Cinco Ranch High School, Cougars, Texas high school football, Carlos Abascal, Katy ISD, sports

Cookin’ Carlos Abascal a powerful Cougar for Cinco Ranch

By JIM MCCURDY, Times Correspondent
Posted 8/28/19

Forget steak and potatoes. Carlos Abascal is a steak and pasta type of guy.

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Cinco Ranch High School, Cougars, Texas high school football, Carlos Abascal, Katy ISD, sports

Cookin’ Carlos Abascal a powerful Cougar for Cinco Ranch

Posted

Forget steak and potatoes. Carlos Abascal is a steak and pasta type of guy.

Abascal, Cinco Ranch’s 6-5, 316-pound offensive guard, has made a name for himself in the trenches up front on the football field. He’s also made a name for himself in the kitchen around his inner circle.

“Whenever we don’t have practice or get home early, I like to prepare food for myself and my family,” said Abascal, one of the area’s highly sought-after linemen. “I just like getting all the ingredients and having fun with what I do.”

What he does on the football field is pave the way for others’ glory. Abascal towers over most. He’s cleared holes for his running backs on many plays and has a distinct grittiness to him.

Only on the field.

You see, after the final whistle, Abascal, who’s received offers from the University of San Diego and Angelo State University, while visiting Yale, Columbia, Bucknell, Tulsa, Wofford and Abilene Christian, is as teddy bear as they come.

“I’m really a caring person,” he said. “It may not seem like that because I’m a really big person, but I care about other people, and I want to help them. The thing I like about football is that it really correlates to life as well. You can put a lot of the stuff you’ve learned (on the field) into life as well.”

That mentality is symbolic of the disposition a great offensive lineman must have: always one who’s there to let others take the glory after his dirty work. The one who will knock you down, and then pick you back up. The one who can put a blueprint on the game and not have his name show up in the box score.

And not have a second thought afterwards.

“I want to inspire others that offensive linemen do have a big impact on the game, more than they realize,” Abascal said. “Every play in football starts up front. Definitely knowing whatever I do on every play has an impact … if I can give my running back more yards or my quarterback more time to make a play, I’m pretty happy. So definitely, I really take a lot of pride in what I do.”

Along with junior Ethan Onianwa (6-4, 282) and senior Stellan Stalter (6-3, 240), Cinco Ranch has men up front who can extend plays by holding a block or carving out holes for shifty runners to skirt through. But the Cougars want more than that this year.

They want wins.

Last year Cinco Ranch went 3-7, leaving way to doubts the Cougars will be much better this year. Abascal wants to change that in a hurry.

“You only get one senior season, so it’s going to be really important for me,” he said. “Last year, we had a really rough year, and a lot of people think we’re not going to be any good this year, so we’ve just got to prove everybody wrong.”

That’s kind of the approach Abascal is taking into this season, knowing that, despite his mammoth size, he only has two offers, one where the school doesn’t provide financial assistance for athletics. He’s out to prove to bigger schools he’s worth investing in.

“Carlos is very physical,” first-year Cougars coach Chris Dudley said. “He definitely embraces the physical aspect of the game. His mental approach has come along since the end of the year. He’s definitely an athletic kid. Colleges are starting to take notice of that.”

Abascal started every game as a junior, earning second team All-District honors. With a year under his belt and rumblings of schools starting to salivate over his size, the Cougars are going to cash in with Abascal.

“We’ll definitely be hanging our hats on those guys up front, Carlos and Ethan and Stellan,” Dudley said. “When I think of Carlos, I think of a kid who is dependable. He’s a good kid with a strong work ethic. Those are the kids we love to coach.”

Anyone would. Even those at the next level.

“I definitely want to put my teammates before me,” Abascal said. “I wouldn’t see myself playing anywhere else (on the field) because I like hitting people. I see myself as a really aggressive player, and I like putting that to work every single play.”

Talk surrounding colleges plucking talent from Cinco’s pool, designing plays that go to his side, finding ways to make him more of a leader – everything runs through Abascal.

“That conversation starts with him,” Dudley said. “Carlos, he’s not real vocal. When he does talk, there’s a lot of meaning behind it. He’s someone who picks his spots. He’ll do that as a leader when it needs to be said.”

Other than a few more college offers and wins, there’s only one more thing Abascal wants a say in this year. After all, he remembers what it was like being a freshman, wondering what guys would think of him in his final year of high school.

“I feel like my whole life I’ve been bigger than everybody else, and I can push people around,” he said. “In college, I know that will change because there are a lot of big guys. But in my senior season, I want to leave a legacy. I remember being a freshman, looking up to all the other players. This year, I want to be the guy they look up to. I want to have them look at me the way I looked at those other guys.”

That’s easy.

All he has to do is invite them over and serve up one of his delicacies. Then they’ll know this guy has it all.

(This story is featured in the Katy Times' On the Grid high school football preview magazine that came out Aug. 29).

Cinco Ranch High School, Cougars, Texas high school football, Carlos Abascal, Katy ISD, sports