Zone Read: Dead of Summer (School)

A Premiere Advantage

Less than two weeks after fireworks lit up the Valley, thousands of east Valley high school students grabbed their backpacks and headed back into the classroom as the Chandler Unified School District opened their “fall” semester on July 17th.

For some, like myself, this hybrid July-May school calendar is just hard to get used to.

For Premiere Region coaches and players, widely considered the long-time gatekeepers of elite 6A Arizona high school football, it’s simply time to get back to work.

Work which is extremely beneficial as the runway to the regular season opener gets shorter and shorter.

“It gets our kids back in a rhythm,” Perry head coach Joseph Ortiz explained to the “Zone Read” of the early academic start. “They have to be here for school, so I have them in class every day. We can get our lift in. We have meetings. We can watch film. 

“When we get helmets on [August 5th], I feel we’re two or three weeks ahead of most other places.”

The time CUSD schools, like Chandler High, have to install and prepare in the three or so weeks between school being back in session, and August 5th when the helmets get strapped back on, is crucial to being “ready to go” according to head coach Rick Garretson.

The early school calendar also gives the CUSD programs a unique scheduling break late in the regular season when both bodies, and minds, need a reboot.

“My job has been to make sure that my players and my coaching staff still want to play ball in December, and they’re not burned out,” Garretson said. “You have to piece things together in a way that allows that to happen. We have almost two months before our first game.

“We do have a two-week fall break. The good side of that is that we get a bye on one of those weeks.”

While Garretson warns the break in routine “can be a two-bladed sword,” he prefers the mid-July return to the classroom for his Wolves’ players. Some district coaches give players and staff the entire late-season bye week off from football-related events and requirements.   

The scaled down CUSD summer “off-season” doesn’t present as many obstacles as one would initially assume. Coaching staffs have learned to pivot a bit by adjusting the football schedule, not necessarily overhauling it due to the calendar’s demands.

“For these next two weeks leading up to the first official on [August] 5th, we’ll do like a Monday-Tuesday, Thursday-Friday split,” Basha head coach Chris McDonald explained. “You’ll get that one day off in the mid-week.

“I like to work, I like my kids to work but when your end game is to be playing in December, you don’t want to burnout. I’ve learned that.”

McDonald gave his team the first school week off (last Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) to get settled and focused on the start of the academic semester. He also offers a “vacation window” from around mid-June til, at least this year, July 10th – the day before the Bears left for their three-day camp.

While many other 6A power programs are at camp or practicing before their academic year begins as we speak, the CUSD is more often than not the early bird that gets the post-season worm, especially with the built-in extended fall break and coinciding bye week.

Cody’s Camp Confidential – American Leadership Academy Queen Creek

“I will be the first to admit that I was hard on this team the last few seasons, especially when they transitioned up to 6A last year. They’ve done nothing but prove me wrong time and time again.

 

“This year I’m all-in on the Patriots. Long-time ALA Queen Creek coach and Athletic Director, Rich Edwards steps back into the head coaching role this year, and his program returns a TON of talent.”

“Defensively, the Patriots return their leading tacklers, Brody Michael and Ryder Agne, two high-flying defensive playmakers who are always in attack mode.”

“Offensively, I love their offensive line. This is a powerful unit led by one of the top offensive linemen in the state, Senior Riggs Anderson. The Patriots have one of the best running back tandems in 6A as well in senior Brandon Brown and junior speedster Bobby Nesbit.

 

“I think the Patriots are gearing up for this Week 1 “revenge” game against Saguaro, a game that was neck-and-neck last year with the Patriots running out of gas on the road. This time they get the Sabercats at home and I feel they are out to prove that once again they are a top team in the state of Arizona.”

Taylor Made

This week I spent close to an hour in Richard’s Taylor office talking about the power program he built from the ground up at Centennial nearly 35 years ago, as well as his legacy as the greatest head coach in AZHS football history.

The seven-time State Champion, who is approaching 300 career wins, will be featured at length in next week’s “Zone Read.”

Below is a little preview.

For years I’ve seen your offenses go on 11-play, 80-yard, eight-minute touchdown drives that simply demoralize opposing defenses. Everyone runs the spread and wants to score fast. You’re the complete opposite and it’s beautiful that you can have just as much success running essentially the same system you did 30 years ago. In your opinion, is it STILL difficult for opponents to prepare for your physicality even though they know the street fight at the line of scrimmage is coming? “If you throw a long pass, people will go, ‘I blew coverage.’ It wasn’t like you beat anybody up. It was a good pass pattern. But, when you can take the ball and get three, four, five [yards] and they’re blitzing and they’re stunting and they’re bringing extra people and you’re still getting three, five, seven [yards] – that is when you take their heart away from them. They’re done. That is the football I like. I know that’s not the football the kids like…Woody Hayes said you go three-and-a-half, three-and-a-half, three-and-a-half [yards], you’ve got a first down. [Hayes] said, ‘This game was meant to be played by tough guys, not guys wearing skirts.'”

There will never be another Richard Taylor.

Living legend…and motivated as ever to hoist another gold ball.