For Humboldt High School's Seniors, It's About More Than Football
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- The entire senior football class at Humboldt High School is just two kids -- one with an ROTC future hoping football helps him in that endeavor.
"It helps me to be a little bit more social with other people," Kevin Ventura-Villalobos said. "Show the newer guys what they're supposed to do."
The other -- Guadalupe Tovalin, hoping football can help him in many ways.
"It's been kind of hard," Tovalin said. "When some of the players get kind of heated or something, you got to remind them we're all learning, so you got to keep calm and keep going."
They are playing a JV schedule this season, for obvious reasons.
"Last year we had trouble with numbers," coach Arnulfo Flores said. "We had to forfeit a game last year against Minneapolis North and that was just due to numbers and injuries. So I knew coming back into this year that we weren't going to have a big senior class coming."
The level they play has become beside the point. This is about football. This is about building something. This is about being a part of something.
"You can see the morale here at Humboldt High School in the hallways and everything with the football players," Flores said. "They're excited to play football."
What the seniors want is to say they were there when it changed -- when it became important to the school again.
"I decided to keep playing because last year I felt like it would be a great experience, maybe coming back next year and I keep watching them and they're winning games and then just knowing that I was a part of rebuilding it also," Tovalin said.
They want to know that what they did mattered, that it was worth sticking it out.
"I learned with teamwork, learn how to communicate with my teammates and helping out each other," Ventura-Villalobos said. "It's been worth it."
And what they have developed is an identity, one that they hope sends a message to future athletes at Humboldt contemplating participating.
"They should play just because you get to build a brotherhood with your teammates and it's just fun being out here," Tovalin said.
Because what they hope is that this is a building block to be better people because they played football.
"The commitment, you get that out of life right there. I tell these kids, if you commit yourself to something, you're going to be successful in life," Flores said. "Me, I work, I got to commit myself to my job, just like they're going to commit theirself to coming to practice every day. And once they leave here, Humboldt High School, they got to commit if they have a job or if they go to post-secondary high school, they got to show up every day."
