Can Desert Edge twins become 1st Black coaches to win Open?
“Twin hype” is the best way to describe Goodyear Desert Edge football’s co-head coaches Marcus and Mark Carter.
The twin brothers deserve that phrase for living up to their their young, shrewd minds and Midas touch coaching high school football.
After departing their four-year run rebuilding Phoenix South Mountain into a winning program that finished 7-3 and barely missed the AIA’s 6A division playoffs last season, the Carter brothers have coached Goodyear Desert Edge to an undefeated 8-0 record this fall.
They replaced former coach Jose Lucero, who left Desert Edge after it lost in the ’19 4A championship to Gilbert Mesquite and finished with a 10-4 record.
“Our goal was just to come to Desert Edge and be who we were and bring a lot of things that we did at South Mountain here. Obviously we have quite a bit more athletes here at Desert Edge than we did at South Mountain,” Marcus said.
“We didn’t know we were coming to Desert Edge. It was kind of one of those things that just happened, and thank God it did because now we’re on a larger scale and a larger platform where people can see us at our best.”
The No. 8 seed Scorpions have earned their first berth among the state’s best in the AIA Open Division playoffs, beginning Friday at 7 p.m. They face topranked defending Open Division champion Chandler (7-0) in the quarterfinals, ranked No. 1 in The Arizona Republic Super 10 ranking of the state’s best high school football teams.
Marcus acknowledges their matchup against USA Today’s sixth-best team in the nation is the biggest test of their coaching career, which mutually began at Cactus High School in 2005. “I would consider this our biggest challenge,” Marcus said. “The 4A and 5A conference championships, those are all good, really good achievements and all that but you play this team to be the best. You play this sport to be the best. You want to be the undisputed state champion.”
In the Open Division’s bracket’s second season for the biggest Arizona high school football crown, they want to actualize their “CTC” motto which stands for Change The Culture.
The Carters’ valiant ambition is to make a cultural statement by becoming the first Black head coaches to win the
Open Division title.
“The reason why we came to Desert Edge is to win the state championship and to be probably the first Black head coaches to win a state championship and Desert Edge gave us the best opportunity to do that,” Marcus said. “But Chandler is a really outstanding program. In order to be the best, you have to beat the best.”
In 2019, Goodyear Millennium’s Lamar Early and Queen Creek Casteel’s Bobby Newcombe were the only two Black coaches who led their teams to Arizona high school football playoffs among all six divisions last season. Millennium lost to Casteel, 73-28, in the 5A quarters.
“For us to come from South Mountain and people thought, ‘Ah, the competition isn’t really that good. They’re good coaches but they really haven’t faced anyone,’” Mark said. “And to be able to come here with a COVID offseason, basically no offseason, and put together an undefeated record and then get to the Open for the first time in school history and to be the first Black coaches to do so is something that we wanted to do to push the culture forward.”
In the race to the Open Division championship, and aspiration to make history for their own race while on their team sideline, Desert Edge versus Chandler will be an surefire iron-sharpensiron matchup.
Each team is littered with Division I, Power 5 college football conferencebound players. Desert Edge has The Republic’s seventh-ranked passing duo in
junior starting quarterback Adryan Lara, a Washington State commit, and senior WR/RB Andrew Patterson. They account for 288 receiving yards per game, according to MaxPreps.
Chandler’s high-powered offense averages around 47 points per game, led by RB Eli Sanders, QB Mikey Keene, WRs Jalen Richmond and Kyion Grayes II. They produce about 240 rushing yards per game to Desert Edge’s 169.5.
The Chandler defense, which posts nearly three sacks per contest and allows just over eight points per game, is led by its senior linebackers Hank Pepper (team-high 72 tackles), its top pass rusher Brandon Buckner, and DE Zion Magalei.
For the Scorpions offense, junior RB/ WR Jeryll McIntosh employs a physical style on defenders and pass rushers. Plus, their defense is led by Minnesotacommitted defensive back Steven Ortiz, Jr. and defensive end Zach Blackwood.
“Jeryll is aggressive and he’s a thumper, so we’re relying on him to bring what he brings every Friday night and lay on them a little bit to let them know that we’re there,” Mark said. “We’ve put together a really good game plan offensively, and we have a Pac-12 quarterback. We’re going to allow him to do what he does, we have a D-1 receiver, we have a D-1 running back, we have a Michigan State commit (junior guard Gavin Broscious) on the offensive line.
“We’re confident in our guys, confident in what we put together and we’re going to play Desert Edge football.”