Luke Lendler is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication student assigned to cover Tempe High School for AZPreps365.com.

With a loquacious speech pattern, a quick grin and an outfit always featuring something bright pink, Albert Rodriguez is hard to miss. Whether he’s pressed against the fence, cheering for his son, Tempe junior Jaiden Hart-Rodriguez, or wrapped in animated conversation, the founder of Pink Formula is a staple of the Tempe football experience.

Pink Formula, one of the primary sponsors of the Buffaloes’ athletics, has its logo splashed not only across Rodriguez’s hat or shirt at any given moment, but signage and boards across Tempe’s football field. A young partnership with important consequences, Pink Formula’s involvement with the program has aided not only the school, but the company as it continues to expand in the high school football community.

“Having that support has been awesome,” Tempe head coach Sean Freeman said. “I mean, if you just spin around in this stadium, you can see the logo everywhere; it really has a presence.”

Founded in 2001 as a commercial cleaning supply company, Pink Formula added a wrinkle to its product after more than a decade, shifting to household cleaning supplies featuring the company’s signature pink Himalayan salt formula. 

Around the time when Rodriguez was finalizing his new line of cleaning supplies, setting up partnerships and getting the product on Amazon, his son was in the final semester of his sophomore year at Mesquite. 

One day after practice, Hart-Rodriguez was searching for a way to clean his receiving gloves and eventually used one of the Pink Formula laundry sheets as a wipe. It worked like a charm — and sent another idea into motion in Rodriguez’s head. As he drove his son to practice the next day, another lightbulb went off for Rodriguez.

“‘Why don't I do fundraising with my products?’” Rodriguez recalls asking himself. “Kids do popcorn, chocolate; everyone's tired of that. Why wasn’t I doing product fundraising with my product? It's a cleaning solution. I mean, we grew up playing club soccer, traveling all the time with dirty socks this and that, we'd always just buy new ones. Hard to do laundry while you're traveling. You know, nobody wants to carry, you know, 32-ounce liquid that spills.”

As his idea unfolded, it made its impact felt across several youth football teams during spring tournaments as the fundraisers increased and the returns poured in. With Hart-Rodriguez transferring to Tempe prior to this season, Rodriguez, who jokes that the kids call him Mr. Pink, found his mothership.

“Coach Freeman has a very open-door policy,” Rodriguez said. “The conversation was as simple as, ‘Hey, Freeman, I want to do something different. I have a product here that families love.’ We all need to do laundry. It ties in with cleaning the uniforms, keeping you fresh and clean. Freeman, just hearing that, gave it a quick green light.”

While fundraising has gone a long way for the Buffaloes — a program impacted by the seemingly overly common budget issues of high school sports. The impact of having a Rodriguez around the program has been felt beyond the bottom line.

“I love talking with these kids,” Rodriguez said. “It's allowing you guys to go out there and be, and kind of have that entrepreneur mindset. I'm bringing value in regards to building a way of these kids open up, and I'm bringing value in helping them think outside the box. I love teaching them. If you go out and work and do something, you get rewarded for that. So, to a lot of these kids, it’s exciting.

Hart-Rodriguez, who was awarded All-District honors this season for his play at defensive back, the value of his father’s involvement could never be quantified by a number.

“It’s awesome that he’s so close with us,” Hart-Rodriguez said. “I mean, that’s my dad. That’s someone who I’ve always known and has always held me accountable and made me as good as I can be. It’s cool to see him help other people with that outside of just the sponsorship.”