Eric Sorenson
What a difference a year makes.
When then new Casteel High head coach Joe Bushman arrived on campus nearly a year ago, he immediately sensed something inside the Colts’ program needed to be changed.
11 months after accepting the job, Bushman accepted a gold ball at Mountain America Stadium in Tempe after leading Casteel to a 42-27 upset win over Arizona heavyweight Centennial in the 6A State Championship Game.
The Casteel Colts are the 2025 6A State Champions!#PoundTheRock@CasteelAthletic @JoeBushman5 @CUSDAthletics pic.twitter.com/x8a2tbwiDX
— Casteel Football (@CasteelFootball) December 6, 2025
CHS finished the season 9-5, after a 6-6 2024 campaign.
“Zone Read” sat down with Bushman earlier this week to discuss a number of different CHS football topics and storylines since he took over in January.
The Bond Which Built
While “culture” is a common cliché passed around by coaches more often than common game film, nothing erodes a high school football program faster than disconnect from within. For Bushman, who arrived in the southeast Valley after being the head coach at Division III Lewis & Clark College in Portland, it was evident the Casteel football foundation needed a re-structure long before worrying about depth charts, schemes and formations.
“It didn’t take me long to kind of realize they really didn’t know each other,” Bushman bluntly told to the “Zone Read.”
So, he planned non-football team events last off-season, such as putt-putt golf experiences and volleyball tournaments, as well as on-campus team events like attending Casteel baseball games and watching the cheer team perform.
“I was trying to get the kids to spend time and build relationships,” Bushman continued. “We had seniors who didn’t even know the name of juniors. It was crazy to me.”
With the extended time spent off, and on, the field together – Bushman saw the culture change.
A Colt Tradition!
Casteel High School’s Parade of Champions!
Thank you to our Colt Marching Band, as well as our Pom and Cheer teams for your amazing support all season! #PoundTheRock @JoeBushman5 @CasteelAthletic @CUSDAthletics @CasteelColts pic.twitter.com/91oO9zOk7L— Casteel Football (@CasteelFootball) December 10, 2025
“We had a group that was all the way in from the get-go, from the mental [side],” he continued. “But the needle definitely got moved at the end.”
Success Through Setbacks
Casteel’s regular season was far from perfect.
After opening the season with a convincing 51-14 road win in southern California over Helix High, the Colts were blown out back-to-back weeks at home by fellow Open Division qualifiers Liberty (31-13), and Hamilton (54-14).
Instead of regressing, the team responded, winning five of their next six, before ending the regular season with a 41-21 loss to ALA Queen Creek in a game which was much closer than the final score indicated.
Despite losing the following week in the first round of The Open Division Playoffs at Brophy, Bushman could sense something special was happening this post-season.
“We rallied the troops,” said Bushman. “We went to Brophy and that was a highly competitive game…we were ahead most of the game. We couldn’t get a stop. They had some special kids on offense.
“But, after that, we were like, ‘Hey guys, you know what, earlier in the year, we would have played a team like Brophy and got beat, beat. We’re making progress…I thought that we’d play our best football game [against Centennial].
6A State Champions👊🏼congratulations Coach Bushman and the entire Colt Nation. #CUSD #SecondToNone @ChandlerUnified @CasteelFootball @CasteelAthletic @CHSColtBaseball @CodyTCameron @brettinaz @ctownrivals @azc_obert @CamCox12 @MaxPreps @AZPreps365 @AZPreps365Jose @DeanAzdean06 pic.twitter.com/fTnlZF4qRv
— CUSDAthletics (@CUSDAthletics) December 6, 2025
“The kids showed up.”
“We’re Pounding That Rock”
Bushman’s pre-game message to his team before taking the field against 8-time State Champion Centennial was simply a reminder.
“I showed up 322 days ago and only knew two people in the room. One of the first things I told them when I got there was, ‘Pound the rock.'”
The premise of this year’s Casteel football mantra, as explained by Bushman is, there was a stone cutter facing the monumental task of breaking a gigantic rock which he repeatedly hit with a sledgehammer with no success. After several attempts, the boulder split on “the 101st blow” he explained.
“It wasn’t just that blow that did it. It was all the subsequent blows.
“I basically told them,” ‘We’ve been hitting this rock for a long time guys. Not just by our work ethic on the practice field or in the weight room, but by our team chemistry and brotherhood.
‘We don’t have to do anything different over the next three hours, just do what we’ve been doing over the last 322 days.'”
Raising the Bar
While every great coach in any sport, at any level, stays present in the present, keeping a close eye on the future of your program is commonplace.
Your 2025 6A champ is @CasteelFootball 💍
It’s the first big school title in program history in year 1 under @JoeBushman5 pic.twitter.com/v25GAoD5Kk
— Jordan Spurgeon (@spurge_) December 6, 2025
Just hours after helping the Colts claim their first big school state championship, the page turned to 2026.
Before even penning the first paragraph of this new chapter, Bushman understands the heightened expectations heading into the off-season.
“We told our seniors that they left a legacy, a pretty amazing legacy,” Bushman noted. “They got the ball rolling here…it’s going to take a lot of work [next season]. We have a lot of key still kids coming back on both sides of the ball, but I know the game is won in the trenches.
“Everybody’s that’s returning, everyone in the room, we all know that, if we’re not in The Open and make a deep run, it will be disappointing.”
