This week The Dispatch spoke with Gilroy High School’s senior
running back Travis Reyes to find out what the last week has been
like from a player’s perspective
Editor’s Note: This week The Dispatch spoke with Gilroy High School’s senior running back Travis Reyes to find out what the last week has been like from a player’s perspective – from beating the pants off of San Benito 57-27 in the Prune Bowl (Nov. 9), which gave the school its first outright league title in 25 years, to preparing for a first-round home playoff game against Valley Christian tonight at 7 p.m. The following is a day-by-day breakdown.
Friday (Nov. 9)
“We were sitting at school reading the paper, ‘Why Hollister would win’ and ‘Why Gilroy would win.’ Hollister thought they would give it back to our quarterback, Jamie Jensen, and our linemen took offense to that. The linemen have done a great job this year. They took it to heart and showed why they’re the best line in the TCAL, maybe in all of CCS. After the game, that was what you want a bus ride home to be like. Everyone was all singing and stuff. We sang the ‘Nanana, heyheyhey’ song as we went through Hollister. There were some kids from Hollister that gave us the bird on the way out and everything. It was fun, a good experience … Honestly, I was so tired on Friday night – after we were all fired up and everything – I was so physically and mentally drained, that I just went home and slept.
Saturday (Nov. 10)
“I just got up late and read the newspaper. Then I watched the game on TV with my family. My mom and my dad are all crazy about football so it was nice to watch it with them.”
Sunday (Nov. 11)
“I went on my MySpace page and one of my friends from Valley Christian messaged me, ‘We’re playing you guys.’ And then I went to the CCS Web-site to make sure we were playing them … You start to get over the last game you played on Sunday. We were all ready to find out who we’re going to play and we found out it’s Valley Christian and a lot of us got excited because we know a lot of people that go to Valley. They’re supposed to be the perennial power of football. My friend J.R. Adams, who died in a car accident, he went there. I went to watch him a lot. When I think of Valley Christian – I always think that’s a top-notch football team. And now to have them our house, this is what it’s all about.”
Monday (Nov. 12)
“Monday we didn’t have school for Veteran’s Day so I slept in and then came to practice. We were all anticipating the matchups.”
Tuesday (Nov. 13)
“Everyone at school finds out who we’re playing, and word gets around quick. People are asking if we’re gonna beat Valley – ‘How do they look? Valley’s usually pretty good, how are you guys gonna do it? Who are their good players?’ People are starting to get real interested in football at school and they have a lot of questions about it, which is cool … I think everyone on the team knew before the season started that this team had the all the potential in the world to do anything we want. Everyone believed in the team. We would say some of the stuff to our friends and they were like, ‘Nah, nah, Gilroy’s never won a TCAL title,’ but mid-way through the season we all knew it was possible. After beating Palma, that’s when it all started to click and ever since then it’s been great.”
Wednesday (Nov. 14)
“Wednesday was really the first “let’s-go practice”. Wednesday is a make-or-break practice. If you have a good Wednesday practice, you’re probably going to have a great game. We probably practiced the best we have all year this week.”
Thursday (Nov. 15)
“It was kind of awkward having to practice at 6 p.m., we normally go pretty soon after school. But we’re gonna have to deal with adversity playing on Saturdays from now on. I think we had a great practice today.”
Friday (Nov. 16)
It was pretty good, normal Friday. It was kind of weird not having a game, but it was chill. Everyone was wearing the jerseys, we watched a movie and Coach Hammond told us to focus on the game. And I think we’re ready. We watched “Football America”. It’s a documentary about football teams from all around the United States. People at school have been giving us a lot of support, saying they bought tickets. People have even been asking me if I can get tickets for them. Tonight, I might go up and watch Palma and Los Gatos game or the Live Oak and Sobrato game. The latest I’ll be up is 11. I’ll get up early because I probably wont be able to sleep. We’ll go through walk-through Saturday and then it’s time to get ready to go.”
