosa said he has been putting in 20 hours a day working at the store to make it operational.

Sosa even created jobs in the city as he hired a store manager and two cooks who prepare the food daily.

The store has a selection of groceries and a deli serving breakfast tacos in the morning and burgers and fried chicken in the afternoons.

“It’s pretty exciting owning the store,” Sosa said. “It was packed the first day with about 50 people inside at one time.”

LA FERIA — Local students are at a writer’s conference today to learn how to get a head start on college.

They are finalizing their college application personal essays, and collecting the feedback that will set them apart from the college entrance competition with their story.

The La Feria juniors and other area Gear Up students are visiting Region One to go over their college essays with Janine Anderson Robinson.

She’s a journalist and credentialed high school English teacher from California who has spent the last six months coaching the college-bound students on how to write their college application essays.

Robinson is the creator of EssayHell.com, a website writing source that focuses on writing college application essays that get noticed.

Region One created the series of writing workshops called “The College Essay Writing Project” in partnership with the Texas Valley Communities Foundation, a Mercedes nonprofit promoting education. They say the college essay is a critical component of the college application packet for colleges and universities.

“When you get to the college level and your application goes in, everyone has the grades, everyone has the community service and the highest test scores,” said Dr. Mary Alice Reyes, executive director of Texas Valley Communities Foundation. “At the end of the day, the interview panel is looking at the individual and what in their life will be a contribution to the university, so they look at their story and essay.”

La Feria is sending six students to the conference today with 10 copies of their college essays to share with other Gear Up students from Edinburg North, Falfurias, McAllen, Mission Veterans Memorial, Monte Alto, Santa Rosa and Santa Maria.

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RIO HONDO — Rio Hondo senior Michael Zuniga is currently focused on getting back to the UIL state track and field meet, but he can now take solace knowing the road will continue on after high school.

Zuniga will join the University of Texas at San Antonio track and field program this fall after inking his national letter of intent Friday afternoon at Rio Hondo High School.

Signing on with the Roadrunners isn’t only an extension to Zuniga’s throwing career, but a dream come true.

“It’s a goal I had since I started throwing in the seventh grade,” Zuniga said. “I always knew I wanted to be a collegiate athlete — it’s what I’ve always worked for.”

Zuniga will throw shot put, discus and hammer throw.

Full story at RGVSports.com

While we won’t get the 20 inches of rain that have hit Houston, the Valley won’t be spared from storms tonight.

The National Weather Service in Brownsville has issued a severe thunderstorm watch until 11 p.m. for all of deep South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley.

The NWS says conditions are good for strong to severe thunderstorms this afternoon and this evening. The storms are expected to linger until Tuesday morning.

The storms are moving south from Houston toward the Valley and once the sun sets the Upper Valley and ranchland areas can expect rain, hail, high winds and lightning. The storm is predicted to move east toward the Mid Valley.

“Once the thunderstorms moving into the area they will be capable of producing large amounts of rain in a short amount of time. We’re looking at averages of one-half inch to over an inch of rain across deep South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley,” says NWS Lead Forecaster Geoff Bogorad.

He said the chance or rain continues throughout the week.

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SAN BENITO — Children attending elementary school in San Benito next year will have be in class at 7:25 each morning.

Last week, the school board approved a new calendar that is almost identical to this year’s calendar, with the exception of when classes begin at the elementary level.

The district is adding 25 minutes to each day for all elementary schools. The first bell will ring at 7:25 a.m. with classes beginning at 7:30 a.m.

The change does not impact middle schools or the high school.

Superintendent Adrian Vega said a new state law mandates school districts base their calendar on the number of instructional minutes versus the number of instructional days.

As a result, the start of the elementary campuses will change in order to meet the states required number of minutes, which are 76,500.

There are 178 days in the school, with the new requirement; schools will be operating with about 429 minutes per day. That amounts to about 7 hours a school day.

We’ll have more on this story in Tuesday’s Valley Morning Star.

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More than 650 flights have been canceled in Houston after storms dumped about 16 inches of rain on the area.

United cancelled all of today’s flights from to and from Houston according to Valley International Airport’s flight tracker.

Southwest Airlines cancelled all inbound and outbound flights this morning and afternoon. The company is hoping to resume service this evening.

United and American Airlines cancelled all Houston flights in and out of Brownsville South Padre International Airport according to the airport’s website. Both airlines plan to resume flying to Houston tomorrow. Flights to Dallas continue as scheduled.

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — You have seen it on the movie screen.

You have seen it in the shopping mall.

You have probably wondered what it would be like to ride one.

And you can at SegValley Tours located on South Padre Island.

“As long as you’re comfortable with you on the machine, you’re really good to go,” said Reid Vaughn, a SegValley Tours guide.

It’s a leap of engineering from the Pogo Stick, invented in 1891, designed for jumping off the ground in a standing position.

The Segway is like a Star Wars vehicle and it’s reminiscent of the sound, speed and alien-like technology.

The Segway can go from slow to fast in an instant, like hyperdrive, and the sound it makes gives you an added rush cruising down the Island strip.

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SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — City leaders will begin planning the search for their next city manager at their next meeting.

“We will decide the method in which we will proceed for the search of the new city manager,” Mayor Barry Patel said.

The next City Council meeting is Wednesday at City Hall.

In the meantime, Assistant City Manager Darla Jones is the interim city manager.

Jones was appointed recently during a special meeting held to accept the resignation of City Manager Bill DiLibero.

“She is a very good and competent assistant city manager,” Patel said about Jones. “She has supervised a lot of projects on South Padre Island from the convention center to construction of many projects that she successfully completed.”

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