THEOLDCOACH.COM Senior Analyst Matt Stepp takes a closer look at the historic matchup pitting Harlingen High School against 7 time state champion Abilene High set for Saturday evening at Heroes Stadium in San Antonio.

Aside from the Greater El Paso Area, no region of the state has suffered more playoff disappointment and at times humiliation than the Rio Grande Valley. In fact, the disappointment for the Valley in many respects is greater due to the importance that high school football plays in daily life. El Paso is an ubran area, that is much like any other large city in the state with multiple high schools all sharing resources and splitting loyalties. The Valley is composed of small to medium sized towns, many of which are either one school towns or have only recently expanded to multiple high schools. The facilities in the Valley are above average for the most part and support from the community is rampant as many teams like Harlingen, Weslaco, Donna and McAllen High have loyal and rabid followers. Unlike El Paso, the Valley has had sporadic success in the postseason. Port Isabel is the last team from the RGV to win their region as they advanced to the 3A semi-finals in 2003, the Tarpons were defeated by Marlin in that semi-final game 41-10. PSJA went to back to back 3A state championship games in 1962 and 1963, and Donna High School owns the Valley's only state championship, won fifty years ago in 1961.

Harlingen is a town much like many other medium sized towns in the state, for a long time Harlingen High School was the only game in town. Harlingen South opened 18 years ago and despite moderate success on the football field Harlingen still loves their Cardinals. At the palm tree lined interchange of Highway 77 and Highway 83 stands a large billboard which is a testament to the town's love of their teams it reads "Harlingen Football: We Are Family." The Sunshine Strip is Business Highway 77 and it runs through the old part of town, much like the newer interchange it's lined with palm trees. In contrast to a lot of small towns, the old downtown area still has many vibrant businesses and one "business" that's been good is Harlingen Football. Boggus Stadium lies near downtown along the Sunshine Strip and it's seen its fair share of wins from the Cardinals as they've been the Valley's most consistent winner. Harlingen has put together back to back 12-1 seasons, including last year when they suffered a crushing overtime loss to eventual state semi-finalist San Antonio Stevens. Harlingen has never won their region, but they've had several near misses including 1989 and 1994 when they lost quarter-final games to Converse Judson.

Harlingen HC Manny Gomez was a member of that 1989 Harlingen squad and after playing at Texas A&M-Kingsville in the early 1990's, Coach Gomez went back to the Valley and worked his way up the ranks to become head coach at his alma mater. In chatting with Coach Gomez before their game against San Benito last year, it became apparent to me that Gomez had bigger aspirations than just being the best in the Valley. "Being the best locally is nice, but I'm in this to win a state title. It hasn't been done down here for so long I think some of the teams here have a mental block when we play a team from the north. Our teams have struggled for so long that when something does go wrong in the playoffs we think 'Oh, here we go again.' In my opinion, for us (Harlingen) or any other program from the Valley to take the next step and be a contender to win the region we've got to find a way to play programs from other parts of the state in non-district. Doing that will help us prepare for those tough tests in the playoffs and expose our weaknesses a little more so we have a chance to correct them. Those kinds of tests can only make you a stronger team in the long run."

Enter former Valley resident, Carl Padilla of the Padilla Poll. Padilla, who has known Coach Gomez since his was a player at Harlingen knew that he wanted to upgrade his schedule. However, due to this being an odd realignment year and Harlingen's location finding a game for the Cardinals wasn't going to be easy. Abilene had the opening after playing Cocoa, FL last year, Harlingen however had a full schedule. The Cardinals had a Week 0 game against Brownsville Lopez, in order for the Cardinals to get out of the game against Lopez they had to find a replacement opponent. Padilla knew that Alice had an opening due to wanting to get out of their Week 7 game against Monterrey Tech. Alice did not have a Week 3 game and Lopez had a bye for Week 3 so Padilla set Alice up to play Lopez in Brownsville Week 3, thus creating the opening for Harlingen. Padilla went to such great lengths to set the game up but why? "Coach Warren called me in January asking me to help him find a Week 3 game, I knew from previous conversations with Manny (Gomez) that Harlingen wanted to upgrade their schedule so that got wheels in motion, I never even contemplated anyone else playing Abilene except for Harlingen" said Padilla.

"If you don't win games against teams from up state or even play them close, the respect is lacking in some regards. The Valley doesn't have the big ticket items that you see in the major metro areas, they don't even have any college football. The reason there's so much passion is the high school teams are all the people have. They are so passionate about their teams and when the teams either don't make the playoffs or get eliminated they rally behind the teams who are left." So looking at this game, Padilla discusses what this game would mean to the fans in the Valley if Harlingen wins this game? "I think this is the biggest regular season game in the history of the Valley, simply because it's never been played. You can't beat a program the caliber of Abilene unless you actually line up and play them, so for Harlingen to line up and play a storied program like Abilene is huge for the Valley as a whole," said Padilla.

How rare is this game?? Harlingen hasn't taken on a team from outside of Region IV since 1955 when they lost to Pasadena. It's rare for a team from the Rio Grande Valley to play a regular season game against a team from San Antonio, much less a team from West Texas. So this game is an extremely rare occurrence.

I think this will be a closer game than many anticipate, Harlingen is a very solid ball club that has been in some big games the past two years. They won't be intimidated by Abilene's tradition. However, Abilene's speed is something Harlingen won't be able to prepare for, the Eagles have more team speed across the board than anyone Harlingen has seen recently, even San Antonio Stevens. This coupled with Abilene's slight advantage in size could be big along with depth. This is a non-district game, but make no mistake, it's a huge game for Harlingen. They will likely treat this much like a playoff game, whereas for Abilene this is old hat. The past two years they've played; Belton, two teams from Florida, a team from Louisiana, a team from Oklahoma, Longview and multiple teams from DFW. This will be just another day at the office for the Warbirds. How Harlingen reacts to the pressure will be crucial. Stepp's Pick: Abilene 31 Harlingen 28 The man who set the game up, Carl Padilla has it pegged differently, he's got Harlingen by four.