Cesar Chavez football coach, AD resign
Cesar Chavez High School will go on without football coach William Chipley and Athletic Director Lenny Doerfler, after both resigned from their jobs.
The resignations come following the death of a 15-year-old football player during a team summer camp in Northern Arizona earlier this summer.
The Phoenix Union High School District confirmed its governing board accepted their resignations during the Sept. 7 meeting. They are no longer employed by the district. Chipley was a teacher at Cesar Chavez and Doerfler served as administrator for athletics.
A message by The Arizona Republic was sent to both Chipley and Doerfler seeking comment.
Both were placed on administrative leave after the death of Christopher Hampton during Cesar Chavez's summer football camp at Lakeside Blue Ridge. Hampton was discovered in Show Low Lake on July 18.
The team had gone to the area for pre-season bonding camp, as many teams do, but Hampton was reported missing on a Monday night. A search by the Navajo County Sheriff's Office, with help from other law enforcement agencies and the Maricopa County Sheriff 's Office dive team, found Hampton's body in the lake the next day.
Law enforcement and the district investigated. Assistant coaches who also attended the summer camp also were placed on leave by the district.
Since Hampton's death, the team has been led by linebackers coach William Burwell Jr., who was not at the summer camp. Chavez is 2-1, winning its last two games against Westview and Laveenrival Betty Fairfax. The Champions play at Phoenix Camelback tonight.
Chipley took over a Cesar Chavez program that was in disarray a year after a 2020 season shortened by the pandemic, which resulted in a mass exodus of players transferring to other schools in 2021.
At the time his hiring was announced, Chipley told The Republic, "We are well over 30 players out the door."
Chipley had been coaching in the Chavez community for 18 years, starting with grassroots programs. He started the South Mountain Warriors youth football team, working and coaching in the Roosevelt School District for nine years. He joined the Chavez football staff as the freshman team offensive coordinator in 2014.
Doerfler had served on the Arizona Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association Board of Directors.