Last of the Originals

WESLACO — When she reflects on her athletic career, Weslaco senior powerlifter Priscilla Ortiz realizes how much things have changed.

She and teammates Sasha Martinez and Tashika Sandoval participated in powerlifting as freshman, and today stand as the last of the original crop from three years ago.

 Back then, the athletes were in a much smaller weight room, often having to wait their turn as they shared it with the boys who were in the middle of their off-season workouts.

“The old building was about one-fourth of this one,” Ortiz said. “We had to share with everybody.”

There wasn’t much rah-rah or music in the background as you normally would hear in a weight room. At first, the girls were barely getting acquainted with one another. In fact, there were those who were a bit intimidated by the sport.

“It was scary for everybody,” Sandoval said. “We never had (the sport) here before. Once we had our meets, we got the picture, we got pumped.”

Today, the girls work out in a state-of-the-art facility that’s about five times bigger than where they used to lift. Teammates can be seen motivating each other with yelling and high-fives. And that includes the underclassmen.

“Back then, everybody was by themselves,” Ortiz said. “This sport is different (now). We’re a family that’s connected.”

A family oriented atmosphere has been the key to the development of the program at Weslaco starting with the trio. In the girls’ freshman year, there were no more than 10 lifters on the squad. Word got out and recruiting became heavy as athletes were brought in to at least try the sport. But the success of Ortiz, Martinez and Sandoval in the last four years has arguably been all the talk needed to attract more to the sport.

“Monday mornings, there would be announcements on individuals and how each of us did,” Sandoval said.

The threesome along with seven other athletes will make the voyage next week to Carrizo Springs for the regional championship, one of the final steps before attaining the ultimate goal of winning the school’s first state championship - a goal the team fell just short of last season.

The Lady Panthers have gotten accustomed to being a state power, developing underclassman such as Emily Guerra, Shelbi Foerster and Denis Martinez.

“When I first got here, it was a new sport, nobody knew about it,” Martinez said. “We just trained and people noticed. People heard about our accomplishments and were shocked and amazed.”

The squad admits it’s state or bust, but regardless Martinez, Ortiz and Sandoval can at least feel good knowing they’re leaving the program primed for success in upcoming years.

“These are the first girls on the program,” said head coach Raul Villarreal. “Kind of like a big family. They never missed practice and always gave me 110 percent.”