Bria Hartley sets career scoring high in Mercury’s second straight win,
One by one, players follow each other on the Phoenix South Mountain High School practice football field to an assistant coach, who jots down the most important stats of the workout.
“Sore throat?” the masked coach asks.
“No.”
“Shortness of breath?”
“No.”
“Close contact or care for someone with COVID-19?”
“No.”
The player is excused. He steps away and begins conditioning work in the 115-degree heat with his teammates.
This is Phase 1, late July, the second day South Mountain and the rest of the Phoenix Union High School District schools were able to start conditioning work with hopes of having a fall football season.
The million-dollar question this summer has been, “When will football season begin?”
The Arizona Interscholastic Association gave Aug. 17 as a target date to begin official football practice, but that likely will be pushed back, perhaps into September or maybe deeper in the fall, with every district in the state having their own phased starts, stops and returns this summer during the pandemic.
For coach Byron Evans, considered the greatest athlete ever to come through South Mountain, this wasn’t the way he envisioned his return to his alma mater would go.
When he was hired in the spring to lead the program, replacing twins Mark and Marcus Carter, Evans was ecstatic about being able to coach South Mountain football, where his dreams were born as a kid.
But he knows he has to deal with the situation created by the coronavirus pandemic, and he deals with it by looking at the mountain landscape beyond the field.
That has always been known as The Mountain, his home, a source of pride he carried with him as a kid and dominating opponents as a linebacker in the early 1980s, before going on to play middle linebacker at the University of Arizona and for the Philadelphia Eagles.
“It’s this thing,” Evans said, pointing to the South Mountain Preserves that are south of Baseline Road and 7th Street.
“That is The Mountain,” Evans said. “That’s why we’re here. That’s The Mountain.”
Before this week, Evans had only two days on the field with his new team before the district shut it down because of surging coronavirus infection numbers.
“It’s not what we’re trying to get out of this, but we’re going to get out of it,” Evans said. “We’re going to get in shape, get ready. We’ve got to get acclimated to the heat. We don’t get in shape, you can’t play football nowhere. It’s mandatory that we get into some kind of shape, get our minds right, get mentally sharp and get ready to roll.”
Since taking over after the Carter twins left to lead Goodyear Desert Edge’s football program in the spring, Evans has dipped deep into the South Mountain alumni pool to find assistants.
Most of his assistants played at South Mountain or played with Evans in college and the NFL.
Even former Cardinals wide receiver Roy Green will be helping out, Evans said.
South Mountain went 6-4 and 7-3 in the last two seasons, but the Jaguars didn’t make the playoffs.
There have been key departures, including quarterback Amier Byrd transferring to Phoenix Mountain Pointe. The players are learning a whole new system, new philosophies.
But it’s about baby steps right now, trying to get back on the field amid a pandemic.
Sophomore running back Jerry Vaughn III, who ran for 100 yards on varsity as a freshman, said Evans has been preaching determination.
“Not to give up,” Vaughn said. “Always help out with your teammates. It’s just a good feeling.”
Vaughn believes the momentum can continue under Evans.
“We always try to make a good name for South,” he said. “I feel that Coach Evans can do that, too. Good things are going to happen over here with The Mountain.”
Receiver/defensive back Travis Gammage, a junior, said it’s been tough to build continuity with very limited time together this summer. But he knows there still is talent and confidence.
“They understand where we’re coming from and how we lost our coaches,” Gammage said. “They still expect us to work. And that’s what we’re doing, working out in the heat, trying to get better.”