Football: Before the First Kickoff, There Stands a Mountain

Before the first whistle blows. Before the first touchdown is scored. Before the lights come on Friday night or the bands take the field on Saturday afternoon, there is another tradition that plays out quietly across southern New Mexico. It doesn’t happen in stadiums or weight rooms. It begins on the side of a mountain.

Photos Courtesy Centennial Hawk Football (via Facebook)

This summer, football players from New Mexico State University, the University of Texas at El Paso and Centennial High School all shared remarkably similar moments. The Aggies climbed to the summit of A Mountain with the simple message, “Straight to the top.” Centennial’s football program marked its annual “Rock Challenge 2026.” Soldiers from the 1st Armored Division Artillery joined UTEP players for the climb to the summit of Mt. Cristo Rey, carrying weighted gear before completing a workout overlooking the Rio Grande Valley. Three teams. Two New Mexico mountains. One tradition.

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Long before football existed, mountains represented places of preparation. Throughout history, people have climbed them in search of perspective, endurance and purpose. The ancient Greeks looked to Mount Olympus as the home of the gods. Moses ascended Mount Sinai before descending with the law. Pilgrims have climbed Japan’s Mount Fuji for centuries, while monasteries throughout the Himalayas sought the solitude found only above the valleys below. Across cultures and generations, mountains have served as places where ordinary life gives way to extraordinary effort.

Photos Courtesy NM State Football (via Facebook)

Southern New Mexico has its own mountain traditions. Each Christmas season, members of the Tortugas Pueblo undertake their annual pilgrimage to A Mountain—Tortugas Mountain—a centuries-old expression of faith, community and perseverance that remains one of the region’s most enduring cultural traditions. While the purpose differs from an athletic climb, both share a common understanding: reaching the summit is less important than the discipline required to get there.

Photos Courtesy Centennial Hawk Football (via Facebook)

Football coaches understand something similar. Championships are not won on mountain trails alone, just as they are not won in July weight rooms or summer conditioning drills alone. Still, a championship season almost certainly begins with difficult work that few fans ever see. The climb becomes a shared challenge, one that teaches teammates to encourage one another when the trail steepens, to continue when legs grow tired, and to discover that individual accomplishment means little without the group reaching the top together.

That lesson was on display atop Mt. Cristo Rey, where Soldiers from the 1st Armored Division Artillery joined UTEP players in a demonstration of esprit de corps before hearing words of encouragement from head coach Scotty Walden and Command Sgt. Maj. Brandon Morey. At New Mexico State, players paused at the summit after posting simply, “Just the beginning.” Centennial’s “Rock Challenge” carried much the same message without needing additional explanation. Every climb marked not an ending, but the first step toward a season still to come.

Photos Courtesy NM State Football (via Facebook)

Perhaps that is why mountains continue to matter. They cannot predict a winning record or guarantee a championship. They simply remind those willing to climb them that meaningful accomplishments rarely begin under bright lights. More often, they begin before sunrise, one difficult step at a time, on a trail that generations before us have already learned to follow.

Photo Courtesy 1st Armored Division (via Facebook)