“If you have a lane, you have a chance.” That’s what’s written across the backs of the bright red t-shirts members of the Sharyland High School swim team wore at Nikki Row Natatorium Saturday for the 30-5A district swimming meet.

With a total of 74 members on their boys and girls swim teams, the Rattlers had plenty of lanes and plenty of chances to win Saturday. The fact that they won 19 of the meet’s 24 varsity events, including all six relays, was proof of the fact that they took full advantage of almost all of those chances.

Read more: Sharyland swimmers dominate district meet

Broncs Hall of Famer Luke “Big Jack” Jackson (BS ’73 physical education) never thought he’d have his No. 54 jersey retired at The University of Texas-Pan American. On Feb. 16, Jackson’s jersey number will be raised onto the rafters at the UTPA Fieldhouse at 7 p.m. before the men’s basketball team takes on Houston Baptist as part of UTPA’s Bronc Homecoming Week activities.

Read more: Jackson jersey to be retired during Bronc Homecoming Week 2013

The Veterans Memorial Patriots boys basketball team traveled to Valley View High School last Friday evening to play the Tigers in what was expected to be a hard fought battle for first place in District 32-4A. Entering the game with identical 5-1 records and in a three-way tie with the Roma Gladiators atop the district standings, there was a lot at stake for both teams as each of their starters took to the hardwood for the tip off.

While the significance of Friday night’s game in regards to the standings was common knowledge among those in attendance, the fact that Veterans Memorial Head Coach Romeo de la Garza Jr. was on the verge of winning the 300^th game of his career was apparently on a need-to-know basis. And that’s exactly how De la Garza Jr. wanted it.

Read more: Patriots’ Romeo de la Garza wins 300th game

It took the Veterans Memorial Patriots seven minutes and forty seven seconds to score their first goal of the game against the Mercedes Tigers Tuesday night. It took them only five seconds to score their second. As a result VMHS turned what had been an 11-1 deficit in the closing seconds of the first quarter into a slightly more respectable 11-5 disadvantage as the buzzer signaling the end of the opening period sounded.

Entering the game Tuesday evening, the 4-1 Patriots (19-6 overall) needed a win against the 3-2 Tigers to assure themselves of no worse than a tie for first place in what has become a very competitive District 32-4A hoops race. With Valley View and Roma both sporting identical 4-1 district records before Tuesday’s games, Coach Romeo de la Garza Jr. knew that if his VMHS squad was to remain atop the standings, his boys would have to bounce back from such a slow start. That is exactly what the Patriots did when they used an 18-point fourth quarter to pull ahead of the Tigers to pull off a 43-37 come-from-behind victory.

Read more: Patriots overcome slow start; maintain tie for first place

As a 1975 graduate of Mission High School and as a three-year varsity basketball player for Coach Roy Garcia’s Eagles, Juan Reyna was known among most of his classmates and friends as “La Palma” (the palm tree). Standing at 6’5” tall it was easy to see why he would have been given such an unusual nickname. However, what not many knew was that Reyna received that moniker long before he reached his impressive stature. That’s because it was as a child that Reyna was affectionately called “La Palmita” (little palm tree) after his 6’3” tall father…the original “La Palma”. It was not until many years later that Reyna grew into what became his size appropriate nickname.

Read more: Lady Lobos taking baby steps towards success

In three of his four seasons as the La Joya girls head basketball coach, Daniel Morales has taken the Lady Coyotes to the brink of the playoffs only to miss out on post-season play all three times. Having tied for the fourth and final playoff spot in the district with Donna twice and with Mission once, the Lady Coyotes either lost out on a tiebreaker or failed to win a one-game playoff that would’ve put them into the playoffs for the first time in many years.

Having come so close to the playoffs that they could taste it, only to be left on the outside looking in, has been extremely exasperating for Morales and his girls.

Read more: Young Lady Coyotes have high hopes