Alaskan high school football team travels to Phoenix to play in game

It was a warm welcome for the East Anchorage Thunderbirds this morning as they arrived in Terminal 2 at Sky Harbor.

PHOENIX (FOX 10) - It was a warm welcome for the East Anchorage Thunderbirds this morning as they arrived in Terminal 2 at Sky Harbor.

"Forty-three players, about 10 coaches, it's a good opportunity," coach Jeff Trotter said. "We had a hard time finding teams that would match up with us out there due to size differences and things like that. It was a good matchup, diversity-wise school size-wise and everything else."

The team is in town for the next few days to play the Cesar High School champions for the second year in a row.

The East Anchorage Thunderbirds are to play the Cesar High School champions for the second year in a row.

"I run a football camp in Alaska for the past 21 years, so I knew the coach up there," said Lenny Doerfler, athletic director at Cesar Chavez. "I reached out, I talked to our principal and our football coach and I said, 'let's play an out-of-state game, but let's not go to California or Nevada, the kids have done that, let's go someplace where these kids will never, maybe never have an opportunity.' "It was an absolutely amazing trip."

Alaska has experienced some record heat this summer. Coach Trotter says it reached 95 degrees on the practice field, but he knew he would have to prepare his players for what they would face here in Phoenix, and we're not just talking about the game.

"Coming up here, it's going to be very interesting because we're playing them on their turf," one player said. "All we gotta do is adapt to the heat."

"Drink a lot of water, drink a lot of water," another player said.

Chavez won the game last year, but to these kids, just making the trip meant they were all champs.