This story was updated at 7:54 p.m. with the news the Friday night varsity game was delayed until Saturday due to a power outage, and Saturday’s junior varsity game was canceled.
The Bishop Diego community is hosting players from Chicago Hope Academy as the school football teams prepare to face off in some friendly games this weekend.
This experience offers a lot of positive firsts for many of these student athletes, including being able to fly on a plane and see the ocean for the first time.
The weekend games have been arranged thanks to the longstanding friendship between Bishop Diego’s special teams coach Mick Luckhurst and founder/CEO of Chicago Hope Bob Muzikowski.
Mike Cano, Bishop Garcia Diego High School’s interim athletics director, Muzikowski attended a few of Bishop Diego’s games last year and it was during this trip that the possibility of Chicago Hope Academy traveling to Santa Barbara for some friendly competition was discussed.
“The opportunity to host will provide our student-athletes and families insights into a part of America our society is often sheltered from. These boys are fabulous young men that are provided opportunity within a community where hope is a word that is used sparingly,” Cano said.
He said the goal is to give student-athletes from both schools an opportunity to bond.
“They are sure to find that they have more in common than they may think and, much like our Bishop kids experience daily, the values prized by both schools bridge any socioeconomic, religious, geographical, or ethnic differences we might naively think of as obstacles,” he said.
(Courtesy photo)
The players from Chicago Hope are being hosted by 16 Bishop Diego families during their stay, and all attended a dinner Luckhurst organized Thursday night.
The teams will get together again for a meal Friday before the varsity game, and for a barbecue at Leadbetter Beach after Saturday’s junior varsity game.
Both games were planned at Santa Barbara City College, but a Friday night power outage caused them to delay the varsity game until Saturday morning at 11 a.m. The junior varsity game scheduled for that time was canceled, Noozhawk Sports Editor Barry Punzal said Friday night.
Both of the match-ups are home non-conference games for Bishop Diego, and Cano said future games against out-of-state schools “will be an option for us.”
“We are blessed and enlightened by this experience,” Cano said Thursday.
Chicago Hope football officials have been posting photos of their visit and said the team was enjoying getting to know Santa Barbara and the Bishop Diego community.
The Friday varsity game will be streamed live on Bishop Diego’s website and Noozhawk will have coverage of both games.
— Noozhawk intern Jessica Reincke can be reached at jreincke@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.