MERCEDES - The Mercedes Girls Basketball team has not won a district title since the 2016 season.

"It was a good feeling winning it," said Jasmine Flores. "Beating Donna by a lot because in the first round when we played them it was close but beating them by a lot of points it felt pretty good and seeing the trophy come out, that was a good feeling."

Fast forward to the 2019 season, the only thing standing in the lady tiger's way of being outright district champs were the Donna Bravettes.

"It feels good because we were predicted fourth," said Sellie Gonzales. "At the beginning of the season, no one knew how we were going to do, everyone didn't think that we were going to do good, and it feels good to know that we're district champs and we don't have to chare that with anybody."

"After everyone, they doubted us, everyone said that we weren't even going to have a chance at winning district, so bringing home the district title feels pretty good," said Flores.

But looking at the bigger picture, these ladies didn't just claim a title, they took it from a team that had it for the last two seasons.

"We hadn't been able to win since Vets came into the district, they have taken district the past two years, and we finally were able to beat them," said Mika Vento. "I feel like their school is brought up with a lot of good athletes from Brownsville, so they kind of had the cream of the crop, and they play together all Summer long, so they were a tough team to beat."

"Over there, there are a lot of athletes that are one sport," said Flores. "Here at Mercedes there are a lot of athletes that are multi-sport, so I think they focus more on certain sports, that made them excel."

Besides holding the title, the team has another accomplishment, giving head coach Santiago Rivas his first district title in his second year of coaching.

"We grew together, we came together, the first year was kind of rough adjusting and everything," said Flores. "But coming this year, it was pretty good, we all came together and we all started communicating with one another, we all understood each other."

"It was good coming into this year, we were still kind of getting use to his way of coaching, and I think the more we're with him the more we get to learn and the more comfortable we are," said Veto.

As the saying goes, you can only go up from here, and that's exactly what these girls plan on doing...

"Next year we want to come back and do the exact same thing, we want to keep it going," said Veto.