When Mingus Union High School senior Zach Figy was 10, he got a call at 7:15 a.m. one morning from his brother, who was working on a ranch with a friend. The invitation for Figy was to come out and work for the day.
Figy remembers now that he had been begging for the chance to work. That call not only allowed Figy to go to work at the time but also helped him build an interest that he still has today.
“The ranch was in Clarkdale and I told them I’d be there in five minutes — even though we were 15 minutes away,” Figy said. “It wasn’t work. I just wanted to be out there with my brother and one of our friends. Basically hang out the whole time, but we had stuff to do.”
Now, as he looks ahead toward graduation in the spring, Figy knows that welding and fabrication is a field that he wants to get into.
He also hopes that any incoming freshman who are thinking about going into Mingus’ welding program — as well as the agriculture and automotive programs — will do it.
“You can build crazy things; I find it very enjoyable,” he said. “For incoming high school students, if you’re thinking about joining the ag[riculture] program and you’re on the edge about it, do it. Those have been my favorite classes since Day One. I would suggest taking that. Same thing with welding, same thing with auto. You don’t have to do it for a living. But it gives you enough understanding and practice to where you can do it.”
Figy has not only been a fixture in those programs since he began at Mingus but also on the Marauders football and basketball teams.
And on the gridiron, one of Figy’s best memories at Mingus came during 7-on-7 drills in the summer, before his freshman season even started.
“In the summer coming into freshman year, when coach [Bob] Young was still the varsity coach, I was playing quarterback and linebacker,” he said. “Coach Young pulled me off of the freshman/JV team and played me some drives at varsity quarterback. Coach had faith in me since Day One and that helped me get a lot of confidence.”
Figy eventually moved to tight end. In his recently concluded senior season, he caught eight passes for 102 yards with two touchdowns. At linebacker on defense, he was in on 58 tackles with two forced fumbles, 1.5 sacks and an interception.
In basketball, Figy most fondly remembers playing on the road against Mohave in his junior season. He recalled teammate Andrew Naher pumping him up on the long bus ride, then going out and playing one of his best games.
In that game, Figy scored 17 points and pulled in 14 rebounds. Figy, who normally plays in the low post at center, also recalled hitting a three in that game, which drew a big reaction from the Marauders boys and girls teams in the gym.
Additionally, while Figy has played his last football game for Mingus, he’s not quite done on the hardwood. The Marauders struggled to a 4-23 record a season ago, going 1-11 in the 4A Grand Canyon Section. He wouldn’t mind seeing those same numbers on the team’s record this year, just in a different order.
“Mingus — the whole school — hasn’t had the best seasons in these past couple of years,” Figy said. “This year, I want to flip our record from last year. I’d like to bounce back. We have the players to do it. The coaching is there. We have everything to do it. It’s just a question of if we’re going to.”
When his time at Mingus is done, Figy hopes to be remembered as a good kid, a good student and a good athlete who was always looking to help.
He also hopes that the Marauders Class of 2021 is remembered fondly, especially with how it’s handled all of the obstacles that the last year has presented.
“I want people to think good about the class of course,” Figy said. “But one of the things I want them to think of us as is the class that made it through. With everything going in in the world, we made it through the struggles and mishaps. We never quit.”
