YUMA, AZ – Cibola quarterback Curtis Wolfe is somewhat the unassuming type.
Maybe, in his first year as the team’s starter, he’s not quite used to the spotlight. Maybe it’s his deference to teammates when asked about the Raiders’ offensive success. Maybe it’s Wolfe’s calm demeanor in the pocket or his comfort level running the show with a group of fellow seniors he’s known since tee-ball.
Whatever the reason, Wolfe, who through seven games has ascended to one of the most prolific passers in the state, seems to take his personal success in stride; almost not noticing it.
“It’s surreal,” Wolfe said about seeing his name near the top of every statistical leaderboard. “Once again, I can only credit it to my team. People don’t get, a lot of those yards, yeah, sure I put the ball where it had to be, but those are yards after catch. The touchdowns I have are efforts from my receivers like Mark [Walton] and Gabriel [Claudio]. It is a weirdly cool feeling to be up there, but stats are just numbers.”
The numbers, though, don’t lie. He has thrown at least three touchdown passes in five-straight games, including a six-touchdown, zero-interception gem against Brawley on Sept. 16. He’s got 24 total touchdown tosses on the season, nearly 2,000 yards, and a completion percentage of 65.4 percent. And he’s done it just seven games into his final season, his first as the starter.
“He’s learned to make quick decisions and to have confidence in, not only himself, but his teammates in that they’re going to be where they need to be and where he’s going to make the throw,” Cibola head coach Lucky Arvizo said. “So, him and his receivers have done a real good job and the offensive line has done a real good job of giving him time.”
Getting to this point, though, has not been easy. Wolfe watched from the sideline his junior year, while his friend Bailey Arvizo, the coach’s son, was wildly successful in leading Cibola to an 8-3 record. And after getting a taste of varsity football during summer 7-on-7 tournaments, Wolfe struggled in a 44-7 opening-night loss to Horizon.
“The pressure was there as you can probably imagine,” Wolfe said, wearing a red Rich Rodriguez passing camp T-shirt prior to practice during Cibola’s bye week. “I wasn’t in that mode yet. It felt really strange to me. We weren’t really prepared for that speed.
“I believe that I’ve progressed, solely because my team has given me confidence. That was hard for me at the beginning, especially after Horizon. Confidence is hard to find when you haven’t been playing up there.”
Arvizo agreed that Wolfe’s proficiency as a passer has accelerated since that loss in week zero: “He has progressed tremendously from that first game. You can just tell by his confidence. You know, he’s making really good throws as well. He’s throwing to what we’ll call open windows, knowing that his receiver’s going to be there and beat the defender.”
The precision timing of finding open spots to connect with his receiving corps of Claudio, Walton and Miguel Alvarado, has been a work in progress since those sweltering summers.
“Working out on Saturdays and over the summer with each other really brought us together and kept that chemistry there,” Walton said.
The group began conducting weekend workouts two years ago under the direction of Claudio, Walton and Bailey Arvizo, who graduated in 2016 and is currently a backup quarterback at Arizona Western College. Wolfe was a part of those workouts, too, even as Arvizo’s understudy. And, now, he’s helping organize them.
“People don’t understand that we’ve been working on this since we were younger, way, way younger,” Wolfe said. “Every weekend, every Saturday, we go in and work on little things that people might think are pointless, but they don’t understand that’s what makes it so much easier on the field.”
It’s also been easier because the Raiders’ skill players, all seniors, grew up together. They played youth baseball and football together. Wolfe met Claudio, the state’s leader in receiving touchdowns, when the two of them were 6, and he met Walton in fourth grade. There’s a certain unspoken connection that comes with that, something that blends well with Wolfe’s leadership style.
“He is a very respectful and very humble individual,” Arvizo said.
Walton added: “He’s not very talkative, but he leads on the field by setting an example for the other guys.”
And maybe that’s where Wolfe’s unassuming nature comes in handy. He doesn’t have to say much, but his cool and collected demeanor can speak volumes.
