Hannah Bronkema is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Arizona College Preparatory for AZPreps365.com

In the sleepy town of Pinetop-Lakeside lives a family that has resided in the White Mountains longer than the city itself has existed. Through generation after generation, one Curbello has made his mark in the tiny town and beyond.

Shawn Curbello may look like any other ordinary softball coach; however, his life has been anything but average. What started as a professional bull fighting career turned into home construction before protecting and serving his hometown community with Pinetop-Lakeside PD.

It was during this time that Curbello began mentoring the youth and began his life’s work of molding the minds of the younger generation. Tragedy struck the Curbello family after high school sweetheart Lanie Curbello was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. That awoke a newfound passion for healthful living and the beginning of an entrepreneurial adventure.

Despite leaving the police force, Curbello continues to protect and serve the people in his community at Arizona College Preparatory as a security guard. It is here that Curbello remains true to his life’s work as he continues to mentor the young women of ACP’s varsity softball team as their head coach.

“Shawn has always wanted to serve, and he has always been a protector and has always wanted to make sure that everyone was taken care of,” Lanie said.

Cowboy Curbello

“My grandpa was a cowboy, he ranched. Everyone on my dad’s side of the family were involved in something that had to do with ranching all the way back to our ancestors who did the first cattle drive in the new America’s. So, something like that [rodeo] has always been in our blood,” Curbello said.

Growing up around rodeo and ranching, Curbello fell in love with the cowboy lifestyle after watching his dad ride bulls. When he was old enough and with his father’s permission, he too began bull riding. However, when Curbello and his father showed up to rodeo one day and they needed a bull fighter, all it took was the promise of a payday to make Curbello step into the ring. After that fateful day, Curbello said he was “hooked” and spent the next ten years bull fighting and dressing up as a rodeo clown, receiving as many as 40-50 adrenaline rushes a night.

Curbello eventually entered the pro circuit as a bull fighter for the largest rodeo organization in the world, PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association). He fought for numerous years and team roped winning many saddles, making everlasting memories and friendships along the way before hanging up his spurs.

The love of rodeo has been passed down to his children in one way or another. Lanie recalls their children being able to “ride a horse and pick up a rope from a young age.” The oldest, Mark, rode bulls like his father and grandfather while the second oldest, Shawn, and youngest, Conor, participated in tie-down roping. While their girls, Frankie and Emily, were not as involved in the rodeo scene they enjoyed riding horses and participating in athletics such as cheerleading and softball.

Conor’s passion for rodeo afforded him the opportunity at an education beyond Blue Ridge. He received a full ride rodeo scholarship to Central Arizona College where he will be doing tie-down roping and team roping while continuing to carry the Curbello’s love for rodeo.

Hometown home building

After graduating from Blue Ridge at 19, Curbello entered the workforce determined to begin making an honest living. From 1988-2000 Curbello worked year-round in construction building homes in the Pinetop area.

“My favorite part of construction was being able to walk away from a sight and see something that you had built with your hands,” Shawn said. “My least favorite part was doing construction in the wintertime.”

The winter season in the Pinetop/ Show Low area can be unforgiving with temperatures often dropping to below freezing. The cold temperatures didn’t deter young Curbello from putting in hard work as he would often shovel the snow off the floor of the home or use a weed burner to melt the ice and continue building. After spending 12 years in construction, family man Curbello made the decision to trade the life of a construction worker in for a job with steadier hours so that he could spend ample time with the people he loved.

To protect and to serve

Curbello’s decision to go straight into the workforce after high school meant that he was without a college degree to fall back on. The police force was something that Curbello said had “interested him for a long time” and the opportunity to continue making money while learning was too good of an offer to pass up.

“It was a way to go to school to become a police officer and have it paid for while you were going through the academy,” Curbello said.

While the job came with steady hours and more time spent with family, the small department of Pinetop-Lakeside still endured dangerous encounters that caused an emotional toll on the Curbello family. Due to the small size of the department, officers often had to go without vital updated equipment that allowed them to do their job easier. Couple a lack of resources due to budget cuts with the White Mountains that are notorious for being a part of drug country and you get a bad mix.

“There were days when you would wonder if he was going to come home that day especially when the crime started to really escalate. There were lots of drugs being ran through there [white mountains] and being from there and seeing the crimes through Shawn’s eyes that were always hidden from us opened my eyes to our community,” Lanie said.

Despite the dangerous duties of the job, Curbello excelled on the force. Close friend and former partner Andy Hawkins reminisced fondly on his time at Pinetop-Lakeside PD where he and Curbello worked the midwatch shift and served as school resource officers for Blue Ridge schools.

“Shawn is a dedicated person. Not only to the job he does but to his family as well. He thinks of other people before himself. The man is a good person and to any job he does he gives more effort than any other person out there doing the same thing as him. There’s no B.S. with Shawn- he doesn’t sugar coat, but he talks to you in a way that makes you feel comfortable,” Hawkins said.

After serving for over 11 years in his hometown, Curbello decided to turn in his badge in 2013 after his wife left Pinetop-Lakeside in 2012 to begin their health business in the Valley.

Tragedy turned into tenacity

In 2003, a year after the birth of their youngest, the Curbello family entered a turbulent time. Lanie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Growing up, Lanie always had trouble with her ovaries as she was diagnosed with endometriosis- a painful disorder in which tissue similar to the tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus (the endometrium) grows outside the uterus. The condition caused her ovaries to become over-crowded with cysts which resulted in over 20 laser surgeries attempting to burn off and remove the cysts.

The laser surgeries prompted monthly doctor’s checkups and blood draws at which time her doctor noticed that the cysts were becoming increasingly large and numerous. After a pap smear test came back abnormal with a diagnosis of ovarian cancer, Lanie decided to undergo a full hysterectomy along with treatment at only 32 years of age.

Despite beating the cancer, it wasn’t long after treatment that Lanie was experiencing horrible side effects due to the countless medications she had to administer each day and in 2008 the Curbello’s discovered Saladmaster- Lanie’s “second chance” at life.

“It [Saladmaster] teaches you how to keep all of the metals out of your body, how to retain over 93% of the nutrition in your food more than double any other way of cooking,” Curbello said.

The Curbellos to began selling the cookware, then opened up their own store in the Valley to continue sharing their passion for healthful living with others.

While their business continues to boom, Curbello has more than cookware on his mind.

Molding minds

What began as a security job found out of boredom has turned into a head coaching job at Arizona College Preparatory as Curbello continues to mentor the youth of today.

“My main philosophy is to make the student athlete leave my program a better person. Not necessarily a star athlete, but to have learned some life lessons through the program through commitment, integrity and honesty. If I can teach them to set goals and then train forward to achieve those goals, they will leave my program an all-around better person to go into the work force or college or whatever,” Curbello said.

As a first-year coach Curbello brought with him over 20 years of coaching experience at both Blue Ridge and Snowflake along with even more experience as a student-athlete himself. Before taking over the program during the 2019-2020 season, the Lady Knights lacked any off-season workouts, a practice that Curbello initiated in June 2019.

Ahead of COVID-19, the Lady Knights were at the top of their division with a 4-2 conference record before the halt of all high school sports. This season the Lady Knights have a secret weapon under their belts named “Locker.”

Much like an ordinary P.E. class, Locker allows Curbello to work with the P.E. coach while doing his normal security detail at ACP. With the addition of the new class, Curbello is able to lay out 3-4 workouts a week for his team that consist of throwing, hitting, conditioning or weight training which comes in handy as ACP begins its J.V. inaugural season this year.

Curbello said his goal is to finish in the top 16 to make it to the playoffs. However, it will not be an easy feat.

“We’ve gotten off to a really, really slow start. We have been making a lot of mental mistakes and things like that so we’re kind of behind the ball right now. We’re in a position where we have to win out the rest of the year to make the playoffs,” Curbello said.

Things are beginning to click for the Lady Knights. They are on a three-game winning streak coming into week five of their season schedule. Their next game is scheduled for Thursday April 22 at Chandler Prep with first pitch at 5 p.m.

Win or lose ACP has found more than meets the eye in head coach Shawn Curbello.