'This is our family': San Luis High School's success on field celebrated throughout border community
Many of the baseball players come from working families, their parents spending long hours in the sun, working the fields in the agriculture community of San Luis, a border town tucked in the southwest corner of Arizona, south of Yuma.
It can make it hard to see their sons play when their high school games are in the middle of the afternoon.
But, when they can, they are there. Celebrating their children's passion, seeing the joy on their faces when they win, which they frequently do, often competing against much larger schools from the Phoenix area.
"One thing we like to establish is the idea of family," said San Luis High School Principal Robert Jankowski, who has worked at the school for 18 years, the first nine years as a teacher and then six years as athletic director. "I think our sports teams buy into that. This is our family. These are teammates they're going to go to war with. Their brothers. Their sisters. They buy into that. That's the strong support they get from that.
"We're a very small community. Yuma and Somerton are 20 miles away. So these kids grew up together. In leagues here or across the border."
In 2016, San Luis High School reached the Division III state baseball championship, before losing to Phoenix Alhambra 3-2. That's been the school's only baseball state final appearance.
This year, the boys soccer team reached the 6A state final for the second time in three years, only to fall to a big Valley school, Gilbert Perry 2-0. In 2021, the Sidewinders also made it to the championship game in 6A, but lost to Phoenix Brophy Prep on penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie in regulation and two overtime periods.
San Luis has been close, among the top-ranked teams in boys 6A soccer in recent seasons, but it has never won a state championship in any sport.
But it doesn't stop the thrills, the support, the pride of representing a community that is more used to seeing news about it coming out of Phoenix that deals with border issues. The success of San Luis High School's athletic teams has helped show the rest of Arizona something more positive.
"We have a working community in San Luis," said soccer coach Jesus Rojas, who was raised in the border town and played soccer at the high school. "Many parents work until late hours. They are supportive and really thankful that their kids have something healthy and safe to do in the afternoons.
"Teachers and other people in the community are proud when they hear news from Phoenix and Tucson talking about the San Luis High School sports programs rather than other problems that we may face at a border town."
Young talent blossoms near the border
The baseball team has produced talented players who have gone on to college. Most recent was pitcher Gabriel Ponce, who was born in San Luis and graduated in 2017, before playing at Arizona Western College in Yuma, then getting drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 28th round of the Major League Baseball Draft in 2019.
Perhaps its most famous soccer player was Irving Garcia, a 5-foot-5 dynamo, who starred at San Luis in the mid-2000s, before playing at Yavapai College, then UC Irvine, and was drafted in the fourth round of the Major League Soccer in 2010 by the New York Red Bulls.
"I would recruit out of the soccer cuts," said Jankowski, who at one point during his tenure at San Luis led the wrestling program. "The athletes who didn't make the soccer team, I knew they were athletic. I knew they were into sports. I'd change them into wrestlers. And two or three years later, they're placing at state."
San Luis, which is in Yuma County, has grown to about 35,000 people. It was in the news recently for applying for $25 million in federal funding to broaden and upgrade a five-mile stretch on Cesar Chavez Boulevard that connects two ports of entry.
Many of the athletes have extended family in Mexico, while residing in San Luis, Arizona. From the high school, it is a little more than two miles to walk to the border. The city sits up against the fence, next to Mexico, with homes and businesses.
Of the roughly 2,600 students at the high school, 90% are eligible for free or reduced lunch.
"I don't know how many migrated over, or their parents migrated over or when they established residency here in the U.S.," said Jankowski, who is in his first full year as principal. "A reason they're comfortable going across the border is because they might have a lot of family members over there.
"It's a very close community. They have their family over here. But they also have grandma and grandpa or an uncle and aunt over there. That's what I think gives them that comfort going back and forth. Really, a lot of our players, it's part of their families. They were baseball players or soccer players. The leagues they might play in (in Mexico), they might play with their dad or their uncle or aunt."
During a recent game at national juggernaut Chandler Hamilton, players spoke to each other in Spanish on the field, as they pumped each other up and communicated on relays and fly balls.
After the 16-6 loss that dropped the Sidewinders to 10-3, coach Cesar Castillo addressed them in English.
"We're way better than that," he said. "We have to do better. We make a play, it's a different ball game. We have to come back."
Castillo, down three pitchers, realizes playing against top programs in the Valley now will help his team later to avoid an early exit later in the playoffs.
"We did a good job of getting the ball in play and not giving in, because we were down so early," Castillo said. "We don't make a play in the first inning, and it changes the whole ballgame. We talk about being ready first pitch. And today we were not ready."
'It's a passion' all year
Football was canceled at the end of 2013 after the school had lost 56 consecutive games due to declining numbers. Baseball and soccer are the two biggest sports in San Luis.
"They play with a passion," Castillo said. "It's a different style of baseball. I live and die with these guys the last 20 years."
Many of them cross over to Mexico on weekends to visit relatives or play in baseball or soccer leagues when their high school season is over.
Star baseball player Ernesto Ochoa said he came from Mexico to San Luis when he was 6. He said his English is not very good but he tries.
"Baseball is very big, and it's very important, too," said Ochoa, a senior utility player, who had a bases-clearing double against Hamilton. "We love baseball. That's why we're up here. We play in Mexico in the offseason. It's year-round. It's a passion."
Sophomore catcher Cesar Cavira began playing baseball when he was 8, a way to find escape and maybe a future in the game beyond high school. He also plays baseball in Mexico when it's not during the high school season.
"The competition is better here," he said. "I think this is a good team and we can go far."
Rojas said in the last few years, many coaches and parents in San Luis have committed time and effort to developing youth to focus their energy in a positive way.
"There is not a lot to do in San Luis, Arizona, so our students used to just go to Mexico on the afternoons and weekends," he said. "Now that things are not so safe on the Mexican side of the border, some coaches decided to join or create clubs and traveling teams, which allow our kids to have something healthy to do after school.
"When kids get to high school now, many of them have been playing together for a long time, which allows us to easily build on that team chemistry that is so necessary for successful programs."
That camaraderie is apparent on the baseball team, with most of them playing all of their lives together. Castillo said he is not worried about his players getting into trouble.
"There's nothing wrong out there with our kids," Castillo said, when asked about potential problems that could arise crossing back and forth into Mexico. "That's any border town that we're in. With all the trouble going on in Mexico, we're good."
When San Luis reached the state soccer final this year, Rojas noticed all of the alumni who came to watch his team take on Perry during their title match in Mesa. It was an impressive showing and reminded him why San Luis is special.
"We had so many former San Luis athletes, students, teachers and community members coming to support the team that it was just like a school reunion," Rojas said. "Some of the teachers that attended have told me that it was beautiful to see so many old friends, colleagues and students. And it was all made possible because of the pride they felt for the team and the community."
To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter@azc_obert
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: San Luis High School celebrates athletes' victories in border town
