People gathering in Pueblo patio for 2015 Cesar Chavez March
This year Pueblo’s MEChA club members are getting ready to pack their bags to travel to Chicago on April 9-12, for a National MEChA conference, where they will be discussing social issues as well as meeting other students across the country.
The “MEChistas” are fundraising $4,000 to buy plane tickets to send all seven club members and two sponsors to attend the conference. By mid-March, the club had already raised $3,000 from carwashes and selling food at school events; they are asking for any donations. The district donated the rest of the money needed for this trip through Title 1 funds.
Co-president Yulissa Hurtado, a junior, said, “MEChA represents social justice and equality for everyone. I am really excited to be able to talk to other students around the country about a lot of different issues.”
This year’s sponsors, Ms. Jessica Mejia, Mr. Jesus Orduño and Ms. Sally Rusk are very proud of this year’s club members and wholeheartedly support the fervid efforts of their students.
“MEChA gives the students a voice and connects Pueblo with the community,” said Mejia.
On Saturday, March 28, MEChA hosted a fundraiser at Pueblo for Cesar Chavez’s birthday from 6:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Food was served and a DJ played music to entertain the crowd. MEChA was able to raise more money for their trip to Chicago through entry fees.
Pueblo High School MEChistas
Earlier that day, MEChA members as well as other supporters and students in other Pueblo clubs walked from Pueblo to Rudy Garcia Park to bring awareness to social issues.
MEChA, which began in the late 1960s during the Chicano Rights Movement, is a student-run organization that focuses on social justice and community outreach.
Our very own Warrior, senior Cesar Rivera, was totally surprised with Super Bowl XLIX (49) tickets—as well as vouchers for transportation costs.
Comcast NBC Universal and The Boys and Girls Club of Tucson teamed to make one deserving member’s dream come true with two tickets to the Super Bowl; and, on Friday, Jan. 16, that lucky person was Cesar Rivera.
Rivera said, “I was just sitting in the background waiting to get interviewed until a guy just came up to me with two tickets telling me that I’m going to the Super Bowl. Of course, without any hesitations, I said ‘YES!’” He paused and added, “With my other ticket, I took my dad.”
Rivera said that the two-hour trip to Glendale, Ariz., was very “adventurous”—in fact, he said, “ “It was sick!”, referring to his intense enthusiasm for the experience.
“I met so many NFL players such as Larry Fitzgerald, Odell Beckham, Andrew Luck, Aaron Rodgers and Colin Kaepernick.”
Cesar Rivera met some of his favorite players at the Superbowl
Rivera said that he and his father left Tucson on the Thursday before the Super Bowl and returned home on Monday, the day after the event.
“My dad and I took a tour of the Cardinal football field,” Rivera said, “and then we went tailgating before heading to the big game. We were seated near the [Seattle] Seahawks’ end zone, although there were a lot of [New England] Patriots fans around me.” Rivera said, “I even got to see the fight that went down between the two teams!”
Rivera said that despite all of the excitement he experienced, the most amazing moment was being in the front row seats to the NFL honors show.
“It’s like being at the Grammy’s,” Rivera said. “But instead of music, great NFL players were being honored.”
He added, “Since it was my first time attending the honors award show, I didn’t know we were supposed to be dressed fancy, so my dad and I went right away to rent some neat tuxedos.”
Pueblo will look to stretch their winning streak to four straight games Friday night when the Warriors host Nogales in a Week 5 high school football matchup.
Pueblo (3-1) opened the season with a late one-point loss at Amphi but has rolled off victories over Santa Rita, Rio Rico and Rincon.
The Warriors are led by 1st-year head coach Brandon Sanders, a former Arizona Wildcats defensive star who made it to the NFL with the New York Giants.
The Apaches enter at 2-2 having won two straight over Douglas and Cholla.
Nogales at Pueblo is our Overtime Game of the Week. David Kelly will be lives from the south side with a report in during the KOLD News 13 at 6 and you can see the game highlights Friday night on Overtime which kickoffs on KOLD News 13 at 10:20 p.m.
Jorge Romero (Class of 2016)
Pueblo’s Memo Berube and Jorge Romero both had doubts about their football team coming into this season. In fact, Berube, a senior, was toying with the idea of hanging up his cleats for good.
He’s glad he didn’t.
In just four games, Pueblo (3-1) has already matched its win total from each of the last three seasons. Furthermore, a win tonight would mark just the second time in the last 10 years the Warriors have registered four victories in a season.
“I’ve never felt this great during football,” said Berube, who missed most of last season with a left knee injury. “I wasn’t expecting as good of a season so far and came into the spring with some doubts.”
First-year coach Brandon Sanders and the Warriors host Nogales tonight at 7 with a chance to win their fourth straight game — a rarity in itself for Pueblo recently.
To make sure his players aren’t coming into the game overconfident, Sanders has reminded them that they haven’t been within 49 points of the Apaches in the last two years.
Nogales (2-2) has won seven straight meetings between the schools, most recently with a 56-0 win 2013, and holds a 14-6 advantage in the series. The last time Pueblo topped the Apaches was in 2000.
Coach Brandon Sanders
“That’s a major mountain for these kids,” said Sanders, a member of the UA’s “Desert Swarm” defense in the mid-1990s and a former NFL player. “We don’t shy away from anything; we recognize it, we own up to it and we step up to take on the challenge.
“That’s what I want to see: Can we step up to the challenge to play?”
The Warriors have already conquered one challenge this season, scoring two touchdowns in the fourth quarter to rally against Santa Rita in Week 2. Since then, Pueblo has outscored opponents 81-12 in two games.
“It transitioned from the field to the locker room,” said Romero, a junior who leads the team with 581 yards rushing and six touchdowns. “You should have seen the lock room; there was so much adrenaline, you could see that we wanted to play.”
Since taking over last spring, Sanders has reconnected with Pueblo’s storied past. Former coach Curly Santa Cruz is among those who Sanders has brought in to speak with the team. After all, Santa Cruz spent 15 years with the program and was the last one to lead the Warriors to the state playoffs, in 1990. The way Romero sees it, however, that’s about to change.
“A lot of people have high expectations for us but there’s also still a lot of low,” Romero said. “We had doubts from a lot of people coming into the season but we’re ready to prove them wrong.”
Pueblo High School juniors Justin Pledger, 15, and Vanessa Santacruz, 16, are among 240 Tucson Unified School District biotech students who will work closely with local employers to create career pathways and improve the district’s classroom instruction.
A new program launched Monday will help enable TUSD biotech students to take control of their future, researching career opportunities available locally and what employers are looking for.
The initiative is part of an effort to grow interest in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — and to create career pathways with help from students themselves. The information gathered by students will be shared with the Tucson Unified School District and Pima County One-Stop to develop meaningful programming.
About 240 students from Pueblo and Tucson high schools will take part in the Biotech Pipeline effort.
Students will gather information on nearly two dozen local biotech businesses and conduct interviews to make career connections, learn what companies are looking for and how that connects with what they are learning in the classroom.
“This gives students the opportunity to explore what they want to be and take the next steps,” said Carolina Canastillo, 16, an aspiring veterinarian. “I think it will help students understand what we are learning.”
While participating students have much to gain from the program, by documenting findings the lessons learned can be expanded upon and implemented for future students with an interest in STEM.
“Students learn quite a few skills in the classroom, and through working with people in the industry they’re able to see the application of those skills,” said TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez. “The best part is it ties our kids to employers to begin the conversation about what the employers are looking for in terms of their workforce. That, of course, better informs … all of us in what we need to have in our curriculum.”
On Saturday, before Dick Tomey spoke to about 300 high school football players and coaches at the Coaches for Charity Kickoff Classic Luncheon, before he spoke with about 400 coaches of all manner at Pima College, he visited Pueblo High School, which hasn’t had a winning season in more than 10 years.
Tomey wanted to see how Pueblo’s new head coach, Brandon Sanders, is doing in his first year as a prep head coach. From 1992-95, Sanders was one of the best safeties in college football, an absolute anchor of the “Desert Swarm” years.
Few coaches in Tucson have a more difficult assignment than Sanders does at Pueblo. Tomey met with the Pueblo coaches and the team. His message was simple: You’ll learn more from your struggles than anything else. Don’t get discouraged.
That’s Dick Tomey. Forget his career victory total (183), he was always about people first, football later.
One of those who attended Saturday’s luncheon at the Double Tree hotel was Tim Davis, who has coached at Alabama, Florida, USC, Wisconsin and for the Miami Dolphins. It was Tomey who gave Davis a career-changing opportunity in 1987, Tomey’s first Arizona season.
“I had been hauling meat in Wisconsin,” Davis said. “Dick called and gave me an opportunity to be a graduate assistant coach. It changed my life. It all goes back to him.”
Tomey, who has been out of coaching for three years, is retired and lives in Honolulu. He is 76, looks 56, and has become an in-demand public speaker.
“I always look forward to coming back to Tucson,” Tomey said. “I could talk about the fond memories of the people I met here forever.”
Event to celebrate three TUSD schools that won national
Bronze Awards in HealthierUS School Challenge
C.E. Rose, Tully elementary schools, Pueblo High lauded for improvements in food, nutrition, exercise
Tucson, AZ, November 15, 2013 – Three Tucson Unified School District schools will be honored for earning a Bronze Award in the HealthierUS School Challenge at a celebration on Nov. 20 from 10 a.m. to noon at Pueblo High School’s auditorium, 3500 S. 12th Ave.
C.E. Rose and Tully elementary schools and Pueblo Magnet High School earned the designation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s voluntary healthy school initiative by meeting criteria in three areas: offering healthful food options, providing nutrition education and increasing physical activity.
The TUSD schools are the only schools in Tucson to be recognized with the awards, and Pueblo is the first high school in Arizona to win the award.
At the celebration, each school will showcase activities their teams accomplished to earn the award, and students will share their stories. TUSD’s Food Services department will host a taste-test exhibit featuring new FUSION stations that have been added to some school cafeterias. FUSION menu items incorporate cuisines from around the world.
Mary Szafranski, associate superintendent for Health and Nutrition Services at the Arizona Department of Education, will present the awards. TUSD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez, Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, community partners and other representatives from the Arizona Department of Education will be in attendance to congratulate the schools.
Shirley Sokol, director of TUSD’s Food Services, and her department have worked closely with the schools and their nutrition teams to develop menus and make changes that led to achieving the Bronze Award.
“I was impressed by activities at each school: The walking paths, the field trips to the grocery store, the school gardens that tie into lifelong lessons,” Sokol says. “Students at Pueblo High School wanted to know what they should do to incorporate a healthy diet and exercise plan into their life. I found their commitment to pass on the information they learned to their families and communities unbending.”
