A long road to reach the goalposts

Mario Cruz is a senior who has played football at Armijo for years. He generally plays one of two positions for the newly christened Armijo Royals: wide receiver or free safety. He didn’t come upon this sport eagerly, but he has changed his mind in the last two years.

“In seventh grade I wasn’t in the best shape of my life,” he said. “I just didn’t have motivation for school or anything and I was always out in the streets with friends, riding bikes and coming home late. My godfather told me that, if football interested me, I would have something to do, so I tried it. I wanted to quit the first day, but I just kept going. I started to get my grades better, but it wasn’t the best year. I didn’t really start taking it seriously until my junior year when I got more motivated, started setting more goals for myself, and told myself I’d repay my family for everything they’ve done for me…”

Cruz said that the football team started conditioning in October this year, a practice that usually starts in July or earlier. He also said that official practices are planned for late November or early December, depending on the response to COVID-19. He is disappointed that this season has been pushed back because he doesn’t want to play his first games in the colder weather, but he’s happy that he still will be able to play. He would rather the state push back the season so that the players and fans can stay safe, but he said that he is so ready to play his last year.

When the season has been completed and he’s not on the football field as a player, he hopes to be found running around the field as a member of the track team. In order to do that again this year, the schools will probably have to be open, and due to the surge in cases for COVID-19, the timing of that is still up in the air. “I do kind of want to go back to school because staying in the house and doing online school is getting annoying and frustrating,” Cruz said.

After high school, Cruz is probably going to barber school and getting his barber’s license, because, in the end, the things he likes besides football are “cute hair, riding bikes and working out” and he’s not likely to make a career out of riding bikes and working out.