The commute from Jackson Francois’ day job at McKale Center to his side gig is only about 8 miles, mostly just straight south to a large set of nondescript buildings near Valencia Road and Interstate 19 that were once occupied by a Kmart.
“Might as well be 800 miles,” says Alex Ortiz, the principal of Southgate Academy that occupies the spot, and where Francois serves as volunteer basketball coach.
Arizona guard Jackson Francois coaches the boys basketball team at Southgate Academy, 850 W. Valencia Road, in Tucson on Nov. 20, 2025.
About half of Southgate’s roughly 300 students are siblings or children of others who have gone there, Ortiz says, while many others go to Southgate because they can’t find anyone else who will take them.
“We’re really their last stop,” says Ortiz, a former Los Angeles police sergeant. “They come with ankle bracelets, they’ve been to juvenile hall, they just can’t get their schooling squared away. So they come here for that second chance.”
Unknowingly, to some degree, Francois agreed to put himself squarely into that environment and build a basketball program out of basically nothing.
Head coach Jackson Francois demonstrates proper shooting form for his player Domanyk Figueroa during basketball practice at Southgate Academy, 850 W. Valencia Road, on Nov. 20, 2025.
A walk-on player for Arizona men's basketball and the son of UA athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois, Jackson has been a friend of Ortiz’s daughter, Julia, a first-grade teacher at Southgate. She asked him last spring if he was interested in coaching the school’s basketball team, and he said he was.
“Didn’t realize they didn’t have one,” Francois said.
No team. No coach. No uniforms. And, even with some recruitment help from staffers at student orientation, not even enough players to put together a 5-on-5 practice.
Nor a hoop to shoot at.
It's the “Zero A” classification of high school basketball, Francois says, and that was only one of many realizations.
Another one prompted him to make an expensive trip to a Walmart to buy two portable baskets, then another trip to Big 5 to buy shoes and jerseys, just to get started.
Head coach Jackson Francois looks for the pass during a practice at Southgate Academy, Nov. 20, 2025.
Francois estimates he’s dropped a collective $1,500 of his own money.
“We thought we were gonna get a budget,” Francois said. “We have no budget.”
It's far away from the world that Francois knew as a high school player at Las Vegas’ well-regarded Bishop Gorman program, and the ones around the Missouri and Arizona programs he has since played for.
“To motivate myself, I watched 'Hoosiers' a couple times, and realized after about one practice that Jimmy Chitwood is not walking through that door,” said Francois, referring to the standout player in the 1986 movie about a small-town Indiana high school basketball team. “But it’s just expanding the game of basketball to people that have never seen it, because it’s given me a lot."
Around 15 students initially showed interest, and seven of them stuck around for preseason practices, giving the Southgate Gators a roster just big enough to play games in the Southern Arizona Athletic Association.
“Toughest team wins,” reads a sign Julia posted to the wall, featuring an animated Gator holding a basketball against a state of Arizona outline.
Because the school's new portable baskets aren’t high school regulation, the Gators can’t play games at home, but they can develop there.
“I just want to get better every day, see what we can do to the best of our ability,” Francois said after a recent workout, carrying his practice plan on a Post-it note.
It’s not a straight upward curve. Francois said several players dropped out immediately, while even his top player, sophomore Jacob Delgado, said he initially considered quitting.
Jose Lopez dribbles into Jacob Delgado on his way to the net during basketball practice at Southgate Academy, 850 W. Valencia Road, on Nov. 20, 2025.
“I was not catching the ball. I was getting frustrated,” Delgado said. “I wanted to do everything perfect.”
Hearing that, freshman Aaron Celaya added, “I was also thinking about quitting.”
Several weeks later, they are facing a season-opener on Tuesday.
Delgado says he’s excited to test himself in a game with pressure and, for Southgate senior Joseph Badilla, it will be another step into a sport he's finally diving into.
"I never really played basketball, so I wanted to give it a shot,” Badilla said. “When I was little, I used to play out back with my brothers, but I wasn't really all that good. I started practicing here, and I just started watching videos on YouTube, and got better little by little.”
But in one sense, what happens at Tuesday's game doesn't matter. It might be more about what happens when the Gators go back to school the next day, and in the days, weeks and months after that.
Head coach Jackson Francois dribbles by Joseph Badilla during practice at Southgate Academy on Nov. 20, 2025, in Tucson.
“There have been some goods and bads but all in all the school has been helping me and my siblings,” said Badilla, who has attended Southgate since kindergarten. “Hopefully the school will get me through high school."
