Monday, November 12, 2001
A season of improvment
Though they both fell short of the playoffs, Moody and King gave fans a reason to hope
By Richard Tijerina
Caller-Times
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George Tuley/Caller-Times
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King quarterback Marcus Jackson is one of several underclassmen who helped the Mustangs improve after last year's disappointing season.
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Steve Castillo and Jim Elam met on the field Friday night, shook hands, exchanged brief words of encouragement, then went to their respective locker rooms to thank, console and motivate their teams.
Another football season over for Moody and King high schools.
And much to be thankful for.
Moody's 38-21 win over King eliminated the Mustangs from the playoffs, but this was a special season for both. At times, Moody and King both were thinking about the playoffs. At times, they generated enough of a buzz around town to be included in the same discussions as Miller and Carroll.
"Life sometimes is tough. Things don't always turn out the way you want them to," Elam said. Harlingen's win over Harlingen South on Friday night meant that all King had to do was beat Moody to get into the playoffs.
"If you learn from that, accept those things, then you can pick up the pieces and go on," Elam said.
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David Adame/Caller-Times file
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Moody quarterback Brandon Collier ended both the 2000 and 2001 seasons with victories over King.
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In this case, "picking up the pieces" means re-tooling for a run at the playoffs next year. Both teams made significant strides toward that this year:
Last season, King was 0-10. The Mustangs were 5-5 this year.
"About five years long," Elam said when asked how long 2000's 0-10 campaign felt like it lasted. "It was long. This year went by very rapidly. This was a fast year."
Moody was 2-8 last year. The Trojans won two more than that this season, and their 3-0 start was - for a few weeks - the talk of the town.
The Mustangs won as many games this year than they had in the three previous years.
"We told them before the game that this could be us fighting for a playoff spot, if things had gone our way," Castillo said. "This would be a stepping stone for our kids to get into a playoff atmosphere, which it was."
At Moody, the short-lived Brandon Collier era began and ended with King. In the last game of the 2000 season, Collier - who spent most of last year as a defensive back - got the start, and responded with a 43-14 season-ending win over the Mustangs.
This year, Collier developed into an offensive threat by air or ground, and the Trojans turned in surprising early-season wins over Kingsville and Alice.
Elam, meanwhile, was enjoying his second year at King with a flurry of underclassmen, most notably quarterbacks Marcus Jackson and Bryan Pope, and running back Chris Owen.
Three key plays might have separated the Trojans from a 4-6 season and a 7-3 playoff year:
A late interception against Carroll would have preserved Moody's 4-0 start, but a defensive penalty on the play kept the Tigers' last-minute, winning drive alive. Carroll won, 27-22.
Ray's Hail Mary pass on a fourth-and-15 play won the game, 21-18, even though a Trojan defender tipped the pass.
Down by nine points with 2 minutes left against Harlingen South, the Trojans scored a late touchdown, then recover the onside kick. But a 29-yard field goal attempt to win the game with 18 seconds left was no good, and South won, 35-33.
"Even (Harlingen South coach) John Lerma said, 'You guys are the unluckiest team I've seen,'" Castillo said.
A year of woulda, coulda, shouldas all came to a head Friday night, when the young Mustangs came close to making the playoffs.
Elam said he would take one week away from football, then after Thanksgiving, go back to the drawing board.
"Getting to the last game of the year, playing for the opportunity to at least have a chance, was a good accomplishment, from where they came from," he said. "I know when we went to Moody, it took us three years to get into the playoffs. We thought maybe we'd slip in this year. But we're going to try like heck next year."
For Castillo and Elam, next year can't get here soon enough.
Contact Richard Tijerina at 886-3745 or tijerinar@caller.com
