Canutillo can’t wait for big game on Friday

From one end of Doniphan Street to the other, Canutillo residents are beaming with pride this week over the Eagles’ football playoff run, leaving many talking about a time when things were different.

In Texas, it’s not rare for a small town to live and die with its high school football team. And it’s no different in Canutillo!

“Canutillo is a very cultural town,” said longtime resident Eddie Hernandez. “You come down here and it’s just like being at home. I grew up in old El Paso by Segundo Barrio by Sherman projects up there and the culture here today is like it was back then.”

Hernandez said he can’t remember a better time in the tiny town, where football is what everybody is talking about.

“We got it going!” he said. “A school from El Paso going all the way up to Lubbock, doing what they got to do, and I think the whole city is pulling for them, you know?”

The excitement for the Eagles can be seen all up and down Doniphan Street in Canutillo, even at the post office, where ABC-7 ran into 93-year-old Canutillo resident Bill Carson.

“I’ve lived here since 1947,” Carson said. “(Canutillo) wasn’t near this large.”

Carson, a World War II veteran, said he couldn’t be prouder of the Eagles.

“I think they got a great team,” he said. “I used to know some of the kids.”

Angie Medina, who has lived in Canutillo for 48 years, said her grandsons, Marcus and Nathaniel Medina, play for Canutillo.

“Oh, I’m very proud,” she said. “Not only of them but of all the players.”

Added Hernandez: “They used to say, ‘Well, Midland and Odessa, Friday night lights!’ Well this is Friday night lights here! This is what’s up!”