San Benito’s Medina climbs ladder on UTRGV offensive line

BROWNSVILLE — San Benito alumnus and UTRGV redshirt freshman guard Frank Medina is the smallest lineman on the Vaqueros roster.

Listed at 5 feet 9 inches and 318 pounds, Medina knows he has to work twice as hard as others. Since making the team as a walk-on at an open tryout last August, he’s climbed his way up the ladder in the UTRGV offensive line room.

“I know I’m fired up every day. I’m the shortest one on the offensive line so I know I got to work harder than everybody,” Medina said.

When UTRGV football kicks off its first spring game in program history at 6 p.m. Thursday at Brownsville Veterans Memorial Stadium, Medina will be running with the first team offense at right guard, a spot he fought for both on and off the field.

UTRGV offensive downline man, Frank Medina, (70), pulls on a play in a spring football practice at UTRGV football facilities Monday, April 14, 2025 in Edinburg. (Delcia Lopez | [email protected])

“It means a lot to me. Not just for myself, but I like making my mom proud and my whole family is going to be there,” he said. “I know my coaches from high school are going to be there, I know friends are going to be there, so it makes me want to show out. It fires me up.”

Medina played on the Greyhounds offensive line and graduated from San Benito in 2022. He walked on the Texas A&M-Kingsville football team out of high school in the fall of 2023, but his time in Kingsville didn’t go as planned.

“I dealt with some issues over there, mental stuff, physical stuff, and overall, decided it’s not my place to be there, so I came back down,” Medina said. “I was lost. Football was my life throughout my high school years so I was lost. I didn’t know what to do.”

He decided to help his family out and got a full-time job working on a forklift in a warehouse.

While he stepped away from the field, his battle with depression continued, but the gridiron kept calling. With a push from his high school head coach, San Benito’s Dan Gomez, Medina found a way back home.

UTRGV tight end , Ismael Smith Flores (38), and Frank Medina, (70), in a spring football practice at UTRGV football facilities Monday, April 14, 2025 in Edinburg. (Delcia Lopez | [email protected])

“It was hard and I couldn’t deal with that and work at the same time, so I knew for me to better myself, I had to get back on the field,” Medina said.

Medina asked his former high school head coach if there was any way he could help at San Benito and Gomez welcomed him with open arms. Those same arms continued to push the former Greyhounds offensive lineman to work his way back onto the gridiron.

“(Gomez) knows I want to coach after I graduate. That’s my passion, so I asked him if I can help out in any way I can and he told me to come to the field,” Medina said. “He wanted me to play football after high school. Even after Kingsville, he still wanted me to push forward. Go Division III, wherever they wanted me. I just threw that idea away, but when I went out there, I helped coach and got back in shape with the young guys over there.”

Then came the last round of open tryouts for UTRGV’s first football team in August and Medina shined.

He made the team as a walk-on and started out as a bag holder, then saw some reps working with the third team. By the end of fall practice, he was running with the first team. He would donate plasma in order to have gas money to make it to and from his classes at UTRGV.

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley offensive linemen Gannon Lauer (71), Frank Medina (70) and T.K. Mina (53) run through a play during practice at the UTRGV practice field on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Edinburg. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])

This spring, Medina has held onto his spot at right guard with the first group offensive line.

“I can speak to it now because I feel like I conquered that depression,” he said. “I feel like when I tried out and made the team, that’s a step I took towards conquering my depression because it gave me a routine, it gave me a purpose, it gave me everything I needed in life again.”

Medina hopes his story can be one that motivates his fellow Rio Grande Valley high school football products. If the smallest offensive lineman on the roster can fight his way to earn a shot, anybody can.

“I hope it inspires them because a year ago, I was in the dumps. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life,” Medina said. “Depression, it was really bad. I didn’t know if I was going to be there the next day or the next month. I hope it’s inspiring seeing where I am compared to a year ago. Anything is possible as long as you work for it.”

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