Mountain View taking steps for return to football glory
When Mike Oliver was named principal at Mesa Mountain View in April, he quickly shook things up.
He gave the football program to Joe Germaine, the quarterback of Jesse Parker’s 1993 state championship team. Mike Fell was out, even after a 6-2 season that ended with back-to-back losses and no playoff appearance.
“I wanted it to be a less than a week (after being hired), because I wanted to make a statement to this community that change is going to happen, and it’s going to happen fast,” Oliver said.
Oliver, a 1979 Phoenix Maryvale High School graduate, said he didn’t come to Mountain View to be the principal.
“I came here to blow up stale, antiquated, boring, toxic, great American comprehensive high school system,” he said. “I graduated from Maryvale in 1979. When I arrived here in April, I thought, ‘This is Maryvale in 1979.’ It hasn’t changed since the industrial revolution when our goal was to put kids on assembly lines where the jobs were.”
Oliver looked to the parents, feeling that’s where it starts to rebuild. He found over 70 engineers, nurses and doctors, wanting them to work as adjunct faculty to mentor kids.
He looked up to the Mountain View football scoreboard before the Toros’ night practice this week that has Jesse Parker’s name on it, and said, “Imagine having one six times larger than that.”
So he checked with Daktronics, which builds football scoreboards, and asked who had the largest high school scoreboard in the state. He was told Yuma Kofa.
Oliver wants one bigger.
“We’re making a statement that even our Jumbotron is going to kick your ass,” he said.
He had Germaine quickly sold on returning to his alma mater and leave a program in better shape than Mountain View’s at Queen Creek.
Germaine obviously has been the right guy to steer this football ship.
He’s got the Toros at 7-1. He moved quarterback Willy Roberts to linebacker, a role he has gladly and successfully filled. And he inserted his son, Jack Germaine, a sophomore who hadn’t played since the seventh grade because of backto-back years with torn anterior cruciate ligaments on both knees, at quarterback.
Two weeks ago, Germaine became the full time starter three games ago, completing 14 of 24 for 272 yards and three TDs in a 37-7 win against Mica Mountain. The poised sophomore then led the Toros to a 51-14 rout of Phoenix Mountain Pointe and a 31-13 win over Phoenix Desert Vista, throwing a combined seven TD passes.
Against Mountain Pointe, he was 11 of 12 with five TD passes. “He’s a tough kid,” Joe Germaine said of his son.
For Mountain View to crash through back to its glory days, it will need to make a statement Friday night at Chandler Basha, which is ranked No. 3 in the AIA’s Open Division at 9-0.
Nobody is giving Mountain View a chance, especially after losing senior defensive
end Malaki Ta’ase to a knee injury last week. He is the heart and soul of the team.
But there is an underlying resilience, Germaine pushing a team that often goes from 5 to 9 at night with film review, meetings and practice, trying to perfect things.
And the community that hadn’t felt this kind of excitement this late in the season in about 15 years is abuzz.
“I have been around Toro football for over 30 years, both as a player, parent and booster,” said booster club president Wayne Syrek, who son Jason plays on the defensive line. “And it’s very exciting to see the high level of energy and enthusiasm that we see in the surrounding community again.
“Our Friday night experience is fun and vibrant again and it’s been a long time coming. But I want to make it clear that we aren’t satisfied. In fact, we are just getting started.”
Jack is making a varsity splash sooner in high school than his dad, who will forever be famous, or in the Valley, infamous, for being the quarterback who led Ohio State in the final minute to beat Arizona State in the 1997 Rose Bowl and spoils a national championship season for the Sun Devils.
Joe was on the JV at Mountain View his sophomore year. It was his last two seasons in 1992 and ‘93 that he led the Toros to the state finals each year, winning it his senior year.
For Jack Germaine to take over at QB from Roberts shows how ready he is now. Roberts started during Mountain View’s 6-0 start, before suffering an injury.
“He was their guy last year, the year before that,” Jack Germaine said of Roberts. “He’s a great athlete, a great quarterback. A great guy on campus, too. We split time. But then the Mountain Pointe game, I started the game.”
Germaine, who was a freshman at Queen Creek last year, said the knee injuries set him back but he feels it hasn’t hindered his ability to make plays.
“That’s in the past,” he said. “I don’t really think about it. That’s a big part of recovery, getting over that (mental) block and going at it full speed. It’s 100% of the time.”
The pressure of being Joe Germain’s son is big but he embraces it. He practices wearing No. 7, the number his dad wore in high school. Because that number was long retired, Jack wears No. 12 in games.
“Those are big shoes to fill,” Jack said. “But why not? Bring it on.”
Joe Germaine feels this team is getting closer to establish who they are. The defense has been strong. The Toros have allowed only 68 points in eight games.
It’s been a season of transformation. Especially for his son. “He’s got great guys around him,” Joe Germaine said. “Before this year, all he knew was Queen Creek football. It was a tough move for him. But the payers have been awesome. They’ve really welcomed him. He’s got some playmakers around him.”
Oliver is ecstatic over the Germaines. “He’s not just a football coach and I’m not just a principal,” Oliver said. “We’re re-imagining what school could be.
“When I watch him coaching up Jack, I’m thinking, this is where Joe played. What a cool moment to be mentoring a quarterback who also is your boy.”
This transformation of Mountain View football would make Jesse Parker proud.