Freshmen work on foundation
Mountain Ridge feeder captured NYS state title
Ridge Army, a feeder football program feeding Glendale Mountain Ridge High School’s program, has been around a few years. But nobody noticed the kids near the school until last spring.
With John Bender arriving to coach, the team went 8-1, and captured the National Youth Sports championship in Arizona, beating defending champion Liberty.
“It sent notice that the culture was changing,” said Richard Anderson, father of quarterback Brendan. “Players who were entertaining thoughts of going to neighboring schools saw the opportunity to be part of something special.
“That began the slogan ‘Restore the Ridge.’”
It started last season in former Scottsdale Community College coach Doug Modoski’s first year leading the Glendale Mountain Ridge program, with the varsity ending a 16-game losing streak and reaching the 6A playoffs, finishing 5-6.
Freshman wide receiver Deric English served notice in a 38-25 first-round playoff loss to Gilbert Perry that he will be a major part of a freshman core that could lay the foundation to what the Lions hope will become their first state-championship season.
English, who is now 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, had eight catches for 63 yards in that game.
“He’s a stud,” Madoski said. “Deric is going to have a shot to be one of the best players. If he’s not one of the most recruited players in Arizona before he’s through, I’ll be stunned.”
English was the biggest part of an 8-1 freshman team that, in back-to-back weeks, beat Peoria Liberty 67-43 and Phoenix Pinnacle 60-34. That Pinnacle team featured highly regarded quarterback Devon Dampier.
Brendan Anderson, as Bender put it, was on fire in those games.
“I think this is a very special group,” said Bender, who was one of the freshman coaches last season. “Extraordinary talent. Really good team chemistry. Any of them by themselves are top-ranked players. They’re unselfish players. Very hard-working. Very strong. They have a will to win.”
At the core, besides English and Anderson, are multiple-position athlete Terrance Hall, offensive tackle Alex Doost, wide receiver/cornerback Sam Thielen (a distant relative of Minnesota Vikings receiver Adam Thielen), and linebacker Christian Aguilar.
“This is the class that’s going to do it,” Hall said.
In The Arizona Republic‘s Fab 50, English (No. 12), Anderson (No. 19), Doost (No.20) and Thielen (No.23) are among the top 25.
“Some of those freshmen have an opportunity to compete on the varsity level right away,” Modoski said. “That was one of the things we’re committed to doing, keeping that freshman team together. We knew they were going to be really good.”
There were only a dozen or so seniors on last year’s varsity, so Madoski’s next team will need to rely on youth to keep what Madoski started rolling into bigger things.
In 2018, when the Lions went 0-10, nobody knew what to expect in Madoski’s first season. Confidence, chemistry, camaraderie began. With the freshmen making the biggest statement.
“Just with the history, going 0-10, and making the playoffs, I can’t wait to grind with my brothers and get back on the field,” the 6-1, 195-pound Aguilar said.
Brendan Anderson feels it’s important to build it from the ground up, and not just hope for a bunch of transfers to transform the team into championship-caliber.
It’s like a good minor-league system building the big club from inside out.
“If we start winning, then more people will want to come,” Anderson said. “We came together really well because we played feeder ball in the spring. We did a tournament in (California) and we all came together.”
Thielen said he remembers the seventh-grade feeder team “losing every game.”
“Coach Bender came in and we were winning, and everything changed,” Thielen said.
English knew the moment he saw all the freshmen on the field for the first time that there was an easy connection that would lead to special things.
“I could tell everything was going to go good for us,” he said.
Scottsdale Saguaro’s dynasty was built from the grassroots, with the Argonauts, a youth feeder program built by Jason Mohns before he became in charge of Saguaro’s football program eight years ago.
That’s what Ridge Army aspires to be, that feeder program that tapes into a gold mine of talent around the Mountain Ridge neighborhood.
Mountain Ridge reached the state final one time in its history, when Steve Belles was the coach, and lost to Chandler Hamilton 31-7.
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