A new school is opening up its doors in the West Valley for the 2022-23 school year.
Sequoia Pathfinder Academy at Verrado Way is officially opening up its new state-of-the-art campus after spending its first two school years at a local church.
With the transition into a new campus, athletics and athletic facilities are important and Sequoia Pathfinder put an emphasis on finding an athletic director that would help grow its new programs into the future.
Steven Ortiz Sr was officially announced as the athletic director earlier this month. Leading athletes is nothing new for Ortiz as he’s spent the past eight years helping lead, and grow recruitment at Desert Edge high school. Through his connections with Division One football coaches, the Scorpions have become a recruiting hotbed in the West Valley.
Outside of high school sports, Ortiz co-coaches a West Valley club volleyball program, the Arizona Outlaws. In their first year as a program the 14U National team made it to the National Championships in Indianapolis. The goal for the Outlaws was to be an affordable option in the West Valley for families.
“There’s not enough affordable programs here in the West Valley and we wanted to help change that and keep these girls closer to home” he said.
Now with the task of athletic director, Ortiz has a clear vision for what he wants the Jets to become in the future. But in the present he has two goals for the programs at the school.
“Just compete to be the best and always go hard, the wins and improvement will come if you do those things” Ortiz said.
As a new campus, Ortiz and the Jets set out to build top tier facilities for each of their programs including a high quality weight room for Jet athletes and a turf football field.
The sports that will be carried initially for the Jets include football, boys and girls volleyball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, cross country, baseball, and softball. Lacrosse will also be carried by the school, which Ortiz is very excited for.
“Lacrosse is very big out east, we wanted to add a sport that is usually played by bigger schools to give our kids more of an opportunity” he said.
Ortiz hopes to also add wrestling to the growing list of athletics offered by the school in the future.
Through athletics, Ortiz has goals that include the community surrounding the new school.
“We were built for the community, we want to help the community grow and be open for the youth programs in our community to play at” said Ortiz.
Although athletics is important to Ortiz in his role, he talked about why being a good student is just as important.
“I want all of our students not just our athletes to be put into a position to succeed and that starts with giving them quality teachers and opportunities to grow in their education," he said.
Entering the job, some of the head coaching positions have been filled already including football that will be coached by Steve Ciszek, boys basketball that will be coached by Jimmy Scroggins, and Lacrosse that will be coached by Eli Sayson. In the immediate future, Ortiz expects to have a hire for both girls basketball and baseball. In the long term, Ortiz is still looking to hire head coaches for cheer/dance, softball and boys and girls soccer.
I'm not sure if Sequoia will grow athletically at the rate Casteel, or Arizona College Prep did in the East valley, but Ortiz expects a healthy gradual growth for the new school.
With the experience of getting kids to the college level in multiple sports and the goal of developing kids in every program, Ortiz is a home run hire that gives Sequoia Pathfinder the opportunity to grow into a great athletic school.
