From Mexico to Whittell’s gridiron
ZEPHYR COVE, Nev. – Whittell’s football match against Incline was the end of not just the season, but the careers of several of the Warriors who will be graduating this year. For one senior, though, it was the end of an experience that seemed to have just started just a couple months ago.
To say the Warriors were a thin team this year would be an understatement. The school of under 200 students fielded a team of 16 on the good days, and 12 on the really bad ones. So it wasn’t a surprise that when Alex Mariscal stepped onto campus for the first time, one of the first people he met was head football coach Jeff Jones.
“Any new male from ages 14 to 18, they walk through the door and initially we attack them,” Jones said jokingly.
Mariscal made a big move to start his school year, transplanting himself from Guadalajara, Mex ico, to live with his father at the South Shore. He was convinced to move by his family, who said he would have a better future in the United States, but Mariscal saw it as a chance to get on the gridiron.
“All my life I have been an athlete. I couldn’t do football in Mexico, so I wanted to try it,” Mariscal said.
What he lacks in skill and experience, he makes up for in drive. Jones said learning the game from scratch is a feat.
“Alex doesn’t have the luxury to sit back and ob serve the others players,” Jones said.
Jones has been coaching at Whittell for two years. Throughout his career in football (playing at the high school and college level and coaching) he has seen students respond to football in different ways.
“I’ve seen kids that are great athletes try to go out and play football and never get it,” Jones said. “And I’ve seen kids that are not very good athletes that come out and start playing football for the first time and they picked it up.”
The lack of bodies means most lineman play on both sides of the ball, and when it comes to practice, they’re forced to improvise opponents.
“You can do so much with bags, but the live contact and movement is missing,” Jones said.
For Mariscal, sports are much different than what he is use to. He said the coaching staff demand more hours and more energy than what he is use to in Mexico. Also, football takes more conditioning.
“They take it more seriously here,” Mariscal said.
In Mexico, Mariscal played soccer. He said sports there hardly ever receive improvements and that the fields are just dirt.
The adjustment for Alex has been difficult at times. The young lineman needs help knowing when he can use his hands, when he can hit people and, “the concept of where do I actually go,” Jones said.
The complex plays and high impact hits of football both hinder and keep Mariscal invested in the game. He says though football is harder, he still enjoys it.
“I think it’s making me better. I can get more experience from the spots that I play,” Mariscal said.
Pack the Pack
Since Alexa Anderson was in kindergartener she wanted to bring joy to others.
When she and her classmates went outside to play at recess she noticed no one would play with one student in a wheelchair.
She went to him and told him he deserved to have as much fun as the rest of them. She then pushed him around the playground.
“He had the biggest smile on his face… knowing that I can bring joy to other people is something I’ve grown up with,” Alexa Anderson said, now a health ecology major at the University of Nevada, Reno and a participant in multiple events on the track and field team.
Anderson’s eagerness to care made it easy for her to latch onto the idea of working with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, proposed by Rhonda Lundin, associates athletics director of communications at UNR and a member of the FBNN board of directors.
“The main thing that we were astounded by was that so many kids in Nevada go hungry,” Anderson said. “They may be on free or reduced lunch, they may have those meals provided at school, but when they go home… there’s no dinner for them.”
“Pack the Pack” was the product of their conversation. Students, athletes and athletic staff joined in a massive line on Wednesday to pack bags of foods for underprivileged children.
They loaded “snack packs” with a main course, either macaroni and cheese or Chef Boyardee, fruit, snacks, fruit juice and a breakfast item.
Anderson said the biggest motivator to help is thinking of the children and the change in their lives that comes with giving them basic survival necessities.
Elementary school guidance councilors identify students who might be needing this service and give them the backpacks on Fridays.
“They send backpacks home with kids who might need a little extra food over the weekend,” Lundin said.
The usual trigger to include a student is their participation in similar programs, such as free breakfast or reduced lunch.
Lundin said joining with a food bank is very influential.
“Because of their buying power… a lot of times food banks can provide four full meals for every dollar donated,” Lundin said.
The event yielded 350 backpacks, half of what the FBNN gives out every week. In about an hour they raised $388; 1,552 meals.
“We are also hoping people in the community pay it forward… and decide to host a party (like this) of their own, or give a small money or food donation to the food bank,” Lundin said.
Another aspect of the event is Nevada participants are competing with their rivals before Saturday’s game in Idaho.
Lundin said this food challenge between the Wolf Pack and Broncos is a good channeling of the spirited rivalry between the sets of fans.
Both Idaho and Nevada’s food banks will benefit from the food challenge because they each receive the money their fans raise.
Since the Kraft Fight Hunger bowl, Keith Hackett, associate athletic director at UNR, credits helping feed the hungry as an important mission for the athletics department, university and community.
“I think everybody… involved in campus life.. realizes the importance of giving back to the community,” Hackett said.
“We obviously don’t really like Boise, but the more people that are getting helped, the better. In this kind of a thing it is not really a competition, it’s helping out.” Christina Gough senior guard on the UNR women’s basketball team.