Theo Ash is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Bourgade Catholic for AZPreps365.com

Champions are made in the offseason, the Bourgade Catholic football team knew this. 

However, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the school from holding its usual summer practices. Coaches weren’t allowed to meet with players in person, weight rooms were closed, and the season itself was in serious doubt. 

It’s hard to win the offseason when several key parts of the offseason aren’t allowed. So senior quarterback Matthew Espinoza, as quarterbacks so often do, improvised, running practices outside his house as a replacement for summer workouts.

 “We would break up into positions. Receivers, running backs, linemen. We would all go into separate drills and the seniors in those groups would run it,” he explained. 

The practices were two hours, happened two to three times per week, and lasted for six weeks in the brutal Valley summer heat. With coaches prohibited from attending, the athletes tried to follow the blueprint of a normal practice closely, but they took a few creative liberties to make the practices as enjoyable as possible. 

“We tried to keep towards how the school did it, but we would kind of add things in to keep kids interested,” Espinoza said, adding that the players focused less on conditioning and workouts and more on competition-based drills like scrimmages. “We don’t want to turn freshmen away and have them be like, ‘Is this what football is?’” 

Although the coaches were not physically present, they still provided plenty of support.

“I had full confidence in this senior class,” said coach Marcel Lopez. “This was the first class that I’d had for all four years, so I had all the confidence in the world that they’d be able to get it done.” 

Despite missing out on spring ball and normal summer workouts, Lopez said he didn’t really notice much dropoff in preparation coming into the fall. 

“It hurt us, not really being able to throw for most of the summer, but Matt countered that by watching a lot of film,” Lopez said, noting that Espinoza had gone back and watched all the Golden Eagles’ games from last year, when Louie Lopez was the starter. 

“He went through pretty much every game. Watching what the quarterback did well, the mistakes that he made. We have clips of different reads for him. He’s such a hard worker and such a smart kid.” 

Since the incoming class had no prior experience, Espinoza emphasised how important it was to get the freshman engaged, and get them up to speed with the high school football routine even though the coaches couldn’t be there. He compared his relationship with the freshman like the one a bigger brother has with a younger sibling. His backup quarterback, Edison Martinez, is a freshman, so Espinoza felt he had a special responsibility to make sure the future of the team was prepared. 

“He’s going to be the head of the program next year,” Espinoza said. “As the senior quarterback I hope I can get him ready and show him this is what you should do, because hopefully he’ll be the guy, and I want him to have the best year he can.”

Even with the changes, Espinoza didn’t notice a dropoff in preparation to begin this season as compared to other seasons.

“We all had the same goal in mind, we knew that we had to put this extra work in,” he said.

The extra offseason effort has seemed to pay off, as the 3-1 Golden Eagles outscored opponents 151-49 in their first four games, including a 54-0 victory over Cortez last week. Espinoza has completed 60.2% of his passes and averages over 10 yards per pass attempt, keeping his team ahead of the sticks, along with seven touchdowns. He’s also added 130 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Now that the season has arrived, there is a little bit more normalcy to the routine, but the threat of COVID-19 still looms. This hasn’t affected the way the team prepares, though, and it hasn’t taken away from the enjoyment and satisfaction seniors are getting from their last year.

If anything, the bond between the players is stronger than ever after being so self-sufficient in the offseason, “and I think we all tend to forget about [the pandemic] when we step on the field,” Espinoza remarked. 

In such a chaotic offseason, having a senior quarterback help steady the ship and get people prepared has been crucial.

“We’ve been so impressed with his leadership,” Lopez said. “He’s handled it really well, and he’s doing exactly what we needed him to do.”