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Friday, November 28, 1997

Valley fans cheer their Yellowjackets

By DAVID HINOJOSA / The Monitor

ELSA, Texas -- Viva La Maquina!

Every fall some of the most loyal football fans in the Rio Grande Valley -- fans of the Edcouch-Elsa Yellowjackets -- show their pride through this expression.

This season fans of the Yellowjackets have even more reason to be enthusiastic about their Yellowjackets, who are nicknamed "La Maquina Amarilla (the yellow machine)". The team is 12-0 and will face Austin Lanier in a Class 4A, Division II regional semifinal in Corpus Christi.

La Maquina is a source of pride for players as well.

"La Maquina Amarilla -- that's all you have to say," Yellowjackets running back George Lozano said. "It's something that comes from within. Viva La Maquina That means everything. We, as a team, see ourselves as a machine and the community is our fuel."

Indeed.

Yellowjacket-mania has hit euphoric proportions in the tiny cities of Edcouch and Elsa (combined population 6,656) since E-E clinched the District 32-4A title a month ago.

Since then, the Yellowjackets have knocked off Kingsville and Pleasanton in the postseason. Tickets for those contests were a hot item, a big source of discussion among Yellowjackets fans.

And ticket demand for the big game on Friday was no exception. Several hundred Yellowjacket fans camped out at Edcouch-Elsa Junior High beginning Monday to scoop up the 2,500 reserved tickets that didn't go on sale until Tuesday morning. Within hours, every ticket was sold.

Since Edcouch and Elsa are small, the Yellowjackets' success has been the talk of the towns, you could say.

"Edcouch is so small, it gives the people in town something to talk about and look forward to on Fridays," Jessie Garza said. "They feel proud to say they're from Edcouch-Elsa. It gives them a sense of pride."

That sort of loyalty also has brought the community together.

"The whole town is involved," said Consuelo Pena, whose daughters Velma and Vanessa play in the Yellowjackets' band. "Everybody's excited."

That kind of backing has not gone unnoticed by the team.

"The community has been very supportive," E-E's first year head coach Cris Cavazos said. "They haven't been in the way of what we want to accomplish."

Whatever this Yellowjackets team accomplishes this season, it will be compared with the 1989 team that advanced to the fourth round of the playoffs, making it the most successful E-E team ever.

Some players on that team have been caught up in the Yellowjackets success this year and hope this year's E-E team can reach even greater heights, hopefully a state championship.

"I'm quite pleased with how they're doing," said Esteban Garza, who was a split end and linebacker on the '89 team. "I'm tired of hearing about the '89 season. They've built a foundation and hopefully it will carry on for years to come. Maybe people will quit referring to the '89 team."

Garza said that he and his ex-teammates feel like the played a role in E-E's success this year.

"I feel that I'm a part of it (the Yellowjackets season)," Garza said. "It was unexpected. Now that it's happening, everybody getting excited about it. It makes me feel proud."

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Distributed by The Associated Press