CENTENNIAL — Eddie Benavides, Arapahoe football manager, is unusual in many ways, not the least of which is that he has a job for life.
He can bring out practice dummies, set cones on the field and patrol the Warriors sideline as long as he wishes.
“Why not? This is the game I love,” he said. “When you get to work in your occupation, with your sport, it’s enjoyable.”
Never mind that the Warriors’ 2001 graduate is 5-feet-2 and maybe 110 pounds — if he has bricks in his pockets. Benavides, 29, is a giant among strapping schoolboys, a standout within legions of the physically gifted who don’t always realize what they have.
Eighth-year Arapahoe coach Mike Campbell recalls a recent season when the Warriors were highly ranked but had troubles with the team, suspensions, removals and arrogance among them.
“I kind of lost it with them,” Campbell said. “And I told them to look at Eddie. . . . He ended up giving some pregame speeches, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.”
Born in Phoenix, Andy Benavides’ fourth son had three serious symptoms when born: no soft spots in his head, severe problems in his joints and limbs, and his body was failing to produce muscle and fat tissue. His parents were told to move to Denver, Houston or San Francisco for prime medical care, and to consider placing him in an institution.
Regarded as a vegetable for nearly three years — “He never cried,” his father said. “He could only look at you” — it was unimaginably challenging. Surgeries? His father said he “stopped counting at 27.” His family took turns living at the intensive care unit. Eddie’s brain activity was practically nil. And his face and skull had to be reshaped.
But years of immense patience and amazing physical progress, Eddie landed in Arapahoe’s special-needs program. He was asked to join the football team and has been a fixture ever since, including wearing an Arapahoe coach’s top.
“We love Eddie. He’s always helping out, he’s always out here,” Arapahoe tackle Cody Smith said.
Steady Eddie, whose bedroom and motorcycle sport Arapahoe’s colors and logos, also is a fantasy football nut. He’s involved in four leagues, including one with his church. “I’m locked in,” he said.
Only his passion for dirt-track racing supersedes his football interest, but this way, he said, he can be on the sidelines “and yell at the referees.”
He’ll be there Friday, when the Warriors play Heritage at Littleton Public Schools Stadium. By season’s end, when the Warriors host their senior banquet, it’s no secret who will get the biggest cheers.
“At the 2004 banquet, I’ll never forget these words, at all,” Benavides said. “Coach Campbell goes, ‘This is the only man in this room with a lifetime contract.’ “
Footnotes.
Former Mullen linebacker Hunter Foraker, now at Dartmouth, is a finalist for the National Football Foundation’s High School National Scholar Athlete Award. . . . Mountain Valley, earlier awarded a forfeit victory over Aguilar, actually defeated Pikes Peak Christian 65-19 last week to snap a 16-game losing streak.
