Made in the 956 — Vaqueros Edition: Harlingen native leading UTRGV defense
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Nathan Huerta grew up in Harlingen, left to play college football and is now back home suiting up for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros.
Huerta played for Harlingen High School before starting his collegiate career at Southwestern College. He later transferred to Texas State University, spending two seasons with the Bobcats before entering the transfer portal and committing to UTRGV.
"When I first entered the portal, I had a whole bunch of coaches hitting me up and I was like I'm going to give it a shot," Huerta said. "Next thing you know I was committed over here on my way back down."
He said returning to the Valley was the right call.
"This is the best decision I've made in a long time. I haven't been as happy as I've been in I don't know how long," Huerta said.
Harlingen Head Coach Manny Gomez helped shape Huerta early in his career and still keeps in touch.
"He's a kid who is undersized but he's got the heart of a champion," Gomez said. "He's got the heart of a 6'8 individual and the work when nobody's watching is what's gotten him to this point."
Huerta credits his time at Harlingen for building the foundation he still leans on today.
"Harlingen is a great place if you want to play sports and be successful in anything," Huerta said. "They teach you a lot about life, hard work being gritty in everything but they taught me so many things of having a bunch of hard work, working as hard as you can, don't give up on whatever you do. We have a saying over there MTXE, mental toughness extra effort so that's what I live by."
Huerta's younger brother Noah also played for the Harlingen Cardinals as a star running back. Nathan said his brother deserves plenty of credit.
"At the end of the day anybody who asks me who was better, you or your brother? I'm going to be like my brother," Huerta said. "He definitely worked just as hard as me and he produced just as much as me and he played a bigger role on his team being the running back and being the star player. I always tell people he's the one that you need to look out for."
Over the summer, Huerta got engaged to his high school sweetheart.
"There was something that clicked in me that I was just like you know what, I need to do this ASAP," Huerta said. "I ended up asking super nervous when it happened, scared I was going to drop the ring but once I did it I was like yup, that's the right choice, no doubts in my mind."
Now at UTRGV, Huerta said the team is focused on building something bigger than individual success.
"Our standard is the standard and we're just raising it every single day," Huerta said. "So if we don't give it our best shot, then we're not raising our standard every day."
Nathan Huerta is this weeks Made in the 956 Vaqueros Edition.
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