CASA GRANDE, Ariz. — When you mention Casa Grande, Union High School comes to mind. But in recent years, Vista Grande High School has started to make a name for themselves. Leading the Spartans is head coach Jon Roberts.
“This is my father, Tad Roberts. His real name is Leonard Roberts, but you see how he gets upset (when you call him Leonard),” Coach Roberts says with a smile while standing next to his dad.
Standing in the middle of practice, Coach Roberts often finds himself looking around.
“This was just cottonfields when I grew up. The Walmart was getting built. I grew up on old Walmart, which is now the Planet Fitness.”
He’s a former Case Grande Union high school football player and graduate in the late 1990s with deep ties to the community. His old teammate is Union head football coach Mark Luna and his uncle is Union high school athletic director Randy Robbins. Coach Roberts has worked under some of our state’s best leaders, including the Arizona high school coaching legend Paul Moro, now it’s his turn.
“We have a family when it comes to his school,” said Coach Roberts.
“Friday nights, that’s when it bumping,” said senior Athan Arol. “Stadiums are filled. We got the game going.”
When Coach Roberts took over the program in 2021 the numbers weren’t good. The Spartans were coming off a stretch of five wins in five years.
“When we first got here, they (players) never won a homecoming game. A lot of them didn’t win a first game of the season,” Roberts said.
Since then, the program has won 19 games, including back-to-back seven-win seasons and they were one spot away from making the 4A playoffs last year.
“When I first got here, we were winning, you go to the barbershop or you go to a local restaurant and they're just proud of you, right? And then you win seven games, and they're like, wow, you're doing good. And then our third year, we won seven games again, and now they're talking about when we going to have that Crosstown rivalry?”
“When I came in, Roberts preached me that we were on the up,” said senior Brandon Hunt. “It's been cool to see. It's just there's been that trend, that vibe the whole time here, it's on the up.”
2024 is special of many reasons. Coach Roberts started with this senior class as freshman.
“The bond is great,” said Arol. "It’s 35 seniors. We’ve all been together since freshman year”
“Making a run for Casa Grande,” Hunt said that’s the goal for this season. “We could do it. We can make it to state.”
“Really excited about playing,” said Coach Roberts. “They feel like they have a lot to prove.”
This is also their toughest season. The Spartans lost two people instrumental to helping grow this program. In May, assistant head coach Robert Palacios passed away. Then four months later, they lost athletic director Louie Ramirez.
“I get to talking to my Robert and I get a little choked up. Can't look at our logo without seeing the touch that Louie brought. They asked me, like, coach, why is this happening to us? We've really had to teach. Sometimes you're going feel happy, and you know sometimes you're going feel sad, and don't worry about the timing of it.”
Through tragedy comes togetherness and a bigger purpose to take the field on Friday nights.
“They supported the football program,” said Arol. “We kind of just came at it even harder. That just gave us more dedication.”
“We know that they would be with us,” said coach Roberts. “We know that they would tell us to keep fighting when it gets tough. There's a saying that sometimes our kids need the game of football, and in this instance, a lot of my boys, they need the game of football.”
“We love like being on the field, because that's where they would want us to be,” said Hunt. “So, we're on the field attacking it.”
Vista Grande opens the season Friday, Oct. 30, at home against Coconino.
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