Diamond Hill-Jarvis soccer excels in a place known for athletic futility

It’s a Saturday afternoon in February, and the Diamond Hill-Jarvis boys soccer team is milling about in its locker room, waiting for kickoff of a game delayed by late-arriving officials.

One player tunes and strums a guitar. A few others converse or tap around a loose ball.

Moments later, raucous laughter permeates the wall into the coach's office. Presumably, someone was on the unwitting end of a prank.

It’s a lively scene rather uncommon in locker rooms at Fort Worth DHJ, where athletic success has been hard to come by.

The Eagles football team went winless (again) this season and is on a 77-game losing streak. The basketball team lost all 12 district games, as did the volleyball team. The girls basketball team hasn’t won a district game since 2013.

The aforementioned soccer team lost its first two games — but it hasn’t lost since. On this particular Saturday, the Eagles face a struggling Springtown team in hopes of extending their streak (18 wins and 1 draw) to an impressive 20 games. At a school where losing streaks are the norm, this club is an exception to the rule.

Advance a month, and Diamond Hill-Jarvis is still strong. The Eagles enter the UIL Class 4A playoffs with a 23-3-1 record. They meet Dallas Life Oak Cliff on March 29.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Aldo Rodriguez, one of the team’s senior co-captains. “We always work hard to have a great season like we have this year, so it’s a great feeling.”

The boys soccer team has been the athletic beacon at DHJ in recent years. Head coach Dan Russell believes this is the program’s best chance yet to reach — and potentially win — a state tournament.

“Our goal every season is to win a state championship, but I think this squad has put forth the effort in the off-season and their four seasons here,” he said. “We have a strong senior group this year and they’re our edge. They’re the difference makers.”

And bringing a state championship trophy to this small Fort Worth ISD school could be a difference maker in a place that doesn’t exude athletic pride.

“I think it would be a great thing for the school,” senior co-captain Ernesto Rodriguez said. “I think it would be something other teams could look at and see what’s possible.”

“I think it would be the greatest accomplishment ever on this campus,” Russell adds.

DHJ principal James Garcia believes success on the soccer field could carry over not just to other sports, but into the community.

“If they win state or get that far, that makes kids who are leaving our school want to come to our school. That helps keep our kids in the neighborhood,” he said. “Success breeds success. So if that happens, more kids would want to stay, which would help all the other programs and you get a domino effect.”

Since the UIL added Class 4A to soccer three years ago, the Eagles have advanced three rounds deep each time. Before that, against much larger schools, DHJ still reached the playoffs from 2009 to 2014. The girls team (13-6-2) is also headed to the playoffs

Players and coaches see the programs’ success influencing middle school kids.

“We have so many players who want to play because of our success,” Ernesto Rodriguez said. “I do think a lot of students from the middle school are more interested to play soccer than other sports.”

At most high schools in Texas, the football team drives the proverbial bus. At DHJ, the soccer team occupies that seat.

“There is a cool-kids-on-campus kind of thing,” Russell said, noting the homecoming king was a soccer player. “They’re the most athletic. They’re the most successful athletically and academically. I have kids in the top 10 of their class at every grade level. They’re kids liked by their teachers, liked by other students.”

Ask the players about it, though, and they either downplay it very well or they genuinely don’t realize it.

“I wouldn’t say we’re the pride of the school, but I would say it’s one of the better things,” Ernesto Rodriguez said. “I think everyone does know the soccer players, but I feel like I’m just like anyone else in the school. I wouldn’t consider myself one of the more popular kids at the school.”

Asked to compare what it’s like to other schools where football is most popular, Rodriguez’s simple and honest answer hammers home another reality for the students at Diamond Hill-Jarvis.

“I don’t know what it’s like to go to a school where the football team is a really big thing,” he said.

The students here don’t know it any other way. And therein lies the importance of what the soccer team can do for its school with success at the state level.

“We’ve never really won much, so it would mean a lot,” four-year letterman Jose Levario said.

“It would be big,” freshman Eduardo Lopez added. “We don’t have many titles, so it would be big.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2018 at 4:42 PM with the headline "Diamond Hill-Jarvis soccer excels in a place known for athletic futility."