Adam Zuvanich Sep. 19, 2017 Updated: Sep. 19, 2017 6:02 p.m.
Burbank's Isaac Cantu, Marcus Bolden and Tristin Zamora, along with Memorial's Anthony Esparza and Xavier Banks, discuss last week's wins to start District 28-5A play.
Football is therapeutic for many of the players at Memorial, including its senior quarterback.
Anthony Esparza said both of his parents have battled drug addiction, leading him to battle depression and forcing him to fend for himself at times. He works in the kitchen at a local pizza chain on Saturdays and Sundays, the only two days of the week he does not spend at school and with the Minutemen.
Esparza described time with his teammates as a “getaway,” moments he can be distracted from his home life and have fun. But football had been hard to enjoy for Memorial, which took a 21-game losing streak into Friday’s District 28-5A opener against Jefferson.
The Minutemen stopped that skid with a 23-17, triple-overtime win at Edgewood Veterans Stadium. It was their first win since Esparza’s first varsity game as a sophomore in 2015 and also ended a 30-game losing streak in district play that began in 2013.
The players at Burbank, a San Antonio ISD school about eight miles away from Memorial, can relate. The Bulldogs’ only win during the past two seasons came against the Minutemen, and they also started this season with two losses.
Just like Memorial, Burbank broke through with a district-opening win no one saw coming except for the players and coaches on its sideline. Even some of them were surprised by the 35-32 win against Highlands, last year’s district co-champion and the only 28-5A team to start this year with two wins.
It could be a wild race in 28-5A, since the two teams that finished at the bottom of the district standings last year are tied for first place after the first round of league games. At the very least, Friday’s triumphs provided hope at schools where hope can be hard to come by.
Giving up is an ever-present threat at Burbank, where head coach Mark Perez said only about half of the players who enter the program as freshmen stick with the Bulldogs through their senior year. Some stop playing because they have to work to help support their families. Some do not want to work during practice and the offseason.
Cantu quit the team for the final two games of last season, even though he was a team captain. He said he is glad to be back with the Bulldogs, who were upbeat and focused at Monday’s practice.
Memorial coach Kemmie Lewis said learning how to win has been one of the chief challenges for his players, who were not sure how to react after beating Jefferson. He said the campus and community long have been resigned to losing.
Like Esparza, many of the Minutemen cope with off-the-field issues. Lewis says he has “kids that are semi-homeless, kids that barely have a meal besides meals at school, kids that are fathers.” So the coach has gradually tried to build up his players by aiming for small daily victories such as making it to school on time or lining up correctly at practice.
Now that the Minutemen have experienced a larger win, a Friday night game with playoff implications, they yearn for more. Because while football is an escape, winning makes it even more worthwhile.