To build a team, Jacobs had to build relationships

In 2004 the Phoenix Moon Valley football team went14-0 and won the Class 4A state championship. And then the program cratered. Moon Valley won 14 games combined the next four seasons. It didn’t win a single playoff game from 2005 to 2011. Not coincidentally, the socioeconomic status of the neighborhoods around the school changed as well. In 2005 24.7 percent of Moon Valley’s students qualified for the free and reduced lunch program; by ’11it was 52.6 percent.

“There were years with our juniorvarsity team that we barely had enough players to field a team,” Athletic Director Eddie Lopez said.

When Lopez started his coaching search after the ’11 season the football program hadn’t just suffered in terms of its record; it had nearly become irrelevant. Moon Valley always has had its share of athletic kids, but they weren’t going out for football. They didn’t see the point of banging their head against the wall — even with a helmet on.

To change that, Moon Valley’s new coach had to do two things: connect with the kids on campus and sell what the pro- gram could again become.

Lopez found the perfect guy in Sam Jacobs.

A decade after Moon Valley’s magical season the Rockets are relevant again. Moon Valley is 8-1 after Friday’s 38-26 loss to Tempe, and Jacobs is one of the leading candidates to be the Big Schools Coach of the Year.

“The rebuilding program just took 10 years,” Lopez joked.

Moon Valley’s transformation under Jacobs was nearly as laborious. It was a step-by-step process, the first of which was Jacobs convincing the school’s student-athletes that football was worth their time and energy.

“There was a little bit of a negative feeling toward football,” said Jacobs, who was the defensive coordinator at Glendale Apollo before taking the Moon Valley job. “Kids just didn’t want to play. That was my first challenge to get them excited again.”

To do that, Jacobs simply made himself available.

“That first spring we got the weight room open and I’d basically be chatting them up trying to be friends as opposed to the big, bad coach yelling at them,” Jacobs said. “Coming in, you know success isn’t going to flow right away. It’s about developing relationships with kids so they buy into what you’re selling.”

Converts didn’t rush to get in line. Only 23 kids showed up for the first spring workout in 2012, and Moon Valley finished 1-9 that fall. But seeds were planted. Six sophomores, including quarterback Shannon Burton and running back Joe Martinez, were getting valuable experience and more importantly showing the first signs of leadership that would come to define this senior class.

“They led the culture change,” Jacobs said. “They were in the weight room all summer. The other kids followed their lead.”

In 2013 Moon Valley went 4-6, and when Jacobs held his first spring workout this year 86 kids came out.

“When Coach Jacobs got here we had a very talented group of sophomores,” Lopez said. “But what he did so well was really connect with the students. Once those athletes knew the whole staff really cared about them, that kind of attitude spread in the program. Now those kids are playing for one another.”

Jacobs’ nurturing attitude was evident in the loss against Tempe. Moon Valley’s offense struggled to move the ball after scoring on its opening drive, but after nearly every play Jacobs would take a step or two onto the field and clap his hands in encouragement.

“I think they just have to know you care about them,” Jacobs said. “If all you’re doing is yelling at these kids, they hear that all the time. It’s nothing they’re going to respond to.”

It won’t be easy for Moon Valley to sustain its success, if for no other reason than it will be without Burton, who’s accounted for 2,636 of the team’s 3,731total yards and 33 of its 49 offensive touchdowns this season. Also, there’s little if any growth in the area around the school.

But for the first time in a long time Moon Valley isn’t losing athletes to schools like Glendale Cactus. The neighborhood kids are staying home, eager again to play for the Rockets and on the field named after legendary coach Earl Putman.

“I look down and there’s some talent on the junior varsity level and on the freshman level,” Jacobs said. “We have a decent amount of kids coming back, too. The momentum has been built.”