A downpour Tuesday and Wednesday morning forced the Sun Devils to move their first practice up north from the lower field at Camp Tontozona to Rumsey Park in Payson, Ariz.

However, neither the weather nor the change in location deterred the Sun Devil faithful from coming out to watch practice as a mixture of fans, alums, current students and kids from across the state helped the team begin the first day of their annual trip to Rim Country.

The team was able to get in a full practice as the weather held off and was rewarded at the end as head coach Todd Graham gave the team McDonald’s for the bus ride back up to Camp T.

As part of Sparky’s Tour, which is to help motivate young children to continue their education, football’s Marcus Ball and former volleyball student-athlete Stephanie Preach, among others, visited a local Payson school to spend the afternoon with kids.

Lunch and team building activities, which were broken into position groups, followed practice. The offensive and defensive lines, wide receivers and long snappers were the first to make the trek up legendary Mt. Kush.