Abel Fonseca is a San Benito native, boxer, boxing coach, and a longtime Site Coordinator for the San Benito CISD After School Program at Miller Jordan Middle School & Collegiate Academy. He can be reached at afonseca@sbcisd.net.
People often ask me what the Greyhound Standard means.
Some remember the championships. Some remember the Battle of the Arroyo. Others remember Friday nights under the lights, the marching band, and a stadium brimming with purple and gold.
I remember something different. I remember what happened when life became harder than football.
The 1993 Greyhounds taught us lessons that extended far beyond the football field. Coach Tommy Roberts reminded us daily not to let the “Little Man” win—the voice inside us that urges us to quit when life gets hard.
As it turns out, those lessons weren’t meant only for football. They were meant for life.
In 2018, my family and I faced one of the greatest challenges of our lives when I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL).
Everything changed as hospital visits became routine, and treatments replaced normal life. My focus shifted from work and family responsibilities to simply fighting for another day.
I never asked for help. I didn’t need to.
Almost immediately, the San Benito community began showing us what the Greyhound Standard truly means.
Albert Sanchez (#26) was among the first to step forward, organizing chicken-plate fundraisers alongside countless volunteers.
Jack Garcia, then Director of the ASP Program, Terry Padilla, and the late Cindy Rystead gave their time and support without hesitation.
Rystead later fought a courageous battle with cancer, and our community stood beside her, just as she had stood beside so many others.
Robert Pedraza believed our community could do even more. He partnered with Footworks in Harlingen on Business 77 to organize a community run in my honor, bringing together runners, families, and supporters from across the Rio Grande Valley.
Constable Adrian Gonzalez and his staff helped direct traffic and ensure the event was safe for everyone involved in the run. It was another reminder that public service extends far beyond wearing a badge—it means showing up when your community needs you.
My brother Troy Fonseca and others organized a benefit concert at the Resaca Trail in San Benito. Music brought people together, and the community answered the call again.
The support came from every direction: the Pedraza and Serna families, King Kuts Barbershop, including Sarg, Xavier, and their entire crew, my boxing family, friends, neighbors, and businesspeople who simply wanted to help.
Because of that overwhelming support, I was blessed to beat cancer in 2019.
I believed I had witnessed the greatest example of community anyone could ever see. Then life tested me once again.
Years later, I underwent open-heart surgery. My recovery required 87 days away from work, creating another financial and emotional burden for my family.
Once again, I never asked for help, and once again, I never had to.
Albert Sanchez and his wife, Valerie, once again stepped forward to organize another chicken plate fundraiser.
Valerie graciously opened the doors of her business, UNIDOS Primary Home Care, allowing it to serve as the pickup location for hundreds of meals prepared with love and generosity.
Former teammates Robert Ray Galvan (#88), Chris Cole (#26), and Mark Sanchez (#85), along with Lori Sanchez, Mark’s wife, immediately supported the fundraiser.
Mark’s generosity carried special meaning because he and Lori continue to courageously fight their own battle with cancer, yet they still found the strength to help someone else.
Michelle Ruelas organized an SB Wing Drive, while Cynthia Alvarez and Eladio Jaimez, her fiancé, helped coordinate ticket sales, bringing together even more people who wanted to make a difference.
My mother, Darlene Trevino Owens, remained a constant source of strength throughout my recovery.
My brother Tyler Fonseca, whose selfless donation of his T-cells years earlier helped save my life during my leukemia treatment, once again stood beside me.
Tyler worked alongside Vicky Quintanilla, the After School Coordinator at Santa Rosa ISD, to establish a GoFundMe campaign that eased the burden on my family.
The kindness continued.
Kim Cuellar from the FACE Department at San Benito CISD. Ruth Martinez, coordinator at La Feria ISD. Sandra Leal, Director of the ASP Program at Santa Rosa ISD, and her family, Joanna Galvan and her family, sister of Robert Ray Galvan #88, Carmen Galindo (Santa Rosa ISD), Adrian Galindo, and their two children, Mark Silva and Gumardo Davila, who spent countless hours smoking chicken for the fundraiser, always come together for others in our community.
Dozens of volunteers sold tickets throughout the community, many without asking for recognition.
Mark Silva and Gumardo Davila have become known throughout our area for quietly stepping forward whenever someone needs help. They simply see a need and get to work.
Looking around that day, I realized something. These weren’t just former football players, these were teachers, school administrators, coaches, public servants, business owners, barbers, parents, brothers, sisters, and neighbors.
They were ordinary people doing extraordinary things for someone else.
That’s the Greyhound Standard.
It’s not measured by district championships. It’s measured by compassion, sacrifice, and by showing up when someone else is hurting.
The older I get, the more I realize that the greatest victories aren’t won on Friday nights. They’re won in hospital rooms, at benefit concerts, during community runs, at chicken plate fundraisers, in barbershops, school cafeterias, and churches, with countless prayers from many small businesses, and around dinner tables where families decide they’re going to help someone they may not even know.
As I write these words, I know I’ve probably forgotten to mention someone. If I did, please know it was not intentional. The truth is, so many people reached out to my family that it’s impossible to remember every single act of kindness.
But I remember how every one of you made us feel.
You made us feel seen. You made us feel supported. You made us feel loved.
Coach Tommy Roberts once taught us that our toughest opponent is always the Little Man inside ourselves.
The people of San Benito taught me something else. The strongest communities never let anyone fight alone. The Greyhound Standard didn’t end with the Class of 1993; it lives on every time a teammate answers the phone, every time a neighbor buys a plate, every time a volunteer gives up a Saturday to help others, every time a business opens its doors, and every time a community comes together.
When one Greyhound falls… the rest come running. That’s why, no matter how many years pass, the echoes of those giants can still be heard throughout San Benito — not because of what they accomplished on the football field, but because of the lives they continue to change long after the final whistle.