“Every time you think about this community, people think negative. ‘Aw, a bunch of poor people live out there.’ Negativity is a disease I want to kill.”
This is how Robert “Beto” Mejia, the head football coach at Mendota High School in California’s central valley, addresses his team before a game last fall.
Mendota is a small town of about 11,000 people, the majority of them Latino immigrants. It is a town where most of the residents find work on farms and in the fields nearby, including most of the high school players.
In the summers, many of the Aztecs’ players are at work before dawn in the fields to earn money for their families before coming to football practice.
ESPN followed the Mendota High Aztecs and star senior Edgar Segura on a record-breaking season in search of a California Section championship while uniting the school and community with team pride.
Faith, family, hard work, and football. This story is as American as it gets.