Hayden's Kino Lorona looks to cap high school football career undefeated, three-time champion

HAYDEN, Ariz.

The times never seem to change in the desert towns off Arizona State Route 177.

Signs of old are everywhere and traces of new are tough to track down.

"You can't go and jump in a car and drive five minutes down the street to go to the movies or anything like that," said Jeronimo Lorona, an assistant coach for a small town high school's football team.

Hayden, Arizona , and the neighboring Winkelman have a combined population of 800 people.

"Mother, father, aunt, uncle, nana, tata, everybody along the family tree, we know everybody," basketball coach Sam Gonzalez said.

The two towns were built on the copper industry and the Hayden Smelter is their version of a skyscraper.

The concrete structure stands tall, but not as tall as the big man on the Hayden High School campus .

Senior Kino Lorona has lived in the area his entire life and takes an immense amount of pride in his upbringing.

"Coming from this community, we've always been taught to be humble, to be dedicated.

If you're going to work, just give it your all.

100 percent effort all of the time," he said.

The Lorona last name is part of the Hayden legacy.

Kino's great-grandfather was a state champion football coach, his grandfather was the baseball coach, his uncle is the current baseball coach, his aunt is the athletic director and his dad, Jeronimo Lorona, coaches the football team's running backs.

Kino Lorona believes he is following in their footsteps.

"Just knowing that I'm keeping the tradition alive," he said, while also admitting he wants to do it bigger and better.

"It's been done before, but it hasn't been done like this." Kino Lorona is believed to be the most decorated athlete in school history.

He is a running back who has rewritten the record books and a linebacker who is also a line drive machine on the baseball diamond.

His football teams have gone undefeated the past two years.

In fact, the only time the Lobos have lost in the last four years, Lorona was a freshman and unable to play.

"In the quarterfinals, I got ejected for targeting and then I couldn't play in the semifinals and we lost that game," he said.

He enters his final year of high school football with more state championships than losses.

If he caps off his senior year with a state championship in football and baseball, he would graduate with seven state titles.

Perhaps the only person who can wrap her mind around Lorona's mind-numbing success is his mom.

"He always gloats to me.

He's like, 'I won it, Mom,' I said, 'It's just one.

I want to see if you can do all four,'" Carol Lopez-Lorona said, whose Hayden softball team won four straight state titles.

It's clear that winning rings runs in the family.

"I'm amazed.

Every single play, every single game, there's always a play that I'm like, how did he do that?" she said.

That question is one the Lorona family feels hasn't been asked enough.

"It's kind of hard coming from a small school," Jeronimo Lorona said.

"You kind of get overlooked.

If somebody would give him a chance, I feel he's going to really impress them." Jeronimo has seen his son's game speak loud, only for talent evaluators to turn the other way.

"Being in 1A, nobody knows you," Kino added.

Despite the blood and sweat it's taken, Kino Lorona said he's not sweating the lack of Division I interest.

"I'm just trying to put my name out there and prove them wrong," he said.

Hayden High School hasn't had a D1 athlete since the 1970s, and while Kino has had conversations with Northern Arizona University, there isn't an official offer yet.

"Hardest worker, most dedicated and most humble kid you're going to get," he said.

In a sense, it's the same old song for the town of Hayden and its underrecruited and underestimated school.

Yet Kino Lorona's purpose is more pointed.

"Coming from here, I just want to show the younger kids that it's possible.

You could do it," he said.

He believes he's paved a path, though he's unsure if he'll be the one to walk it.

"I'll play wherever.

I just need that opportunity," he said.

Kino Lorona said he's confident that the times will soon change.

Arizona sports The city of Phoenix is home to five major professional sports league teams; The NFL's Arizona Cardinals, NBA's Phoenix Suns, WNBAs Phoenix Mercury and MLB's Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Cardinals have made State Farm Stadium in Glendale their home turf and the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix is home to both the Suns and the Mercury.

The Indoor Football Leagues Arizona Rattlers play at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale.

Phoenix also has a soccer team with the USL's Phoenix Rising FC, who play at Phoenix Rising FC Stadium in Phoenix.

The Valley hosts multiple major sporting events on a yearly basis, including college football's Fiesta Bowl and Guaranteed Rate Bowl; the PGA Tours highest-attended event, the WM Phoenix Open; NASCAR events each spring and fall, including Championship Weekend in November; and Cactus League Spring Training for 15 Major League Baseball franchises..

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