GAME OF THE WEEK: CENTENNIAL AT CASTEEL Centennial’s rise was a Casteel football dreamed long work in progress big from the beginning
Peoria Centennial coach Richard Taylor can relate to Queen Creek Casteel, starting a football program from scratch and getting ready for its first 5A game. But it ends there.
Casteel, which plays host to Centennial on Friday in an Arizona high school football season opener, has not had growing pains since beginning with just freshmen and sophomores two years ago in the Chandler Unified School District school’s first varsity season.
It took only two seasons, still without a senior class, to win its first state championship last year in 3A.
It took Taylor and Centennial 16 years before he was able to raise the gold football in the state championship game in 2006.
Now, there is no slowing the westside powerhouse, which began under Taylor in 1990.
The Coyotes won three football titles in a row in 5A, starting in 2006, losing only one game during that stretch. Then, in the last four years, they won three state championships, including an incredible run though the Southeast Valley in 2015 during their only season in the highest conference, the one-and-done, 17-team Division I gauntlet.
So what clicked?
It took one player to step up at a summer bonding camp for seniors.
Taylor credits linebacker R.J. Anderson, a senior on that 2006 team that went 14-0.
“He was the first kid ever to say, as seniors going up to Flagstaff for camp, ‘We ought to win the state championship,”’ Taylor said. “You could hear a pin drop. Previous to that, the goal was, ‘Have a winning season, have fun, do your best.’
“R.J. Anderson was the kind of guy that everyone loved. But he wasn’t afraid to get on his friends. If he wasn’t working hard, he’d expect them to get on him.”
Now, Centennial’s tradition has grown so big that nobody comes in settling for second.
But credit Taylor for never losing the passion for the game, giving his son Andrew the defense to coach, and manufacturing quality running backs and linemen every year.
During practices, Taylor, in his 45th year coaching, can be a roller coaster of emotions, at one point raising his voice at a player for walking and, in an instant, lavishing praises and making a joke.
Animated and instructive, Taylor can be tough and cantankerous during one drill, and funny and kind the next.
“The bar has been set pretty high,” said Taylor, who is five wins away from joining the 300-win coaching club in Arizona. “The kids know that. They know football is not the most important thing in their lives. It shouldn’t be. But if they’re going to do it, they should do it as well as we possibly can. Which means a lot of work.”
The work at Centennial has always begun in the weight room, where lifting records seem to be broken every summer.
This summer, junior offensive guard Andy Belmontez, 6-feet, 255 pounds, broke the Centennial squat lift record at 645 pounds.
“That doesn’t happen coming into the weight room once a week,” Taylor said.
Taylor called the 2015 season “enjoyable.” That team rallied late to win a tough quarterfinal at Chandler Hamilton, then gave Phoenix Mountain Pointe its only loss in the semifinals before defeating Mesa Desert Ridge in the final.
That was an AIA experimental season with teams placed in divisions based on success. The next year, the AIA went back to placing teams in conferences based on enrollment numbers.
Taylor can remember starting 190pound offensive linemen in the early years, when Centennial’s program was dwarfed by Glendale Cactus and Peoria.
Now the Centennial linemen annually roll out as behemoths.
“I used to always come out here when I was little,” senior center Carson Keltner 6-2, 285 pounds, said. “I saw how big the linemen were. It was something I wanted to be a part of.”
Casteel will see how it matches up against the established 5A powerhouse in its initiation into big-school football. It comes in with a lofty No. 2 ranking in 5A by azcentral sports with Centennial at No. 1.
Junior strong safety Jaydin Young came to Centennial knowing state championships are expected. He saw his big brother, Dedrick, lead the Coyotes to a state title in 2014 as a powerful running back and linebacker before moving onto Nebraska.
Lush, green grass, yet to be lined, awaits the school’s football team that experienced a big growth spurt in a year.
This is a new era in Queen Creek Casteel High School’s fourth year of existence.
And on Friday night, Peoria Centennial, the established 5A power, comes in to open Casteel's big-schools sports history after it spent the last two seasons pretty much dominating everybody but Yuma Catholic in its first two football seasons in 3A.
Two years ago, it was just freshmen and sophomores, with the only two losses in varsity history coming to Yuma Catholic, including in the playoffs.
Last year, it was freshmen, sophomores and juniors and a 14-0 ride through 3A.
Now, with more than 300 students on a waiting list, the Chandler Unified School District school opened its doors wide.
When this two-year Arizona Interscholastic Association realignment ends in 2020, the Colts will surely move into the biggest conference -- 6A -- and get put into that Premier Region with Chandler, Hamilton and Perry.
Casteel aspires to start out like Hamilton, which opened in 1998 with freshmen, sophomores and juniors and an enrollment of about 1,600 on the edge of Chandler. It won state championships in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012, and had a 53-game winning streak before Phoenix Desert Vista ended that in the 2011 state final.
“Our time has come,” senior safety Cameron Brown said. “We’re over 3A football. We’ve been there, done that. Now it gets real. Teams get faster, bigger. I think we’ve prepared for it. Now we just have to perform.”
Casteel is on the edge of town in a sprawling area that has taken off in the last decade with new homes built and families moving in.
"We established a culture of hard work," senior wide receiver Zach Nelson said. "It attracted a lot of people. We were only supposed to be a 3A school. Now we're going to be a 6A school in two years."
This is the pride and joy for Camille Casteel, the Chandler district superintendent who helped get Hamilton rolling. The newest Chandler district school was named after her. She brought in visionary principal Sandy Lundberg to guide it through.
Lundberg had to step down as principal while battling stage 4 cancer and died in late June.
“I am incredibly proud and in awe of what Casteel High has accomplished in such a short time,” Camille Casteel said. “Under Sandy Lundberg’s leadership, the entire staff established the foundation and has offered an incredible program across the board.
“Now with Jayson Phillips at the helm (as principal), I have no doubt they will continue on the path of excellence. My vision for the school is a standard to all CUSD schools -- that every student has a quality experience and an opportunity to be successful."
Centennial was like Casteel at one point. It opened in 1990, and with Richard Taylor the head coach since Day 1, the Coyotes have turned into a perennial football power. Last year was the Coyotes’ third state championship since 2014. They even won the year they were moved into the super division when it was only 17 teams placed on success, not just enrollment.
Centennial won three state titles in a row, compiling a 31-1 record from 200608.
It took about 10 years for Taylor to get the Centennial machine truly rolling.
Casteel’s rise has been sudden under coach Spencer Stowers. Stowers left midway through this summer for family reasons, handing the program off to former Nebraska football standout Bobby Newcombe.
This is now a major step school’s young history, playing starting out against the best.
It enters as the No. 2-ranked team in 5A behind Centennial.
Senior quarterback Gunner Cruz feels Casteel can be at Centennial's level now.
“I think Coach Stowers was a big part of that,” said Cruz, the school’s first Division I recruit who committed to Washington State this summer.
Students have several choices around them. Higley, Hamilton and Basha are all nearby.
But Casteel is becoming a destination school for many kids who want to play for championships and get ready for college. in the in 5A,