Coaches Carter
Carter twins embrace playoff chance leading Goodyear Desert Edge’s football program
“I coach hard and love them up. It’s kind of like the perfect storm. We’ve got something to prove. They lost at state last year and they’ve got something to prove.” Mark Carter Co-head football coach at Desert Edge
At Phoenix South Mountain, it was building back to respectability, trying to get the Jaguars into the playoffs.
Now, the expectations are different for twins Marcus and Mark Carter. At Goodyear Desert Edge, it’s about chasing a championship, something that could happen with this 5-0 team as it heads into its biggest game yet, a showdown at 4-1 Peoria Sunrise Mountain on Friday night. It’s The Arizona Republic‘ s Week 6 Game of the Week.
Last year, at this time, the Carter twins were agonizing over their South Mountain team finishing 7-3 but being left out of the 5A playoffs, because it didn’t have the necessary power points to qualify among the top 16 teams, even though the Jaguars won the Metro Region title.
It was their fourth year building a program that had been used to losing before they got there. South Mountain made big steps every season the Carters were there.
But when Desert Edge opened with Jose Lucero leaving to lead Phoenix St. Mary’s, his alma mater, the Carters were ready to make the move to a program used to playoffs, last year reaching the 4A final. The left South Mountain and moved to the Goodyear school, where they are co-coaches.
“If you asked me in March, I would have been OK with four games. But to get to play our sixth, that’s incredible.”
“Marcus and I, in the transition, we were like, ‘Should we, should we, should we?’ “Mark said. “Then, it was, ‘Let’s go for it.’ It worked out.”
They got to know the players just before the pandemic.
Now, they’re taking each day as a blessing to play football, knowing they’re fortunate to have played five games to this point when others have had only two or three because COVID cases have put them in 14-day quarantines.
“I never thought this would be possible,” Marcus said. “If you asked me in March, I would have been OK with four games. But to get to play our sixth, that’s incredible. Hopefully, we can finish with the last two games.
“We’re extremely grateful to be able to compete.”
Had they stayed at South Mountain, they would just now be playing their second game, because the Phoenix Union High School District, dictated by the COVID metric established by the Arizona Interscholastic Association to allow play, started late, playing an alternative fall season that will end with a city championship.
The Carters and the Desert Edge players came into this season with chips on their shoulders.
An experienced group, led by the big three of quarterback Adryan Lara, wide receiver Andrew Patterson and running back Jeryll McIntosh on offense, and Minnesota-commit cornerback Steven Ortiz Jr., on defense, is hungry to finish
Marcus Carter
Co-head football coach at Desert Edge
the deal, after falling to Gilbert Mesquite 28-23 in the 4A championship game last year.
The team had outscored Mesquite 20-12 in the second half, only to come up short.
The Carter twins come in with the feeling they need to prove they can be playoff coaches, after last year’s disappointing end, winning the region, but losing out on power points to not make it to the postseason.
“The kids’ expectations after getting to the championship game last year is to win state,” Marcus said. “They have a bad taste left from last year. We have a chip on our shoulder for not being able to get in the playoffs last year.
“With the pandemic, we don’t want to look ahead and slip up with what’s in front of us. We take it day by day and play every game like it’s your last game. This could be our last games.”
Mark, who coaches the offense with his brother leading the defense, said they didn’t come to Desert Edge any different than who they were at South.
“We’re not going to fix what got us here,” Mark said. “We have high-level players. We have Division I athletes. It’s not going to affect my coaching ability.
“I coach hard and love them up. It’s kind of like the perfect storm. We’ve got something to prove. They lost at state last year and they’ve got something to prove.”