The Formidable Wildcats: Anthony volleyball team celebrates 50th anniversary of state title win

EL PASO, Texas - In the mid 1970s a group of young girls from Anthony High School made history after they won a state championship in volleyball.

To this date no El Paso area team has won a UIL state title in volleyball.

The Anthony Wildcats are the only local team to accomplish that feat.

The Wildcats won not one, but two state titles in back-to-back seasons (74-75 & 75-76).

The team recently reunited to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that first state championship.

Mary Jane Williamson was the team's head coach.

She remembers the victorious feeling like it was yesterday:

"These kids were special," Williamson said. The dedication and hard work that they put in they were just determined not to lose. To see the kids so happy and the parents who had come all the way from Anthony to Austin it was just unbelievable, a wonderful feeling."

The team was dubbed by newspapers as the "Formidable Wildcats."

Having to travel long distances to play games, the team was often exposed to racism in certain communities, but it only made them stronger.

Sandra Burciaga was a member of the Anthony volleyball team during that state title run.

"We'd hear the parents say from the other teams, 'oh here come the short little Mexican girls'," Burciaga said. "It stuck out in my mind, but then at the end of the day we beat them and we brought the 'W' home."

During the 50th anniversary celebration, the school unveiled two new championship banners in the school's gymnasium. 

"A small, small community like ours got out 15 minutes in the limelight," Burciaga said. "It was just something out of a movie, it was just beautiful."