Cesar Chavez High School football begins season in Alaska

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - It's game week, but not a typical game week for Cesar Chavez High School football.

They'll get the Friday night lights this week, but it'll be in Alaska.

"Going tomorrow, it's still surreal, getting on the plane didn't kick in until we had the official meeting," Josh Garcia said.

The pads and helmets all have to make the trip and it wasn't easy to get to this point; fundraisers and hard work set the trip up.

"Everyone really had to put in and everyone had to raise a certain amount of money for the trip and everyone did," Andrew Blitzke said.

"Fundraisers, we did everything you could think of," Head coach Manuel Alcantar said. "People donated money, volleyball setups helped us out a lot, anything we could think of we did and we made it."

The trip is a first for just about everyone on the team.

"The sunlight is going to mess with us, been on my mind, but otherwise we're still playing a football game, there's gonna be green grass, goal posts, and touchdowns, so I'm looking forward to it," Blitzke said.

And the opponent in East Anchorage is no slouch.

"They can play, they can play ball, we're not gonna go up there and waste money to play a team that's not any good," Blitzke said.

But win, lose, or draw, the experience will be everything.

"The atmosphere of the game, it's gonna be the biggest game for them, playing there with the people, the nice cold weather... we never get that," Alcantar said.

And what can we expect?

"Domination, point blank period, domination," Blitzke said.