Central High School football coach Jon Clanton is always on the lookout for new talent, and this time, it came as a package deal in brothers Oliver, Eloi and Cosmas Kwete.
“You always want to stop big kids and ask, ‘Are you interested in playing football?’” Clanton said. “They said they were rugby players and I said, ‘Well, rugby’s like football.’”
The Kwete brothers arrived in Phoenix a few months back, relocating from Zimbabwe as part of a resettlement program. All three grew up as multi-sport athletes and were also members of the Zimbabwean national rugby team which served as a great foundation for football.
“I really need to thank my Zimbawean coaches for coaching me up,” Eloi Kwete said, “They prepared me for football and football is a sport where you need to have discipline. It’s hard to be disciplined and to be organized.”
There were a few growing pains at first, but the brothers’ athleticism was obvious from the start, Clanton said. It translated well from the rugby field to Friday nights.
“You can definitely tell they have football vision,” Clanton said. “They know where the holes are. They know where the ball carrier’s going to be. They know angles. They know tackling.”
Even before coming to Arizona, Oliver said he was attracted to football.
“They don’t play the games over there but everyone that I’ve known that’s moved (to America), they’ve been posting their football pictures on Facebook,” he said. “So I was saying , ‘Wow this is the sport that I’d wish to play if I lived in the United States.’”
The brothers are sophomores at Central this year and all three play defense — Cosmas is a defensive end and Eloi and Oliver are linebackers. Joining the football team has aided the Kwetes’ transition into their new school.
“The whole team is my friend, my family,” Cosmas Kwete said.
It’s been a long journey for the brothers, who are originally from the war-torn country of the Congo in central Africa. The family fled to Zimbabwe more than a decade ago, first seeking solace at the Tongogara Refugee Camp before later making their home in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital.
For now, Arizona is home and the brothers said they can see a forever here, too. They’ve got their eyes set on college and maybe one day, the NFL.
Their coach has big plans for them too.
“It’s going to take a couple of years,” Clanton said. “But I think once they figure it out they’re really going to be dangerous kids.”