The Port Isabel Tarpons are coming into 2025 with a slightly different look.

The team brings back several key seniors, including 1000-yard rusher Luis Ramos, but graduated a significant portion of their roster at the end of last school year.

"Every year is a different type of team," Tarpons head coach Tony Villarreal explained. "We graduated 27, 28 solid seniors."

That means a lot of youth needing to step up as the Tarpons hope to chase another district title.

"We're not that down, because we have a large junior class, so we'll be primarily junior heavy," Villarreal said. 

"We do have some top-notch seniors like Luis Ramos, Edward Garza, Bryan Ramirez, to me they might be all-state types, so you don't need a lot of them, you just need a few of them."

In a district as competitive as theirs, it will require a lot of development from the younger players on their roster if the Tarpons hope to stake claim to a district title for the fourth straight year.

"We expect it to be hard, any team really we've gotta put in the work," Tarpons senior running back and safety Bryan Ramirez said. "I know a lot of teams did lose seniors so we all really have to put in the work."

"It's gonna be challenging more than last year," senior running back Luis Ramos added. "They're coming for us, especially Kingsville... and then La Feria, they're coming. We should be coming for them, they beat us last year. We know what they do, we know what they're capable of doing."

The Tarpons have a lengthy seven-game non-district schedule before district play starts on October 17th. They don't get a week off until the final week of the regular season ahead of the playoffs. All four teams in their district are guaranteed a playoff spot.