New Head Coach Harris working on culture after lost year for Panthers
WEEKLY BLOG: 8/1/21
It was relatively late in the game that Maryvale hired a new head football coach. The new leader is ready to hit the ground running.
Brandon Harris was named as the Panthers' head coach on June 30. He was most recently in the same position at Maricopa HS. Harris has also coached within the state at Seton Catholic, Brophy Prep, and Desert Vista. For the past month, he's been working on the team's conditioning.
"We're trying to assess their abilities and then build around what our strengths are," Harris said in an e-mail interview. "This is going to definitely be a process."
Maryvale, which opened in 1962, was a West Side powerhouse from the 1970s through the 1980s. In that time, the Panthers had four 10-0 regular seasons and three more that were 9-1. Maryvale competed for a state title in 1975 and consistently had players move on to be hometown heroes at Arizona State.
However, the last decade has not been kind to the Phoenix Union school. The Panthers were 10-81 from 2011-2019. The team didn't have a chance to improve on that record in 2020 as MHS was the only PXU school to not get any games in (the rest played 1-3 times).
Despite the recent history, the Maryvale Tradition is there. Longtime Phoenicians will recall Darren Woodson, Phillippi Sparks, Kevin Galbreath, Mitchell Freedman, and Robert James excelling in the Black & Gold on 59th Avenue & Osborn and then in Tempe at Arizona State.
"I'd argue the past 11 years is the variable," Harris said. "But there are a lot of factors that have put Panther football here. I can address some, administration has to address some, but most importantly, the district has to decide what they want athletics to be at PXU, in particular football."
Harris has had some coaching success. In his first year at Maricopa, he guided the Rams into the 5A playoffs. Before that, in 2009, he led Canisius HS in Buffalo to a state championship. With Maryvale, it begins with devising a system and generating a new and improved culture from scratch.
"It is instilling in them the things that champions are made of," Harris said. "Once those things are better, the winning begins. But, you have to win in all aspects of your life: academically, socially, and spiritually. Then, the wins will come."
Harris has been able to put together most of his coaching staff. Some are in the process of being cleared in order to be eligible on the field. He is working with Human Resources, which is doing their best to get them on the field for the start of preseason workouts on Aug. 9.
With the Panthers not playing any games in 2020, it isn't just the senior class that missed out. Maryvale didn't play at any level, so the sophomores never played a Wednesday freshman game and the juniors and new seniors haven't had a game rep since the end of the 2019 season. In the preseason evaluations, the first order of business is to see where everyone is at to know where the baseline is.
"(We need to see) where he is and what improvements he needs to make," Harris said. "But, we're doing our best to capture some of that now."
Without stats or film from last year, it's hard to name players that will make an impact for the Panthers in 2021. When asked what players Harris is excited to coach this year, he simply said "all of them".
Since the 2019 season, Maryvale has moved down a conference from the 6A to the 5A. The Panthers are in the 5A Metro Region with Alhambra, Apollo, Camelback, Central, and North Canyon. The season will kick off with a home game on Sept. 3 on its new turf field against Carl Hayden. The other four non-region games will be against Trevor Browne, Rincon, Copper Canyon, and Sierra Linda. So, the opportunity for the Panthers to bust their 11-game losing streak is there.
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