Jessica Carnivale is a student journalist at the Walter Cronkite school at Arizona State University assigned to cover the South Mountain football team.

South Mountain football is a program on the rise. Since the new addition of head coaches Mark and Marcus Carter four seasons ago, the team has exponentially improved its record from 1-10 to 5-5 to 6-3 to 7-3 this past season.

This season was the best season South Mountain has since 2008. The Jaguars swept the 5A Conference going 5-0 , claiming the regional champion title. The team has grown immensely in size over the past few seasons.

“I think it was just people understood that we cared more about the kids than the game itself,” Marcus Carter said. “It was weird because after the first season we were 1-10. Then we had more kids come out and play. I think they saw the writing on the wall.”

The writing on the wall was only the beginning of the mark the coaches are leaving. Not only have they found an outlet for high schoolers to be part of team but have extended it to South Mountain Middle School. 

Last year South Mountain created the Junior Jags. This is a new program for 8th graders to play football and learn the ins and outs of South Mountain. To make sure they give the kids the most opportunity, the two coaches wanted to make it affordable for parents. Marcus Carter explained how they made this possible.

“What we did was talk to investors and they donated some money and we gave them (the Junior Jags) brand new pads, brand new helmets, girdles, socks, two different jerseys," he said. "We have a bunch of cleats in the locker room that the Arizona Cardinals donated to us. All they had to do was come up with the registration fee which is $110, and they got everything. So, we are out in the community making them an offer they basically could not refuse.”

The team took off in its first season. The Junior Jags only lost one game in the regular season and ended up going to the championship. The success from the young team has already began to reflect onto the program at the high school.

“We had 66 kids on our freshman team. We ran out of jerseys. I would say 99.9% of them played on the Junior Jags and they all came here. So now our freshman team has only lost one game,” Marcus Carter said.

Freshman Nate Manzanarez played on the Junior Jags last season and now is a member of the varsity team at South Mountain.

“We have a lot of freshman now, it feels good that a lot of people are coming to the school,” Manzanarez said.

After the end of the first Junior Jags season the program held a signing day, similar to a college signing day. The players could bring their families and had the opportunity to sign a document saying that they would continue playing for South Mountain into high school. This was a fun day of celebration for the children, but Marcus Carter also stressed the symbolism of the event.

“Signing an important document is really big deal to me, especially being a person of color and trying to influence these young men,” Marcus Carter said. “I want them to understand in life you are going to have to make decisions. You are going to have to sign something, whether it is marriage, your first house, your baby, college.”

From creating a signing day for their youngest players or leading their oldest to becoming regional champions the players know the coaches are creating opportunity for them. “They correct us from making the mistakes that they made back then to prevent us from making them in the future,” said junior Ricardo Lugo. "They basically want our lives to be better than theirs."

This is about more than football at South Mountain. The coaches are trying to shape the young men on their team, hoping that it lasts long after high school. Coach Marcus Carter said, “At some point in your life you are going to have to make a big decision and sign on a dotted line, but what are you going to do after?”