SPORTS

The Chandler Bears youth football team is preparing to head to Florida once again to take on a national field in hopes of being crowned the champion. (Courtesy Kacey Allen)

Chandler Bears preparing for national title run in Florida

BY JAKE HEDEBY

Arizonan Staff Writer

The Chandler Bears are a force to be reckoned with in the American Youth Football league in Arizona. This group of 12-year-olds know each other very well, but they are also very familiar with winning.

A core group of them have played football together since they were 6 years old and have been crowned state champions five years in a row. Following a year off because of the pandemic, the Bears are right back where they started.

The Division One AYF team won the 2021 state championship and is headed to Florida for the national tournament. They have already been named national champions once there, back in 2018. They now look to come out on top again.

Coach Kacey Allen shared that he has been with the team since it started and coaching this age is all about the basics and playing together. That’s what makes this team successful.

The team already has some accolades. But that’s not because there are only two or three players dominating their opponent. This team has been competitive for a reason and they worked hard to be one of the best in Arizona year in and year out.

“Our main philosophy is to teach team football, selfless football,” Allen said. “I think that is really what has helped keep the attrition low.”

This becomes pivotal when looking at the longevity success the Bears have shown. And although high school is less than a few years away for these middle schoolers, the focus is on this team, what they can accomplish and what each kid takes away from his years playing youth football.

When asked about the future for these players, he kept it honest.

“We think about it, but we don’t have a plan yet,” Allen said. “We’re still open to whatever we feel is going to be best for the boys.”

Parents are not lacking involvement with the Bears, as they are a big part of what makes the team run: from each parent taking their kid to practice to those who volunteer to help on game days.

Not only are they there for support and guidance, but these parents are also why these young athletes have the opportunity to travel out of state and play football against tough competition. Everything takes money, and they have to fundraise throughout each season to prepare for the travel expenses.

“That’s always the challenge every year is to raise funds,” Allen said. “It’s a collective effort from all the parents to do multiple fundraisers.”

The team raises money by selling tickets to Suns games and raffles. Other funds come from donations on the team website. Every dollar is used to take the team to Florida in December.

The logistics of getting the whole team to the other side of the country shows it isn’t just an ordinary game or tournament for the Bears.

They travel together as a team and rent vans in order to get from the airport to the houses they stay in. One year, the team stayed in a house with 10 different rooms. All of the travel and living they do as a unit really adds to the camaraderie between not only the players, but their family members too.

“A lot of these people would have never met if it wasn’t for our team, and now they are like family,” Allen said.

The trip is more than worth the cost, as it is an experience that will be a fond memory for years to come. Traveling and competition bring these families together that will make lifelong bonds, and to these parents, there is no price tag that would deter them.

With everything that this team has done and will do, they almost feel like more than a youth football team. It speaks volumes as far as what athletics can do for kids and the environment it can create. “I say it every year, at the beginning of the season we have expectations,” Allen said. “By the time we get to the end of the season, we tend to exceed those expectations.”

THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | NOVEMBER 28, 2021

Female kicker overcomes paralyzing injury

BY DYLAN WILHELM

Cronkite News

In late January, Krysten Muir was alone in a hospital room, unable to move. In 2015, Muir made Arizona history by becoming the first female to score in an AIA state championship football game when she booted a pair of extra points for Tempe’s Marcos de Niza against Saguaro High in the 2015 4A championship game.

She was Marcos de Niza’s kicker in 2015 and 2016 and made five of her 10 field goal attempts and 98 of 112 PATs.

Before she began kicking in high school, Muir played soccer and volleyball. She also rode horses competitively and as a kid often would hang out at football practices at Marcos de Niza, where her father Jeremy was an assistant coach.

She eventually beat out two other kickers to earn her spot at Marcos.

After graduating from Marcos de Niza in 2017, she played soccer and took classes at Gateway Community College with plans to become a personal trainer.

She was on the move. Then her life was literally flipped upside down. In late January, Muir was a passenger in a car traveling south from Payson in weather that she describes as “pretty gloomy.” The driver lost control and the car rolled over.

Muir suffered a spinal injury and lower body paralysis in the crash.

Her L1 vertebrae had burst, and her L2 vertebrae was fractured. She was paralyzed from the waist down.

Chad Dunn, Muir’s physical therapist and founder of Move Human Performance Center in Chandler, said patients describe the sensation of such an injury as “somebody pulling the electrical cord out.”

Jeremy Muir and Krysten’s mom, Kathy, were terrified.

“Nobody wants to hear those words that your child was never going to walk again,” Kathy Muir said.

After surgery, Muir said doctors placed her odds of walking again at 50/50.

While she was in the hospital, Dunn reached out to her to help with her mental state. According to Dunn, the mental side of the recovery process is just as

important as the physical, as reflected in his motto: “Mind Over Virtually Everything.” Once out of the hospital, the recovery process continued. Krysten had to relearn how to do everything from the waist down, including how to walk and how to dress herself. “At first it really was mind blowing because I was like, ‘Wow, I’m literally telling my leg to move forward and it is not moving forward,’” she said. Dunn and Muir continued to work together to rebuild her strength and help her relearn muscle movements. “He’s believed in her since day one,” Kathy Muir said. “They have a really good relationship, and I think he will be in her life forever.” Dunn’s focus on both physical and mental As the varsity kicker at Marcos De Niza High in Tempe, Krysten Muir was the first female player to score in an Arizona strength resonated with Muir, and her mental State championship football game. Her father Jeremy is an toughness continues to assistant at Marcos de Niza. (Courtesy of Krysten Muir) impress Dunn. “She’s such a competitor,” he said. “She’s such a tough girl that she’ll come back to the best of this injury.” Anderson continued to move, pushing forward with support from Dunn and others from all over the community, including from her former high school, Marcos de Niza. “The community support has been amazing – there’s not a better word for it,” Jeremy Muir said. His daughter, however, was used to doing squats and leg presses, stacking multiple plates on the bar. Now, she had to relearn the motions with little to no extra weight on the bar.

After about three months, she was able to walk again with assistance. She was determined to beat those 50/50 odds, and while her parents were afraid to “bank on it” happening, there never was a doubt in her mind. “I already knew I was going to walk,” Muir said. “It was like, ‘Okay, thank you for that suggestion, but I am going to. I just have a lot of work to do.’” In September, the Arizona Cardinals partnered with the Desert Financial Foundation to create the Arizona Breaking Barriers Student Athlete Scholarship in her honor to recognize “determined, resilient and impactful student athletes.” Muir will select one of the 10 recipients. “I think that’s a fantastic legacy,” her father said of the scholarship. “And if that is how her name goes down and how she’s remembered at the end of the day … then that’s all you can hope for as a father.”

Now the kicking coach at Marcos de Niza, Muir is part of the same Padres coaching staff that her father has been a part of for years. For her, it is a way to continue sharing her passion for kicking. “I can help with my knowledge to the next (kicker) and just motivate them and push them as far as they can,” she said.

Not only do her players feed off of her energy, but they also feed off of what she has been through and how she continues to overcome obstacles.

Her future plans include writing a book and working as a motivational speaker. She is close to earning her personal-training certification. “I feel like I have a good amount of options for me,” she said. “They’re kind of just like all up in the air, but I definitely want to give them all a try.”

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Contact Zach Alvira at zalvira@timespublications.com and follow him on Twitter @ZachAlvira.