The La Villa Cardinals have been one of the top teams at the 2A in South Texas over the past few years.

The team will have a new coach this season, Joseph Garcia steps in to take over for the elite class 2A program.

La Villa is coming off four straight district titles.

In the process, outscoring their district opponents by 25 points per game last fall.

Even under new leadership, the goal doesn't change. La Villa is laser focused on chasing another district crown.

"This team is looking great we've grown a lot we built a lot of team chemistry," La Villa junior quarterback Isaiah Felix said. "We are looking forward to this season we are trying to get a five-peat."

"We are coming of a four peat district championship and the kids right now you know their mentality is we wanna win a five peat," La Villa head football coach Joseph Garcia said. "It's the tradition that they have in La Villa... a championship tradition."

A key part of La Villa's success has been their run game. Last fall, they averaged 179 yards on the ground and posted 25 rushing touchdowns.

La Villa quarterback Isaiah Felix was responsible for over half of that rushing production. He spoke about handling that key role as QB1 within the team.

"It's hard to be a QB out there, but it's all part of the game" Felix said. "It's all mental. You just gotta stick with it."

"We are playing iron man football you got to play offense defense and special teams and these kids they don't want to come off the field they want to be there on offense defense and special teams and that's the mentality we have here."

The Cardinals were supposed to be in a five-team district, but Bruni made the decision earlier in August to back out of playing 11-man football. That throws a wrench into the schedule in a few ways for La Villa, as they'll face Santa Maria twice during non-district play and will play the Mercedes JV team in the middle of their district schedule.