Raiders, EA Sports team up to 'Field the Future' for Las Vegas youth

Feb 07, 2024 at 05:36 PM

Levi Edwards

Digital Team Reporter

Sunrise Mountain High School become fully entrenched in the Super Bowl week experience Tuesday.

It was a jam-packed day for the East Las Vegas high school – with the Las Vegas Raiders, EA Sports and Xbox teaming up for the "Field the Future" event.

The Silver and Black have already established a relationship with Sunset Mountain High School, as their football head coach Chris Sawyers won the 2023 Tom Flores Coach of the Year after leading his team to the 4A State Championship for the first time in school history. Sawyers was also gifted two tickets to the Super Bowl earlier this week at Opening Night.

Qiava Martinez, Raiders Chief Sales Officer, did the honors of the ribbon cutting for the school's new esports gaming lounge. The converted classroom now boasts over a dozen PC and Xbox Series X consoles. The Xbox consoles are also customized, with the artwork conceptualization coming from a student artist.

Highlights from the #Raiders teaming up with @EASPORTS, @EAMaddenNFL and @SunriseHSMiners for the “Field the Future” event for Super Bowl Week.

A new esports gaming lounge was unveiled to the Las Vegas high school, with a special appearance from Maxx Crosby. pic.twitter.com/jjOsELQj6r
— Levi Edwards (@theleviedwards) February 8, 2024

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"I'm just surprised with how [much] the room has changed," said Luis Rodriguez, a 10th grader at Sunset Mountain. "They talked about custom controllers, but I didn't think they were going to customize the Xbox's either. It's a big upgrade from what we had before with the monitors and the equipment. It's really nice."

The day before National Girls and Women in Sports Day, Martinez was also on a panel with a few other influential women in football to share her experiences within sports with the Sunrise Mountain Miners.

The main event of the day came in the form of Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby stepping on the field to host an on-field combine for the students. As Crosby assisted with the drills, students participated in a 40-yard dash and three-cone shuttle runs. Their results were converted into their own Madden rating as if they were players in the video game.

"The most important thing to me is showing up every single day and showing these kids I wasn't a five-star dude, I didn't just fall into a position where I was on a professional team. It literally started with the work every single day," Crosby said. "I put my best foot forward and try to improve, but it took years to get to this level and I'm still looking for improvement. I know I can still get better. That's my message that I share with these kids."

Following the combine, Crosby stayed around to take pictures with the high schoolers in front of the newly revamped EA Sports Madden Cruiser – an homage to the late head coach John Madden, who led the Raiders to their first Super Bowl victory in franchise history.

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A Sunrise Mountain High School student designs their own Nike By You shoes during the EA Sports Madden NFL Field the Future event at Sunrise Mountain High School.