New horizons

Former Hawks moves on from football; reflects on epic senior season.

Renan Duarte is 1 member of a very special class of student athletes that helped make up one of the arguably greatest football teams in the short history of Gila Ridge athletics.

When Tyler Kosel left the program after his freshman season, Duarte was 1 of the kids that bought in to the rebuild of the program by Corey Semler during his sophomore and junior campaigns.

By the time John Ellegood took over for Duarte's senior year, the star running back knew that the Hawks were about to fly into brand new territory.

"We know that our senior year, that we were going to be something different, and we talked about it since freshman year"

The Hawks opened a lot of eyes, when they knocked off the top 3 Imperial Valley League teams; with victories over Central, Brawley and Imperial during the early part of the season.

But the victories kept coming, as Ridge swept through their section for the 1st time in school history.

Only an overtime loss to rival Cibola would prevent them from getting the elusive unbeaten regular season record.

The playoffs would prove to be an even greater feat, as Duarte helped carry the Hawks to a 1-point 1st round road playoff victory against Coconino and would also bring bring a big contribution to Ridge's upset win against top-seeded Saguaro out of Tucson in the 2nd round.

Duarte's ankle injury after scoring a 1st half touchdown against Desert Edge in the 4A Semifinals might have cost the Hawks a trip to the title game, as he didn't return to action for the rest of the night in the 7-point loss.

The season as a whole will be one that Duarte will never forget.

"I loved playing football for Gila Ridge. I'm going to miss it for sure. I'm going to miss Friday nights for sure. Plus, this last year, especially how we saw what we could do. It was crazy, it was crazy feeling. I'm really going to miss it for sure."

Duarte will likely go down as one of the greatest running backs to play for the Hawks; as he's racked up more than 2,500 yards rushing and 25 touchdowns in his final 2 seasons combined for Gila Ridge.

But for Duarte, as much as he's enjoyed the game in high school, he believes his future is in another avenue of life.

Despite a number of people wanting him to pursue the game at the collegiate level; Duarte is willing to leave it all behind for a calling he believes he's had since a very young age; criminal justice.

Duarte plans on pursuing a career in either the Border Patrol or Customs.

Pursuing that dream begins at Arizona Western College this Fall.