Brownsville Hanna Golden Eagles coach Mark Guess sets the same goal for his team every year: win a district championship.
That didn’t change when the 2020 season started amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Guess said his team was having the best offseason he’s experienced as a coach prior to the pandemic halting activities in March. The Golden Eagles didn’t miss a beat when they finally returned to the field in October.
Hanna took care of business on and off the field during the unusual season. Guess praised his players and staff for being dedicated to closely following safety protocols and never having a positive case pause practices or force a game to be postponed or canceled.
The Golden Eagles were just as focused on the gridiron as Guess guided them through one of the best turnaround seasons in the Rio Grande Valley this year. Hanna went from being 3-7 and missing the playoffs in 2019 to going 3-0 in District 32-6A’s south zone and 4-0 in the regular season to clinch a co-district title. For a job well done putting Hanna back on top, Guess is The Brownsville Herald’s All-Metro coach of the year.
“These coach of the year awards go out to my staff, because one guy can’t do it alone,” Guess said. “I’ve got a great varsity staff that works tirelessly to put our kids in a position to be successful, so this goes out to all of them and to the kids as well.”
Hanna had plenty of motivation to show what it could do in the shortened 2020 season. Guess said the team knew missing the playoffs last season “was on us” after falling short in five one-score contests. Finishing those close games was a focus through the offseason, and the Golden Eagles showed their improvement right off the bat.
They opened the season with a tough game at San Benito and came out with a 20-13 win. From there, it was smooth sailing as they closed out the regular season. Guess said the team was disappointed it didn’t get a chance to clinch an outright district title after Harlingen High had to cancel the cross-zone title game, but the district championship trophy means just as much this year as it has in years past.
“We knew we could be a force to be reckoned with if we came out and did our job,” Guess said. “We just really wanted to win a district championship, didn’t matter COVID or not. We just tried to make the best of the situation, and I think we did a good job of that. It felt just as good because we were all in the same boat.
“We had some unfinished business we were trying to make sure that we accomplished,” he added. “We had to continue focusing these kids and make sure they understood that, if we have the opportunity to play, we have to be ready when the time comes. For them to come out and perform the way they did, go undefeated in zone play and in our cross-zone game against Donna North, was quite a treat for all of us.”
