Baker's Dish

Last week I told you about the new magazine Valley Freedom Newspapers is lanching August 1. Today I’m going to give you subscription information for the magazine.

The full-color, 72-page magazine is going to be devoted to all high school sports in the Rio Grande Valley. It’s going to be produced by the sports staffs at The Brownsville Herald, Valley Morning Star, Mid-Valley Town Crier and The Monitor. In total, over 15 sportswriters and 10 photographers will be working on the magazine, which will publish four magazines for the low cost of $10 (all four issues) during the first year.

Now, the good part. You can subscribe TODAY by going to rgvsports.com/subscribe

Yep, you read that right.

 RGVSports.com home page for more details during the coming weeks.

I mentioned this last month, but it looks like we’re getting closer to a redesign of RGVsports.com. It’s pretty exciting, if you ask me. What we have now has been great — as has been proven by the amount of web traffic we’ve received — but we realize the Web site could be improved looks wise and to serve the purposes of our readers.

The lastest word is this should happen near the end of this month or in May. For sure, our company Freedom Communications, plans to have this redesign on all of its high school Web sites (about 20 or so) by the end of June. Just in time for football season.

So, what can you expect during this redesign:

>> RGVsports.com will look like the front page of themonitor.com, along with our sister papers the Valley Morning Star and The Brownsville Herald. Of course, it will be adjusted for our high school purposes. Everything else that we currently have will transfer over.

>> Updated forums. This is something we’re going to be extremely careful with, making sure it meets the needs of our readers. But the forums are currently WAY outdated, and aren’t capatable to most, if not all, of the current web products that make your surfing easy and enjoyable. But, again, this is a process we plan to be extremely careful with.

>> Perhaps coming even sooner is new software called Pluck. This is a new registration process, where we can track reader comments (and ones that shouldn’t be allowed). It will also give you, the reader, a chance to blog with the sportswriters across the Valley.

That’s pretty much it for now. If you have any ideas, shoot them my way.

The UIL’s ruling Thursday wasn’t so favorable for the Laredo schools. Nixon, Cigarroa and Johnson were denied their appeals to the UIL’s realignment and must remain in 4A. They were attempting to remain in District 29-5A, which houses the other Laredo schools.

In either case, the UIL said no. And now Laredo is saying yes to more travel.

I don’t get to cover much high school basketball these days, but I had the chance to do the write-up for the Edinburg High-San Benito playoff game Tuesday night. You can check out my story here, which was delivered to you the readers on RGVsports.com by 9:45 tonight. You have to love the age of the internet, especially how quickly we can post stories.

Anyhow, I enjoyed the game. But, as always, here are a few thoughts.

>> Edinburg is quick and, as usual with Joe Filoteo teams, relies on its guard play on both ends of the court. The Bobcats aren’t tall, but Esteban Arriola and Noe De La Rosa do a solid job of controlling the game. Those guys were the difference in this one.

>> The first team that really defends the Bobcats — meaning, in your face, aggressive defense, will beat them. That’s my opinion, and I’m sticking with it. Trust me, I’ve been wrong before. San Benito allowed Edinburg to shoot way too many uncontested 3-pointers. That won’t happen against a more defensive team. Also, Edinburg won’t get to the hoop as much (it had 17 made free throws) against a team with more size. The Bobcats, however, may not see that until the regional tournament, if they get there.

>> San Benito’s Michael Preciado is one of the best players in the Valley. The guy had 17 of his team’s 36 points through three quarters, including a string of nine straight. I saw him last year in the playoffs as well (at Weslaco, in fact), and he was a stud then. Without him, San Benito wouldn’t have even been in the game tonight. He’s a nice player, and should receive some All-Valley love. And his play tonight only backs that up.

>> It was fun watching Valley coaching legends Roy Garcia and Filoteo going at it. That was one of the storylines I enjoyed throughout the game. Both guys credited the opposing coaching in the game, which is to be expected from standout guys.

>> The new storyline is Edinburg beaking a streak. The Bobcats have dropped seven straight area-round games. The last time they didn’t lose in the area round, however, was in 2000 when they advanced to the Sweet 16. It should be interesting on Saturday, when the Bobcats have the chance to get that seven-year monkey of their backs.

I just received an e-mail from the UIL. It contains the list of schools which are appealing the UIL’s realignment. The schools of interest here are Laredo Cigarroa, Laredo Johnson and Laredo Nixon), which went from District 29-5A to 31-4A, splitting up the Laredo league. Other schools to appeal are Houston Stratford, Dripping Springs, Hereford, San Marcos and San Antonio Highlands. The UIL will meet at 9 a.m. Thursday to discuss the appeals. At this time, it’s expected that the UIL will finalize the realigment.

I had the chance to catch up with former McAllen Rowe baseball standout Jose Pablo Oyervidez on two occasions during the past three weeks. In the most recent conversation, we talked about his career — one that has kept him in the minor leagues.

Oyervidez, who celebrated his 26th birthday Monday, will report to minor league spring training during March in Peoria, Ariz., and expects to be back with the Double-A San Antonio Missions again this season. He’s a real prospect in the San Diego Padres’ minor league system. Just check this story out for proof.

Of course, as always, he’s looking to land a gig in the big leagues. “The minor leagues isn’t the place to be,” he said. “I’m glad I’m at least here, but nobody in the minors wants to be here. It’s not a fun life. We’d much rather be in the big leagues.” But injuries always have limited Oyervidez, who some scouts pretty much wrote off after he had Tommy John surgery three years ago. He came back and had a strong 2006 season, but suffered another setback last season when he again had season-ending shoulder surgery to repair nerve damage. It was in his throwing arm, the same one that he had Tommy John. And now, Oyervidez — a former All-Valley MVP for Rowe — is attempting his second comeback in three years. And he’s excited about it.

“I’m not trying to make Triple-A,” he said. “I’m trying to skip that and go straight to the big leagues. It can be done. I skipped (Single-A) ball. If I go to Triple-A I’m fine with that. But my eyes are on the big leagues. I’m feeling good, and I’m ready to get back out there.”

And, of course, this blog wouldn’t be complete without this.

I’ve only covered one basketball game this year, but I always look forward to the playoffs. I still keep up with it. One of the things I miss most now with me being tied down to the office is covering high school basketball. The other, of course, is high school football.

With that said, we have a pretty unique situation this year. All the talk is about girls basketball, with this being a down year for boys hoops in the Valley. The Weslaco High Panthers stole the show last season on the boys side. The talk on the girls side this year centers around two teams. The stacked squad at McAllen High and Bianca Torre led Harlingen South. No matter how you dispute it — whether McHi is the best or South — these are two of the most talented girls basketball teams from the Valley in some time. Expectations are that one of these teams may finally cash in on the state tournament this season. That would be a first for a girls basketball team from deep South Texas.

There’s only one way these two teams will meet along the way. And for those that haven’t looked ahead, that would happen during the Region IV Final in San Antonio. That, my friends, would be a treat. South vs. McHi for the chance to move on to the state tournament. And that, as a basketball fan, would be a game that I wouldn’t want to miss.

With that said, let the playoffs begin. Maybe, just maybe, that dream matchup will happen.

For those that haven’t heard, former La Joya coach Oscar Villasenor is back in coaching. Villasenor retired from the Coyotes after the 2007 season — actually, just before the end of the school year — and headed back closer to home. He ended up as an assistant this past year at Eagle Pass, but he made his return to the head coaching ranks Thursday.

Villasenor was introduced as the new Laredo LBJ coach, as it says here. He was one of 21 applicants for the job, and the full list can be found in this earlier story. As for my thoughts, I covered Oki’s La Joya team for three years. I’ve said numerous times, I always enjoyed going out to Coyote Stadium. It’s one of my favorite stadiums in the Valley. OK, I take that back. For Friday night football, it’s my favorite place to watch a game. But one of the big reasons for that was Oscar Villasenor. He always made it fun. He was welcoming to the media, when you told (or, in my case, wrote) it like it was he understood and he was and still is one of the good guys. Of course, he was replaced with this anti-media guy by the school board in mid-June.

So, with that, let’s welcome one of the good guys back to the top ranks of high school football. For those interested, here’s the final story I wrote on Villasenor, coming minutes after he announced his retirement from La Joya. And true to word, I was the first guy he called when it was official. Of course, I have no way to believing that. But from past dealings with Villasenor, I have no reason to believe he isn’t a man of his word.

One day after I posted about former McAllen Memorial star Bradley Stephens looking ahead to the 2008 season as a redshirt freshman for Texas A&M, the Aggies signed the state’s top running back Wednesday. So, should there be any concern for Stephens?

I talked to his father Craig shortly after seeing this story. Craig said there are no worries. “It doesn’t bother Bradley a bit,” he said. Why, you ask? Well, Craig says that top-tier programs sign top-tier running backs all the time. “When you go to a bigtime school, you expect them to sign the top recruits. Bradley never expected to be the only running back at Texas A&M. He expects them to sign the top players. That’s what you want.”

And he’s 100 percent correct. If you go to a top level program in the nation, chances are you are going to have to fend off some of the top-tier running backs in the nation for playing time. At Texas A&M, they now have senior Jovorskie Lane, junior Mike Goodson, Stephens and now Cyrus Gray, who is pictured above. Stephens and Gray were ranked as the top running backs in Texas in back-to-back years. And if you didn’t notice, there weren’t just three running backs on last year’s Aggies roster. In fact, right here it says there were 10 running backs on the roster. The bottom line is just because you get a scholarship doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed a starting spot in college football. That’s determined once you get there.