Coach of the Year: Chandler’s Garretson
In his first season as head football coach, Rick Garretson had the task of leading the Chandler transition.
With his leadership and experience, keeping mostly everybody from Shaun Aguano’s staff, it ended up being seamless and perfect.
The Wolves went 13-0, claiming the state’s first Open Division title, ending 4A juggernaut Scottsdale Saguaro’s state-record streak of six consecutive titles.
Chandler went from not being among the top 25 ranked teams in the nation in preseason to being No. 9 nationally by USA Today Sports this week.
Garretson has been chosen by The Arizona Republic as the Coach of the Year, after his team’s historic run to a fourth consecutive championship, and fifth in six years.
It wasn’t easy.
Even though he had a strong senior core, Garretson played 19 underclassmen who either were full-time or multiple-game starters.
“We were a young football team with tremendous senior leadership,” said Garretson, a former offensive coordinator who kept Shaun Aguano’s staff mostly intact after Aguano left to become running backs coach at Arizona State last year.
As dominant as his team was, stringing together three consecutive 49-0 victories late in the season, the Wolves found themselves down in the fourth quarter for the first time in the final regular-season game, digging out of a two-touchdown deficit in the final eight minutes to be rival Hamilton 42-38.
They got challenged again in the Open semifinals, trailing 4A power Tucson Salpointe Catholic early in the second half, before bouncing back with a 24-16 win.
Then, when it looked like it was about to take a 28-0 lead on Saguaro in the first quarter of the championship game, Saguaro rallied back to make it a game, before Garretson called on his offensive linemen and backs Dae Dae Hunter and Eli Sanders to run seven minutes off the clock in the final quarter and keep Saguaro at bay in a 42-35 win.
“Our defense had an outstanding season with five shutouts, 66 sacks and 21 interceptions,” Garretson said. “Offensively, we picked up where we left off the past three seasons. Averaged 50-plus points and 525 yards offense in a multi-formation, balanced attack.
“Our kids played with a chip on their shoulder and arrived every night with an attitude to compete. I’m very proud of their effort and they truly earned the first Arizona Open Division championship.”