TUCSON — Every kid deserves a Saturday in the fall.
That is the idea behind the Extraordinary Cats Football Camp at the University of Arizona: a day in which children with disabilities, their siblings, friends, cousins and anyone who wants to join can take the field alongside Wildcats players and coaches.
The camp was born from something personal.
Arizona defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales and his wife Sandra have spent years fighting for inclusion for their youngest daughter, Abby, who was born with Down syndrome in 2014.
From preschool on, they pushed for her place in general education classrooms alongside her peers.
"Her Down syndrome diagnosis is a part of her, it doesn't define her," the long-time football coach said. "And her typical peers will learn as much from her as she does from them."
"She's just as capable as anybody else," Sandra Gonzales said.
That belief became the foundation for everything that followed.
Sandra first discovered a similar program, NFL running back Christian McCaffrey and his family's Dare to Play Football Camp for individuals with Down syndrome, and brought the idea home.
"I showed it to Danny and I was like this is really cool… and he said if I'm ever a head coach, we're gonna implement that," Sandra said.
Danny made good on that promise.
He launched the Extraordinary Lobos Camp at New Mexico in 2022, and when he joined Arizona, head coach Brent Brennan made sure the tradition made the trip with him.
"One of the first things Coach Brennan said… is that something you'd want to carry on here? And I was just so grateful that he offered it to us," Sandra said.
The camp welcomes everyone, with no restrictions on age or type of disability.
"There's no age limit… it does not matter what the disability is, we want everybody. We fought for inclusion for our daughter, so why are we gonna limit anybody else?" Danny said.
Now, each year, Wildcats players and coaches spend the day cheering campers through their own version of game day.
Parents line the sidelines watching their kids run, laugh and feel part of something bigger, some already counting down the days to next year's camp.
For Danny, that is the best part of all.
"I think the biggest joy is watching the parents… because they see their kids with smiles, they see their kids excelling…I don't think it gets any better than that," Danny said.
For Sandra, it all comes back to why they started.
"At the end of the day we're more alike than different… they just want to belong," Sandra said.
