To NUSD Trustee Sue Heredia, this was personal.
Heredia awarded $1,000 scholarships to Natomas High School seniors Terrance March and William Brown Thursday in honor of her late son, Salvador Heredia-Arriaga, a Natomas High School junior varsity football coach who died an untimely death six years ago at age 26.
Consistent with Salvador’s legacy, the scholarships go each year to Nighthawk football players who perform well in the classroom, value a college education, exhibit good citizenship, and help to make Natomas a better place to live. Both Brown and March plan to play college football next year – Brown for the University of Southern Oregon, March for Yuba College.
Heredia met with March and Brown before presenting the scholarships at Natomas High’s annual Awards Night, when hundreds of medals are presented to Nighthawks in categories ranging from Advanced Placement Scholar Awards to the Natomas Schools Foundation Scholarship to recognition of Natomas High’s Top 20 senior scholars.
Heredia’s message to March and Brown? Welcome to the “family.”
She urged the two Nighthawk athletes to keep in touch with her in the future and to give back to the community when they can.
“This is about giving back to the community,” Heredia said of the scholarships. “Giving back to a community that nurtured my children at this high school – and that believed in them. We always said in our family that when you graduate from college, you have a responsibility to give back to the community.”
Salvador Heredia-Arriaga loved kids and would return to Sacramento during summer break, while attending UC Santa Cruz, to work with at-risk youth.
Both March and Brown have starred in more than one sport at Natomas High. Both were All-Golden Empire League in football this year – and March was the league’s “Defensive Player of the Year.” Both also are track stars, and March earned honorable mention All-League honors this year in basketball.
More importantly, perhaps, both Brown and March are known for good character.
In Brown’s first year as a Nighthawk, the football team did not win a game, yet he stuck it out each year until the team earned respectability. Why? There may have been tough times, but we always were a family, he said.
March was named The Sacramento Bee’s Prep Football Player of the Week in September after a game in which he rushed for 162 yards, caught a 24-yard touchdown pass, and on defense, had 14 tackles and three sacks. “I can’t take the credit for any of this,” he told The Bee, “because it’s my teammates that put me in the position to make tackles, to score touchdowns. We do this together. It’s all of us.”
During their meeting Thursday, Heredia told the two football players that her late son, Salvador, struggled initially as a high school football player but never gave up, never missed a practice, and kept getting better. He loved Natomas High School and he loved football, she said.
Heredia urged March and Brown not to make fancy cars or fancy clothes their top priority over the next few years – get an education, she said.
Brown and March said they felt privileged to be selected by Heredia for a scholarship honoring her son’s legacy. Both want to make Heredia and her family proud in years to come.
“It’s like a motivation factor, because it’s like I’m doing something for somebody else now, not just myself,” March said.
Added Brown: “Just the fact that she’s here to support us, it means something. It’s always going to push someone when you have a supporter.”
