Chris Eaton
This Thursday, Queen Creek High School and American Leadership Academy – Queen Creek will face one another in a big football game. It’s a meeting between schools just four miles apart with kids that know one another. One public school, one charter school. It’s been selected as the Fiesta Bowl Game of the Week and will be televised on CW7 at 6:30 p.m.
But on Saturday morning, a mere five days before the game, more than 50 players and coaches representing each school came together for something bigger than football. They helped build a sense of community to their town. It was for a service project at Canyon State Academy.
Canyon State Academy, which started out as Arizona Boys Ranch, was created in 1948 and took on the current name in 2000. It’s a private boarding school with an enrollment of just over 200 male youth in grades 9-12 with a history of delinquent behaviors, neglectful backgrounds, emotional health issues, and special education needs. Saturday’s project involved assisting with a deep clean of the cooking and serving areas of the QC Junction Cafe and doing some cosmetic repairs there (paint touch ups, chair leveling, and window cleaning). They also were outside taking care of weeds and doing a general landscape clean up around the 180-acre campus.
Both schools were on their bye this past Friday and had no game. That meant no Saturday morning film session or early morning meetings with team trainers for nagging injuries suffered the night prior. However, instead of sleeping in, they were there bright and early at 8 a.m. The morning project had meaning and was a positive to both an institution in their community as well as their own mental well being.
“It was nice being able to help out another school in Queen Creek,” ALA-Queen Creek running back Bobby Nesbit said in an e-mail interview. “Working together with Queen Creek football players was a good way to do something positive together.”
Many football programs use the word “family” to describe themselves. It’s about being one unit together on the field and also looking out for one another off of it. Family is a word with strong connections for both schools.
“We have built up our culture to be that of reliance in one another and shared camaraderie on and off the field,” Queen Creek offensive tackle Derek Worden said in an e-mail interview. “Personally, and throughout the team, everyone feels they always have someone to go to when they need help or someone to lean on. This reliance can come from teammates or coaches and I think that’s a beautiful thing.”
Service is one of the principles in the value system at ALA-Queen Creek. It’s not something that can just be taught. It requires doing it to provide the example.
“A lot of the positive culture in our football program comes from our coaches,” Nesbit said. “At ALA, we are taught RAISE value (Respect, Accountability, Integrity, Service, and Excellence) and our coaches all try to live those values so they are then passed on to us as players.”
The QC Junction Cafe is located down the street from campus on Rittenhouse Road and is open to the public. It’s a cafe with a cause, serving food prepared by the culinary students at Canyon State Academy. The menu includes breakfast burritos, sandwiches, soups, salads, pastries, smoothies, coffee, and ice cream. It is renowned for its Breakfast Righteous Rolls, made with bacon, egg, green chiles, and cheese.
It’s interesting that both Queen Creek and ALA-Queen Creek have the tradition of a team dinner the night before a varsity game. The weekly event is a great way to spend time just hanging out together. It also gives an opportunity for the coaches, or even players, to give lessons or impart wisdom.
“Our team is constantly seeking to become closer with one another and regularly come together,” Worden said. “These dinners allow us to get to know one another on a more personal level that exceeds football. These events have been great opportunities to get to know the brothers you play with and I personally have become closer to my teammates through them.”
This isn’t the first time ALA-Queen Creek has used service as a part of team building.
“We have worked together to clean up the neighborhood right next to our school,” Nesbit said. “We have also cleaned up the bleachers and our fields together, as well as picking up trash around other parts of our school’s campus. This year, our freshman football players went to camp separate from JV and Varsity, so the seniors drove up to their camp for a surprise visit and to show them support.
With an extra week to prepare for their rivalry game, Saturday’s event was a unique opportunity to break up the game prep with a reminder that while others may be the “enemy” on Thursday night, they are high school students just like themselves, as well as a way to appreciate the opponent.
“The activity at CSA was a great opportunity to meet and get to know our opponents,” Worden said. “I believe it’ll be a great chance (on Thursday) to face such a respectable adversary.”
“A lot of us know each other,” Nesbit said. “So, seeing old friends that we have played STYFL and Pop Warner football with was great. I am excited to play this week. QC is a tough team and we have a strong rivalry with them. Those are the best games to play.”
The first meeting between QCHS and ALAQC on the football field came in 2022 when ALA moved up to 5A (both schools are now in the 6A Conference). It was the inaugural Andy Luberda Classic. Luberda was a top-notch reporter in the Arizona high school football community, and more particularly, in the “County Line” portion of the state. Shortly after the 2020 season, he passed away from the effects of COVID-19.
I had the great pleasure of getting to know Andy during his time writing for Sports360AZ and also as a colleague of mine at Arizona Varsity. Events like Saturday would have brought pride to Andy because unlike a game, there was not a winner and a loser. There were just winners. Every one of them that picked up a rake, a trash bag, or a washcloth and helped out a fellow school in the QC.
Reach Chris Eaton at gridironarizona@yahoo.com or DM at @gridironarizona with story ideas.
