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Big expectations
With 12 players weighing 220 pounds or more, Falfurrias will be a handful

By Lee Goddard, Caller-Times

David Adame/Caller-Times Falfurrias’ Jessie Ramirez, still growing at 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, is part of the Jerseys’ growing list of talented linemen.

   FALFURRIAS - No matter the results that the Falfurrias football team posts this season, expect big things.
   Big as in the size of the players, that is. Big as in Joey Crosson, Falfurrias' 6-4, 315-pound tackle. Big as in junior Jesse Ramirez and his still-growing 6-3, 220-pound frame.
   The team will be living large with at least 12 varsity players weighing in at more than 220 pounds. Eight starting spots will likely be filled by those on the plus side of the 220-pound barrier.
   "I don't know why, but I'm glad I'm getting them," Falfurrias head coach David C. Salinas said. "I've been in the other teams' shoes, too. It's nice to be physical, and to be able to use that to our advantage. Our kids are good sized. We're using weight training. We're just blessed."
   Growth spurt
   Fortune found Falfurrias a few years ago. The Jerseys had always been a relatively small team but a crew of incoming players had some promising size. Among them were nose guard Frank Salinas (6-5, 275), guard Daniel Sanchez (6-0, 230) and tight end/defensive end Albert Martinez (6-5, 255).
   The class, which graduated this past spring, now seems to have spurred a growth in sizable players for the Jerseys.
   "It used be Fal wasn't very big," Bishop coach Barry Wolf said. "We beat them quite often in the early '90s. Now it's their turn. They've got the size. They've got the athletes. Coach Salinas has done a great job of turning around the program."
   Salinas has made the most of the sizable athletes entering the school over the past few years. While the right frames for growing are there, Salinas has established a strong workout program that has toned and strengthened the team.
   Crosson is great proof of the system. Now a senior, he joined the team as a sophomore, and came into his own as a varsity starter last season.
   Most importantly, at 315 pounds, Crosson doesn't have a belly. He's solid through and through and holds his weight well.
   "It's gotta be the water," Crosson joked as to what is making the players big at Fal. "No. We've got a good weight program from the seventh grade through the 12th. We've got a lot of big guys here as it is."
   While Crosson may be starting a tradition of massive offensive linemen, Fal has had a torch passing of sorts throughout the past few years on the defensive line.
   Defensive line tree
   Adam Benavides and Ian Aynsley brought a high level of play to the line with the 2000 football team. But even that paled to what Falfurrias had last season.
   There was the massive Frank Salinas sealing off the interior, along with Clayton Boerjan (6-0, 220). At the ends, Martinez, who will be attending the University of Houston on a football scholarship this season, teamed with Ramirez to run with abandon, destroy opposing run games and hound quarterbacks into submission.
   Salinas is gone, but Boerjan is back. Martinez is heading to Houston but Ramirez, only a junior, will be in a Jerseys' jersey for two more seasons.
   It's now something to which Falfurrias' opponents have grown accustomed.
   "Lose one Albert Martinez," Zapata coach Mario Arce said, "and they've got another Albert Martinez (in Ramirez) waiting in the wings. Their offseason program has got to be good. They get good kids there, but they make them so much better."
   A key to the success of the defense is that younger players are getting the opportunities to play alongside the established players. Martinez dug in with Benavides. Frank Salinas was next to Aynsley. Boerjan was next to Salinas, and Martinez and Ramirez formed bookends last season.
   "It allowed me to see how he worked," Ramirez said. "It allowed me to learn things as we went along. Now, it's my chance to do the same."
   And it could be that Ramirez does the same with another sizable player. Crosson is promising bad news for Falfurrias' future opponents.
   "There's going to be even more bigger guys coming up," he said.