Headquarters, team effort save Rams pre-game breakfast

On the eve of the first game of the season – and just hours before the team was to break bread together at its first pre-game meal – Maricopa High School football coach Tyler Brandt got word that Ramsey’s American Grill, a team sponsor and host of the meals, had closed (see related story).

Moments later, Greg Huffman, director of the Positive Alternative to Gangs program at Maricopa Wells Middle School, serendipitously approached Brandt on the football field to wish him luck in their first game. “Tyler said ‘Greg, I need help,'” Huffman recanted Friday morning. The only place Huffman knew of that served breakfast was Headquarters – and he happened to know the owner, Alma Farrell – so he called.

Farrell, former superintendent of Maricopa Unified School District, initially hesitated because the restaurant did not have the food or staffing scheduled to accommodate the 50-plus members of the team. Farrell strategized with restaurant manager Amy Powell, a Maricopa High alumna, and contacted her sister and brother-in-law, Belinda and Robert McCullough, whose company, RD Electric, agreed to make a donation to buy more food.

Just 20 minutes later, she called Huffman back and asked, “Greg, will the boys eat breakfast burritos?”

“Alma, those boys will eat anything, they’re a football team,” Huffman quipped in return.

So Farrell said that if they could get the boys to the restaurant, Headquarters would feed them. “I couldn’t describe how that made me feel at that moment,” said Huffman, who has sent three sons to Maricopa High School. “It sent goose bumps all over me.”

Farrell downplayed her role in bailing out the team. “That’s how Maricopa has always been,” she said. “Everyone rallies to help.”

“It’s a great atmosphere,” Brandt said of Headquarters. “It’s awesome for the kids to be involved with something that’s been in Maricopa for over 50 years.”

It turned out to be a great prelude to tonight’s season opener after all. “Everyone is here, ready, talking and happy,” Brandt exclaimed. “We’re fired up and ready to go.”