Cardinals Go For Five Straight Titles

BIANCA WINSLOW & RAVEN BURNS

Bellaire has been in the playoffs every year in this millennium however it wasn’t until Carla Cortijo arrived on campus back in 2003 that they were considered a legitimate threat to go state. After Cortijo’s arrival, the Cardinals became the cool team in HISD where most of the talented players wanted to go and they have since had a number of players go on to play at the next level. Madison dominated the district prior to Bellaire getting on the map when Cortijo arrived; in fact the Marlins went over 10 years without losing a district game. With the dwindling talent pool of players available in HISD many teams have suffered and with the exception of Madison, Bellaire and Westside, no other HISD team has been a legitimate threat in 5A over the past 10 seasons. This is the last hurrah for Cardinal seniors Bianca Winslow and Raven Burns, who both were stars at Lanier Middle School, who has also turned out its share of name players, along with Regina Harris who as freshmen and sophomores made it to the Region 3 Final 4. I’m going on a limb here and saying that I anticipate their second round match-up against Cy Woods to be something special and this for a number of reasons. First Woods knocked them off last season in the second round and Woods is hungry, especially after seeing they could play with arguably the best R3 team in 5A, Cy Falls. I may be ahead of myself and for this to happen, Bellaire has to win district, they play Westside on Friday, then beat Memorial in the first round while Cy Woods has to take care of Nimitz. I don’t know what will happen, only what’s supposed to.