Pueblo football players play for love of the game

They’re not playing for the money, endorsements deals or even to be on television, but more than 30 players showed up for the Pueblo Steel’s combine Sunday.

The team is part of the Colorado Football Conference, which is a semi-pro football league.

Ben Sotello is one of those players who participated in the combine. He is trying out to be an offensive lineman. He played football at East High School and the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

He said after college football, professional football leagues were not knocking on his door asking him to join a team. He went back to Pueblo to find a job.

He said football is his passion, but balancing life with the sport can be difficult.

“I’m a full-time welder at Vestas, I got six kids, two sets of twin boys,” he said.

Sotello said even though he isn’t paid to play; putting on the pads, along with traveling and representing Pueblo is good enough for him.

“It gives me an opportunity to do something that I love to do. It gives me an opportunity to be somewhat of a role model for my kids through sports,” he said.

The team has been around since 2010. Doug Kenyon is the head coach of the Steel. He said trying to get players to practice each time can be a challenge since the players have family or job priorities that come first.

“Tomorrow, they can have a death in the family and say ‘coach, I’m not going to be able to make it’ or ‘my ex dropped the kid off I might not be at practice today,'” he said.

But despite the challenges, Kenyon said he loves that his players are showing the commitment to play football despite juggling with priorities outside of the sport.

Through the struggles, Sotello, Kenyon and the rest of the team hope to bring a CFC championship to Pueblo and join CSU-Pueblo and Pueblo East High School who both brought championship hardware to the Steel City.

The home opener for the Pueblo Steel is May 16 at Pueblo County High School’s Hornet Stadium.