When it comes to high school sports, football is often the dominant program. However, at Arizona College Prep, the football program didn’t even exist until last year.

The process of adding a football team began long before 2017 though. Heather Osborn, ACP’s athletic director, was hired in 2013 to bring the school’s athletic programs back up to standard. Upon being hired, Osborn immediately started surveying to see what sports the students and parents wanted. The answer was, overwhelmingly, football.

So Osborn set up meetings with the Chandler Unified School District athletic director, Marcus Williams; the assistant superintendent of secondary education, Dr. Craig Gilbert; as well as ACP’s principal, Robert Bickes. It was Osborn’s job to gather all the information needed to launch the school’s football program, and then bring it to this staff at the district.

On Osborn’s part, this included even more surveys to get hard data. She figured out how many students already enrolled at ACP would participate on the team, as well as how many students in the surrounding middle schools would enroll at ACP and also participate on the team. These numbers then translated to how many jerseys would need to be provided and how much equipment.

One step of this long process that even now has not been sorted out is the location. ACP does not have the necessary facilities to host a football team, and Osborn knew that was going to be the trickiest obstacle going in. She arranged to use the field at Anderson Junior High as the ACP softball team and tennis teams already played there.

“That was our home away from home,” Osborn said.

But Osborn had gone into this arrangement with the information that the facilities at Anderson were going to be updated soon, although no timeline was given.

Chandler Unified School District provides everything else for the first year of a new program. This includes a full set of uniforms and equipment. Neither Osborn nor Williams had exact numbers for how much they cost but did say nothing was purchased out of ACP’s funds. The team did not even get a second set of uniforms until halfway through their second season.

The school did receive donations, including a set of red jerseys from an anonymous donor. A more unusual donation was some scaffolding to hold the sound system and provide a press box while the football team was playing at Anderson Junior High.

“We would spend a minimum of four hours every Friday for home games out setting up,” Bickes, ACP’s principal, said.

Osborn also explained the grueling process she and the principal went through setting up the sound system, scoreboard and banner every game. What was so grueling?

Overall, Osborn and Williams said the hardest part of this entire process has been the facilities. After one season at Anderson, they decided the field was not at the standard they preferred. This year, the football team has been back-and-forth between Chandler High School and Hamilton High School for home games, and next year they could be traveling between four schools just for home games.

“The biggest drawback is the kids don’t ever have a place to call home,” Osborn ssaid. “We’re always playing on the road.”