The time has finally come. 

The roar of a student section, filled with pride cheering on their varsity football program as it goes to battle with an opponent. The smell of smog machines, freshly cut grass or the concession stand cooking up some burgers and hot dogs. The flashing lights of stadiums, equipped with state-of-the-art systems to welcome the home team with a light show and fireworks. 

That only scratches the surface of what many look forward to every August in Arizona. Sure, the temperatures are brutal and borderline unbearable. But the ability to hang out with friends on Thursdays or Fridays and watch one of the greatest sports in the world makes it all worth it. 

Football season is truly special. I look forward to it every year even to this day as a 31-year-old member of the media and overall fan of the game. 

But I also recall my younger days, when I would practically look at the calendar on a daily basis and beg my parents for the football season to come. 

Luckily, I was raised by a mom and dad that loved football just as much as I did. My dad played when he was younger but never beyond that. After high school he enlisted in the Marine Corps. My mom’s brothers – my uncles – played football and she was a cheerleader. 

I played every sport growing up, but football was the one that stuck. I couldn’t name one specific reason for it. 

Maybe it was the feeling you have when you catch a pass, or score a touchdown. Maybe it’s the feeling of winning with your friends, your teammates … brothers. Maybe it’s the support from one another when you suffer a hard defeat. 

All I know is I fell in love with the game right away. 

When I was 8, my parents put me in Gilbert Pop Warner. I joined a team called the Bruisers. That’s where I met some of my best friends throughout high school. 

I played on that team until I was 10. We then all migrated to the Gilbert Sabers, a program that mixed kids in the Highland, Gilbert and Mesquite boundaries all together. We also had a Higley player or two. 

That was one of the best teams I ever played with. Kelvin Fisher, who went on to play at Arkansas, was our running back. Drew Stankiewicz, who took the baseball route and was drafted in the MLB, was an all-around player for us. 

We made it to the state semifinals of our age division. We lost to an incredibly talented team out of the South Mountain league. The team on the opposite side of the bracket, who we would have played in the championship, was a team we already beat … badly. So we were confident if we just got past the Southwinds we would have advanced to play a California team. 

But things didn’t go our way. I don’t remember how far that South Mountain team went. Maybe someone reading this will remember the Southwinds. 

Why did I bring up my time playing Pop Warner? Because that’s where my love for the game began. I woke up early every Saturday to watch College Gameday with my parents and hoped time went fast so I could suit up and go to the field. 

I loved practicing at Crossroads Park in Gilbert. In my first year, all of the San Tan Mall – and areas beyond it — were train tracks. The love carried on through junior high, then high school at Highland. 

The summer workouts were brutal at times. The fall practices were even worse. But my love for the game never faded. It only grew. 

I knew I wasn’t good enough to play at the next level. I accepted that. But I always had an interest in sports journalism, which is why I pursued this career and to be on this side of the game. Sure, I played adult pop warner football. That was great, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t quite the same. 

It fulfilled the itch I had as a lineman to catch a defensive end off guard on a pull block, or bury the opposing defensive lineman – the guy who ‘went D1 back in 1996’ – into the ground. I won a couple of championships playing in those leagues, and had a few injuries. But it was all worth it. 

That brings me to today, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. The official start of high school football season in Arizona. Things are a bit different for me being in Colorado now, but the passion is still there. 

To all of you players that may be reading this before your first game, enjoy it. Enjoy this feeling. Take it and never forget it. Because one day you won’t get to experience it in the same way again. But that doesn’t mean you have to leave it completely behind. 

Let’s have one hell of a good high school football season in Arizona.