Right at home at Buckeye
Delgado has gone from homeless to 3-sport star
Home now for Troy Delgado is a tiny outpost called Arlington, about 13 miles west of Buckeye, where there are three power plants and the historic Gillespie Dam Bridge.
Delgado, a Buckeye High School three-sport athlete, no longer worries about where his next meal is coming, where he’s going to lay his head at night, how he is going to get to school, what his future holds.
Now when he puts on the No. 69 football jersey worn two years ago by Yancey Vanosdell, his big-brother-like mentor, the 5-foot-11, 265-pound junior center knows where he’s going.
“I tell my adopted parents, ‘When I graduate, you won’t see me for two years, because when I come back I’m coming back with a piece of paper and you’re just going to smile,’ ” Delgado said. “I’m going to come back, graduated, certified with something. I’m going to be grinding for something and someone is going to appreciate me.”
‘Always had a smile on his face’
Last May, Thomas and Michele Vanosdell said they were awarded legal custody of Delgado. They took him out of a group home and provided stability, a sense of family and a place that would nurture his passion for life.
Thomas, who works at a power plant in Arlington, was Delgado’s freshman football coach at Buckeye more than two years ago. Yancey, a 2016 graduate, who is now on a football scholarship at an NAIA school in Kansas, took Delgado under his wing.
“My father raised me not to complain about anything that happened in life, to endure and be yourself,” said Yancey, a 6-foot, 300-pound lineman. “That’s what Troy was. You could talk to him every day and you wouldn’t know what his situation was at home. He never complained, always had a smile on his face. We didn’t know the extent of his situation until my father heard it from a coach.
“I went up and asked, ‘Are you OK?’ He said he was fine. He was never a poorme type of person. That’s what my dad loved about him. He loved Troy’s work ethic. Always wanting to learn. That is what influenced our decision to bring him in.”
Delgado’s optimism never wavered, not even when he was shuffling from family to family in the seventh grade. Not even when he was living on the streets and when he was sleeping in his dad’s friend’s back yard. Not even when he was living in a homeless shelter. Not even when his father was incarcerated at the end of his freshman year. Not even when he would go a couple of days without food. Not even when he was placed in a group home by the Department of Child Safety his sophomore year. Not even when he would have to get up at 5:30 each morning to get to school and then wait at night for a taxi outside the school with head varsity football coach Kelley Moore to get him back.
“He has overcome some of the difficulties of the world that sometimes gets pressed on some kids and families, especially with economic times as they are,” Moore said. “He never uses those things as excuses to lose, but reasons to win. Everyone who is around him is better.”
Playing three sports and more
During wrestling season, Delgado helped steer a troubled teammate away from a bad path with consistent open discussion. He still calls that teammate every day to check up on him, offering words of encouragement.
During track and field season, Delgado juggled throwing the shot and discus while leading the football team’s fundraising efforts, doing anything to get to Hawaii to play a football game in August. He has raised more than $1,000 himself.
The team needs to raise about $75,000 so that 50 players can go to Hawaii for the Aug. 19 game. The Hawks have more than $60,000 now. Recently, the Arizona Interscholastic Association cleared the school to play in Hawaii. That was cause for celebration at a school that never has had a lot.
“I’ve never been on a plane before,” Delgado said. “I asked Coach if one day we can get up early and run on the beach. I’ve watched it in the movies, like Rocky. We can go as linemen, run a quarter of a mile, and watch the sun come up.”
Junior Jesus Mireles became friends with Delgado when they were freshman. He made sure Delgado had food and a place to sleep.
“At one point, he lived with me,” Mireles said. “You just have to be there for him.”
Delgado is still close to his father, even though he is in Florence now. He knows he’ll have to pick up his grade-point average to be accepted into college, but he knows he also can fall back on trade school.
He would like to work on diesel engines, like his dad did, before his body broke down. When they had to scrounge for food, or search for a place to stay, he said he was never told to feel sorry for himself, just to be grateful for the smallest things, such as the bag of groceries the dad’s friend’s daughter would give them at times.
“He’s always happy, trying to get the best out of everything,” quarterback Joseph Perez said. “He’s not afraid to speak his mind. If there is something wrong, he’ll tell you.”
Michele Vanosdell said there is constant open dialog at home.
“We talk a lot with him,” Michele said. “He said, ‘You guys talk.’ We talk about everyday stuff. When he gets home from school, I ask him how school was, I ask him what he had for lunch. He would ask about my day. He’s like our kid. We introduce him as our kid. People don’t know the circumstance.”
‘I just let sports take over’
Sports provides the outlet for all he has gone through. And Buckeye has made him the center of its sports community.
“I tell people a little bit of my story and they ask why I’m still like this,” Delgado said. “I tell them the reason is right here, because of sports. I don’t let negativity and frustration take over my life. I just let sports take over. It puts me in with positive people in my life. They love me to death. They’re more than friends. They’re my brothers. This is where I go to relieve my stress.”
Moore said he looks forward to seeing Delgado five years from now.
“It’s really going to be something,” he said. “Troy gets to take good stuff from all of us, and see the not-so-good stuff and toss that away.”