Clark Borjon was a soccer star at Sedona Red Rock High School. Since his graduation in 2019, he’s found even more success in the sport, presently playing for the United Soccer League’s Phoenix Rising FC. Now, he’s hoping to use that success to help kids have a slightly easier path in soccer than the one he traveled.
When Borjon was learning how to play soccer in Jerez, his hometown in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, he did so without having a pair of cleats to wear. With the hopes of helping kids in Jerez in similar situations to what he experienced, Borjon has set up a cleat donation drive through his foundation — the Clark Borjon Foundation.
Borjon is looking for people to donate cleats — both new and old — which will be sent to kids in Jerez.
“One of my dreams has always been to start my own foundation to help little kids,” Borjon said. “I always told myself when I was little and didn’t have a pair of shoes to play with that I wished someone would do this for me. That’s why I want to take some of my time to start my own foundation and I hope it grows so it can be all throughout Mexico. I want to start in a small part of Mexico and take it from there.”
Borjon’s efforts have been helped by Sam Blom, the current boys soccer coach at SRRHS who also coached Borjon while he was with the Scorpions. Blom even went as far as to set up a drop box in the main office at West Sedona School, where members of the community can drop off pairs of cleats.
The cleat drive has been going for roughly one month. Thus far, Borjon has collected 40 pairs of cleats. Of those, he noted that 20 were his old shoes. That includes the shoes that he wore while making his professional debut.
“They’re kind of new — I only used them once,” he said. “I wanted to keep them because they were special, but I want to give them to someone who needs them.”
Additionally, anyone who does donate cleats will get a personalized thank you from the recipient of them.
“Every time I get a lot of cleats I want to send them to Jerez,” he said. “I’m not going to go there. Because of soccer, I can’t right now. But I’ll send them. And every person who donates a pair will get a video from the kid who got them in return to thank them, so they know it’s legit. If you donate a pair of cleats, someone’s going to get them, I don’t even know who. They’re just going to send you a video thanking you.”
In addition to the drop box at West Sedona School, anyone who wishes to donate can contact Borjon via email: Clarkdiaz2001@gmail.com.
If one wants to help but doesn’t have cleats to donate, they can donate money, which Borjon will then use to purchase new cleats.
Borjon is thankful for the help that he’s received from Blom, as well as those who have already donated. He hopes to continue using his pursuit of one childhood dream to make his pursuit of another one even greater.
“Since I was really small I always said that I wanted to start my own foundation to help kids,” Borjon said. “This is a way to do that. My other dream was to make it big in soccer. That’s happening. This is my other dream and I want to work on it.”
