Desert Ridge High School senior Broderick Marroquin is a two-team player. 

He's a wide-receiver on the Jaguars football team and a Future U.S. Army Soldier. A Future Soldier is a person who enlisted in the Army and is waiting to ship off to basic training.

Marroquin admits that football is helping him prepare for the Army. 

"I'm using my football physical training to prepare myself for Army Basic Training," Marroquin said.

The future Infantry Soldier says that being part of a team has helped him in school. 

"Football has helped me get more involved in school, and my teammates help me with my classes and homework," Marroquin said. "You also learn that it's not about playing for yourself. It's about working as team and being proud of your accomplishments at the end of the game."

Marroquin says his greatest moment in football happened in junior high while playing on the defensive line. 

"I broke through the line and got between the running back and quarterback. When the quarterback flicked the ball toward the running back I stepped between them, caught the ball and ran for a touchdown," he said.

The most important element in team sports is to work together and never give up, according to Marroquin. 

"Even when we're down and appear beaten we never show it and our coach knows we are ready for more," Marroquin said. "We all work as a team and I know that we are never going to give up. That's what motivates me."

And what's his assessment of the Jaguars for the season? 

"We've had a competitive team for the past few years," Marroquin said. "We had a big win in our season opener against Eastlake in California, so there's a lot of optimism for the season. Let's get them Jags."

Sgt. 1st Class Arturo Duron, Marroquin's Army recruiter from the Superstition Army Recruiting Center, says student athletes make good soldiers. 

"Team sport athletes are quick studies of the Army, its rank structure and its role to our national defense," Duron said. "They understand where they fit in and what their role is within their squad, their company, their battalion and the Army overall."

                                                              (Broderick Marroquin (No. 92) with a Desert Ridge teammate. Photo courtesy of Marroquin.)

 

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