KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
—
Ashley Morales rounded the corner a few steps into the Kansas City Chiefs locker room Tuesday and stopped in her tracks.
It’s the place she wanted to see most on her tour of GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, but the bank of TV cameras pointed her way as she walked in gave her pause.
Morales, a senior at Washington High School in Kansas City, Kansas, and her family were invited to tour the stadium along with Jaden Lopez, a senior at East High School in Kansas City, Missouri, and his family as part of the NFL’s Latino Youth Honors program.
It wasn’t until Isiah Pacheco walked in the sprawling locker room and Chiefs staff members waved for Morales to join him that she realized she and Lopez were there for the surprise of a lifetime.
“I’m so happy to be here,” Morales said as she practically glided halfway across the locker room to meet Pacheco.
Lopez and a few of his Bears football teammates weren’t far behind.
“I just thought we were just coming here for a tour to look at the locker room and the football field,” Lopez, who also plays on the East baseball team, said. “I was not expecting to meet Pacheco.”
Morales said she’d never been inside Arrowhead before Tuesday.
“I've just been a fan, just watching from TV my whole life, so to be here, it's amazing,” she said. “I was very excited, even with just the tour itself and seeing the stadium from places that I've never even thought I was going to be able to step in, you know, the suites.”
Pacheco, a fourth-year running back for the Chiefs, had one more surprise for Morales and Lopez as he showed them the nooks and crannies of his locker.
“This is where we keep our shirts and stuff and we also have these two tickets right here for y’all to come to the game,” Pacheco said.
Morales squealed in excitement and Lopez, who’s been to preseason games but never a regular season game, was stunned.
“For me, as a kid, I never got to meet an NFL player, so I know this moment for them will be special to cherish forever,” Pacheco said.
Morales joined the Wildcats flag football team this fall and it’s quickly become a refuge.
“It made me pay more attention at school, you know, have something to look forward at the end of the day, just going to practice, being a team player, being an inspiration to my teammates,” Morales said.
It was nearly a year ago — Oct. 16, 2024 — when Morales’ best friend, Maylin Valles, died from aplastic anemia, leaving her despondent.
“Losing her had a big impact on my life,” Morales said. “It caused me to go into a very sad depression. I had nothing to look forward to, I didn't care about my grades, I didn't care about school or being involved at all.”
Joining the flag football team is part of her journey of healing.
“She would have wanted to do so much more with her life, so I need to appreciate it because we only have one,” Morales said. “So, I try to be involved with everything that I can be.”
Lopez’s father “faced deportation while (he) was growing up,” according to a press release from the Chiefs.
It was an emotional strain and left his mom and grandfather to raise him, but sports kept him grounded and focused.
“Baseball and football, it really helped me in school, helped me stay on track and on top of my grades, because I won't be with play sports if I have 2 Fs,” Lopez said. “... My grades have been good since freshman year, so I have a 3.2 GPA or something like that, so I definitely think that sports do help me in school.”
Pacheco, who grew up as the youngest of five kids in New Jersey, understands the impact sports can have on youth facing a crisis.
When he was a high school teenager, two of Pacheco’s siblings — his brother Travoise and his sister Celeste — were murdered a year apart, so he leaned into football as a way to cope.
“Every day, you go hard and you wake up and get new things in front of you,” Pacheco, whose father is of Puerto Rican descent, said of the lessons football taught him about resilience. “You get knocked down, you just get back up and eliminate the distractions.”
It’s a lesson Morales and Lopez continue to learn in their own way.
“Sometimes it's hard to carry everything all at once, but it's definitely worth it,” Morales said. “This right here just proves to me that somebody's seeing me and somebody is noticing my hard work. Everything that I've been through, it's worth something.”
Pacheco said he hopes to score a touchdown and give Morales and Lopez a game ball after Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens at 3:25 p.m. at Arrowhead.
“I can’t wait to see them out there and, most importantly, if I get to score a touchdown hopefully I’ll get to give you all a ball,” he said.
—