Hayden High assistant coach Armand Cruz had been in the hospital since the 1A football championship on Nov. 15 but was finally discharged on Friday with two new lungs. 

It wasn’t visible behind the disposable mask, but Cruz’s ear-to-ear smile was evident as he walked out of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center breathing on his own for the first time since 2020. To commemorate the milestone, Cruz wore a Hayden High School Lobos three-peat shirt. 

After a 27-day stay, Armand Cruz and his wife, Arlene, walked out of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center with new lungs on Friday. (Jose Garcia photo/AZPreps365)His talented Lobos, dedicated family and angels at the Norton Thoracic Institute and St. Joseph’s watched over him and kept him motivated despite his battle with Rheumatoid Arthritis-Interstitial Lung Disease (RA-ILD). The 40-year-old Cruz became a candidate for a double lung transplant this year. 

For a decade, Cruz has courageously battled RA-ILD, but it didn’t stop the community pillar from making a difference in the lives of Hayden’s athletes.    

“It’s been emotional, because I’m thankful for my second chance,” he said a day after leaving the hospital. “Wow. I hadn't felt the sun in more than a month. It was emotional. It felt great, and I’m very thankful. I didn’t cry then, but as I was going (to my sister’s home) I got emotional. It’s been a rough last couple of years.”    

Cruz got the call he had prayed for from his pulmonary team the morning of the 1A football title game.

His hospital team finally received a pair of potential life saving gifts — lungs, which usually come from deceased organ donors. Due to privacy laws, organ recipients can’t know who the donors are.

“It’s scary, but a blessing at the same time,” said Cruz about receiving the long-awaited phone call. "Even though I didn't know who the donor was, I am very thankful for that person. You are waiting for this time and then it hits you right in the mouth. This is it. This is what we’ve been praying for.”

Cruz had plenty of blessings to count on that momentous Saturday. 

On the morning of Nov. 15, him and his wife, Arlene, were preparing to watch their 10-year-old twins, Breanna and Sienna, play in a club softball tournament in Peoria before driving to Scottsdale for the 1A football final. For the trip from Hayden to the Valley, Cruz hauled 25 life-sustaining cylinders of oxygen. 

During the past five years, Cruz, Hayden’s offensive line coach, wheeled a cylinder or two everywhere he went, even on the sidelines during the 1A final. Despite the health obstacles, Cruz, head coach John Estrada and their staff and current crop of players helped breathe life into a Hayden football program that hadn’t won a title since 1972. 

“Shoutout to the big boys, the best line in the state,” Hayden assistant Armand Cruz (center) said. (Chris Stanley photo/MaxPreps)  The morning of the 1A final, his doctors told Cruz that they still had to run tests on the donated lungs. So the transplant wouldn't happen until a couple of hours after the championship game.  

But a potential setback that might delay the procedure arose when Cruz thought he had a tooth infection. However, it was a false alarm after a trip to a hospital.

Cruz was cleared to rejoin his daughters and then head to Coronado High in Scottsdale, where Hayden met Bagdad in a 1A championship rematch. Cruz's battle with RA-ILD began in 2015, when he was first diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, an autoimmune disease that began to scar his lungs. 

Because of the pandemic, as the scarring progressed, there was a one-year delay in completely diagnosing the RA-ILD in Cruz, he said. Rheumatoid Arthritis runs in Cruz’s family. 

It developed into RA-ILD as the chronic inflammation kept attacking his lung tissue.  

It forced the assistant coach to leave his job as a senior warehouse tech for mining giant Freeport McMoRan in Miami, but it didn’t keep him from pushing forward. Cruz made goals for himself, showing a fighting spirit even when he was fatigued.

“Going through this I couldn’t imagine he would be as strong as he was,” Arlene said. “Battling it every day and still being there for our kids, it’s been rough. It challenged our relationship, but it has gotten us closer. He’s taught me a lot while battling through it. He put the struggles to the side and has been there for the kids and football players." 

While in the hospital, after becoming a double lung transplant survivor, nurses set a benchmark: walk 17 laps around his hospital floor before heading back to his room. 

Cruz accomplished it before being discharged. 

“That was another emotional day,” he said.

When he was in Hayden, Cruz was volunteering, coaching basketball, flag football and softball in community youth leagues with an oxygen cylinder not far behind.

For the past 18 years, he’s generously donated his time to mentor countless of athletes in the city of Hayden, which is an hour-plus drive south east of Phoenix.    

“It’s just the way I was raised,” Cruz said. “My mom (Hortencia) and dad (Bony), when they could, were always donating and volunteering and helping with everything. I always try to be there for the kids and help people. It just comes natural to me, in terms of giving back."

Family and the Hayden community reciprocated his support when Cruz needed it, he said.

His family support system is about 30 strong, including four siblings, Bonnie, Andy, Gina and Aaron. They have each stepped in to help since Cruz was first diagnosed with RA-ILD.

In 2021 is when doctors first recommended a double lung transplant. But Cruz was determined to see his son, Jarin, graduate from Hayden High in 2023 before undergoing the risky surgery.

Like father, like son. During his playing days, Armand Cruz (right) was a center at Hayden, where his son, Jarin (left), also played center and is now assisting as well. (Chris Stanley photo/MaxPreps) Doctors also wanted him to lose some weight before potentially becoming a lung recipient. Because of his young age, doctors agreed that Cruz could wait before being added to the national lung transplant registry list.

But this year, he started to run out of more precious air. In the past, his oxygen levels dropped dangerously low — 80 and sometimes 70 percent.  

For the last two years, Cruz was forced to wheel two cylinders instead of one while walking. Then, in September, he got COVID for the first time, delaying lung transplant testing for about three weeks. 

But you can’t keep a good man down for too long.  

When allowed to do so, Cruz helped train his daughters on a field that neighbored Hayden’s football field. He’d often glance over at the football team and text coaches if he saw something that could help his offensive line. 

During his COVID bout, he would park his black GMC Sierra truck on Lobo Lane to watch practice from a distance while his oxygen tanks went to work.  

Jarin, who also played for Hayden and is an assistant at the school, kept encouraging his dad, a Hayden alum himself, to come to the football field when he was COVID free. The kids wanted to see him, Jarin told him, but Cruz knew that if he went to practice, he wouldn’t stop doing so.

He was right. Even if it meant taking one exhaustive step after another to get the field, nothing was going to stop Cruz from contributing to Hayden’s historic three-year football run. 

With doctors orders, Cruz eventually returned to assist Hayden’s football team.

Besides family and his community, a higher power also gave him strength, especially this year.

“I didn’t think I could go through all of this, but my faith kept me going,” Cruz said. "I’m not through the woods yet. I’ve been through a lot these last couple of months. I sometimes have this fear that something will go wrong, but faith gets me through and shows me how strong I am. Through it all, I found my faith and God. I know He has a plan for me. I worry a lot. But sometimes you just have to let it go.”

Being around Hayden’s football team is some of the best therapy Cruz has received.

He couldn’t wait to gingerly walk to Coronado High’s locker room on Nov. 15 to tell Hayden’s head coach the great news he received earlier in the day. Estrada brought Cruz on five years ago. 

Estrada’s former top lieutenant, Bob Borhn, a former Hayden assistant, mentored Cruz before Borhn passed away after battling cancer. 

In 2003, Cruz was Estrada’s starting center during his first tour as Hayden's head coach. Cruz’s dad, Bony, was his line coach in high school. 

Estrada was quite aware of the community impact Cruz was making before hiring him.    

“(Cruz) is all about family for one,” Estrada said. “His family comes first, and he will take his shirt off for anybody. He will volunteer for anything. He’s about uniting. He is always there.” 

Estrada said he teared up after Cruz informed him that a pair of lungs were waiting for him after the 1A final. 

Once he heard that, Estrada told his devoted offensive line coach, “We are not losing today, brother.” 

“The (Hayden) coaching staff always had my back, helping me with my oxygen tanks and making sure I was always good to go,” said Hayden assistant Armand Cruz (third from left). “They are the best." (Chris Stanley photo/MaxPreps) Sure enough, Hayden went on to win 66-20. 

What the Lobos accomplished with the help of Cruz has been unmatched in Arizona’s 1A, 8-man football conference: They went undefeated for the third year in a row and extended their 1A win streak state record to 36 games.

After the game, Cruz finally told Hayden’s players about how his whirlwind day would end. 

“It shows how much (Cruz) really cares about us and how much he’s dedicated to us while going through all of that,” said Hayden’s four-year varsity center Angelo Castillo about seeing Cruz at practices and games. "But he’s still out there coaching and supporting us. It just means a lot.”

During the postgame championship celebration, if it wasn’t for the thin tube near Cruz’s face helping supply oxygen, you would have never guessed he was dealing with a critical challenge. 

In the postgame photos that captured Cruz with players and family, he flashed that championship smile of his. He was feeling a deep sense of gratitude that night as well. 

“Those kids helped me more than I helped them during this process,” he said.  

Next season, if his new lungs and health allows him to, Cruz wants to keep coaching. 

“Coaching my own kids and at Hayden, being there for them and seeing them grow, yes, I want to coach, with my wife’s blessing," he said. “Coaching these past five years at Hayden, for those 2-3 hours of practice, being with them, it made me feel like nothing was wrong with me. They never made me feel any different. I’m their coach.”

After the title game, it was time to head to St. Joseph’s. 

It’s truly amazing how Nov. 15 unfurled for Cruz. 

“It was a roller coaster of emotions,” said Cruz about the day he’ll never forget. “I was upset and worried because the toothache could possibly ruin everything. Then I was thankful and relieved to be cleared to see my daughters hit and show them dad made it.

"I soaked in and celebrated this championship more than the previous two. It’s been a long year of ups and downs. I was thankful I was able to be at the game and watch our boys make history. After the game, we were back on the roller coaster. I was scared, nervous, happy but most of all filled with gratitude and blessed to be able to receive new lungs because of my donor."       

Through the difficult and delicate lung transplant process, Cruz discovered another way he can help others. 

He said he now wants to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation. That’s one of the reasons why the modest Cruz decided to do this interview. 

“It’s OK to donate,” he said. “Being a donor saves lives and I’m proof of that."  

For the next 6-12 months, Cruz will need to stay in the Valley. 

He has to be near St. Joseph's to receive therapy and make sure his body doesn’t reject the new lungs. During this pivotal period, he’ll live with his sister, Gina Campos, who along with Alicia Jordan, a niece, and Arlene took turns remaining by Cruz's side at St. Joseph’s.

Christmas is right around the corner.

Despite not being at home in Hayden, there’s so much to be grateful for.  

“My husband already got the greatest gift,” Arlene said, “a second chance at life.”

To learn more about the importance of organ donation and a nonprofit organ organization that is making a difference in Arizona, go to danz.org.

Armand Cruz celebrated with family and friends after Hayden three-peated on Nov. 15. (Photo courtesy of Cruz)