Members of the Fountain Hills High School football team rested their bodies last week over their bye weekend. The Falcons are 3-0 in region play, and they’ve outscored their opponents 157-63 in those last three games. The Falcons host a lower ranked non-region Bourgade Catholic this Friday, Oct. 14, and then they’ll play Payson and Valley Christian to finish their region and regular schedule.

The Falcons went 1-3 in region play last year and missed the playoffs. Head coach Sean Moran came into the year hoping to change the culture at Fountain Hills and brought with him a former high school teammate and ASU strength and conditioning coach, Jake Affronti. The Falcons have improved since their intense offseason workouts, and they are starting to see results on the field.

Fountain Hills’ first head coach, Jim Fairfield, coached the Falcons for 23 years. Fairfield reportedly only had freshmen and sophomores on his inaugural team, but the Falcons still went 8-1. One former player and current inside linebackers coach said Fairfield’s teams were always very physical, but in recent years the Falcons strayed away from that program identity.

“That’s one of the reasons I got back in and wanted to go back to Fountain Hills; to guide them in what a decade’s worth of teams have built there,” Devin Strang said. “I definitely think the goals they came in with to make it more physical and more aggressive and kind of that traditional fundamental football have sunk in with the kids. They’ve bought into it, they believe it. They’ve seen the success now. A lot of those items have been at Fountain Hills before, so that’s kind of the fun thing for me. We had a serious weightlifting program back in the day and it disappeared. Now it’s back.”

Strang graduated in 2008 and is in his second year back coaching at Fountain Hills. Out of nine coaches, Strang and three others coached at Fountain Hills last year, and like many of his coworkers, Strang’s inside linebacker corps were also new to their role at Fountain Hills this year.

Cannon Lipps approached Strang as a sophomore and wanted to learn how to play linebacker. He started his first game as a junior and returned a punt for a touchdown in the season opener. Junior Gabe Haynes is also new to Fountain Hills but is one of the Falcons’ leaders on defense. Senior Diesel Giger moved down from safety and now is the Falcons’ defensive signal caller at middle linebacker.

“Gabe certainly brings a very physical presence,” Strang said. “He’s your traditional, what you’d expect from an old-school linebacker. He’s going to want to find someone to tackle or make a play…When Diesel came down to fill a hole we had at middle linebacker, it seemed like a natural fit, but he did a lot of offseason workouts, and his mentality was there coming into his senior year. Last year, at the end of the season he was out for an injury, and I had more time just to talk to him and dive into what he wanted to accomplish.”

Those Falcons have been at the center of the defense and garner attention from other assistant coaches. Dan Butler, another Fountain Hills alumnus, said he thinks they inspire the rest of the defense to play physically, and Butler singled Giger out for his ability to hold others accountable.

Butler graduated from Fountain Hills in 2017 and is in his first year coaching running backs and special teams. He was an all-state running back, all-American wrestler, and two-time all-state wrestler in his time at Fountain Hills. On offense, he works with freshman Riley Murdock, Lipps, senior Ryan Dyhrkopp, another defensive standout, and senior Gavin Furi, the Falcons’ top running back.

The Falcons have rushed for over 100 yards as a team in five of their seven games, and over 200 yards once. Furi has scored four rushing touchdowns and two receiving touchdowns in the last three games, and Lipps and Dyhrkopp combined for another three in that span.

“Gavin Furi, he is a stud,” Butler said. “It doesn’t come naturally to him. He’s naturally athletic, but he works his butt off is what I’m trying to say. In the offseason, he did early-morning sprint training, then he went to weightlifting, and then he’d do his own exercises after that. He's always in the playbook, he’s always studying.”

Butler said he has a lot of emotions being back at his alma mater, and he’s had the opportunity to grow a lot as a coach in a few short months. The Falcons have not let any kick return past midfield since allowing two kickoff returns for touchdowns to Scottsdale Christian Academy in week three, and Butler credit’s the players and his mentorship from defensive coordinator Dominic M. Marino Jr. for the improvements.

Marino is one of the most experienced on the Fountain Hills staff. He was the special teams coordinator at Northern Arizona University and was inducted into the NAU Hall of Fame in 2003.

Butler and Strang are happy to see a new physical culture take hold in Fountain Hills. For Isiah Mercado, a former player for Moran at Shadow Ridge High School and current offensive line coach, it’s not surprising to see Moran’s early success.

Mercado said Moran knew how to talk to him, made him more knowledgeable about football and prepared him with the right attitude for football at the next level. Mercado is the newest assistant and was hired in the middle of the season, but he’s helped fix offensive line issues and improve the Falcon’s pass and run blocking.

“The kids are amazing,” Mercado said. “This is a great group. They work hard, they do what you ask. There’s no talking back to the coaches. They’re just well-respected men, and I think coach Moran has a big thing to do with that.”

Mercado never made the playoffs in high school or in college, and Butler remembers losing in the first round of playoffs. They are both motivated to help this current Falcons team get further than they ever did, and there is state championship experience on the Falcons’ coaching staff. The offensive coordinator, Danny Groebner, won two football state championships at Blue Ridge high school before becoming a preferred walk-on wide receiver at ASU.

Moran said his assistants are relentless in their coaching, and they haven’t let up at any point this season. The Falcons will be back on the field to host the Bourgade Catholic Golden Eagles at 7 p.m. this Friday, Oct. 14, and then they’re back on their region schedule at Payson on Friday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m.

“These boys are giving their all,” Butler said. “They show up, they bust their butts. They do everything they need to do to succeed.

“If we could get everyone out there at the games, cheer these guys on, we got three games left; two more home games, and then we’re going to try to make a deep playoff run, try to get to that state championship. If there’s a team to do it, this is the team to make a run.

“I believe in them, they believe in themselves, and the other coaches believe in them. Let’s get the community out here and believe in these guys as well.”