Nine months ago, despite a tradition of 15 state championships built by Arizona’s winningest head football coach, Blue Ridge High School could not find a head coach willing to follow in his footsteps.

Until, that is, Bob London went back and found his replacement too: former Mesa Desert Ridge head coach Jeremy Hathcock.

“It’s going to be a great adventure, and Coach Hathcock’s up to it,” said London, the Yellowjackets’ retired athletic director and sixth-year head coach after the program’s architect, the late Paul Moro, brought his last of 13 state championships back to the Pinetop/Lakeside high school. “Having had the opportunity to play for Coach Moro, he’s a pretty cool story that’s come full circle.”

Fast-forward to Thursday, Oct. 7, and Hathcock, all-state running back his final two years under Moro in consecutive 3A championship seasons of 1989 and 1990, has found just fielding healthy running backs and a quarterback after a 4-2 start to be more than an adventure: It is, in his own words, “the most adversity I’ve probably ever been through as a coach.”

“Especially in 3A, when you’re down dudes in the middle of a game, it’s tough,” added Hathcock, whose 12th-ranked Yellowjackets seek to stay alive in the 3A playoff hunt with their first East Region win at ninth-ranked Winslow. “But, you know, it wouldn’t be Blue Ridge if we weren’t losing dudes.”

Junior Hunter Martinez, injured and questionable for the Oct. 7 game, became Hathcock’s starting quarterback less than 10 days before the Yellowjackets’ season opener--an Aug. 27 home loss to seventh-ranked Safford--after two other players transferred and a scrimmage with Thatcher was cancelled. Hathcock’s top receiver, senior Tim Barber, has not played since getting injured early in their region opener Sept. 17, a 41-0 loss to Snowflake.

Primary running back Elam Antonelli has been out since injuring himself stretching during warmups for the second half of that same game. His replacement, another junior, Franko Harris, sustained a sprained right hand in a 15-13 win Thursday, Sept. 30, at 4A Prescott. Following a run late in the fourth quarter of that game, classmate Seth Slaughter is questionable for Winslow after having to be helped off the field with a right leg injury.

“Running back-wise, all our skill kids are brand new,” Hathcock said. “We’re not going to outrun you, but we know where we’re going and we’ll get there faster.” 

Still, senior Sam Montoya, who “probably ran for 100 yards” in that game and “did a great job setting the edge” in the place of another injured senior, Christian Roman, “couldn’t hold onto the ball” after hurting his arm against the Badgers, Hathcock said.

“We’ve just been down this road so many times,” added the 2003 head coach at state champ Show Low High School, who went on to lead Desert Ridge to 11 straight winning seasons and two 6A title game appearances. “But, it is what it is. When our backs are against the wall, we fight. That’s what we do.”

Fortunately for Hathcock, his hire as Blue Ridge head coach and athletic director brought 60 players into fall camp--20 more freshmen alone than the total that joined London’s son, P.J., second-team all-3A quarterback as a senior, on last season’s East Region champions.

“I’m sure that’s because they’ve heard I’m here,” said Hathcock, who is hoping he doesn’t need to call on any more than his 35 players from the season-opening varsity roster. “A lot of these kids have been playing together since the second grade. They know what’s expected of them at Blue Ridge.”

Chemistry. Discipline. Hard work. When Moro “could just straight up out-coach people,” Hathcock added, those intangibles beat all the advantages in skill development tools, technology, even team speed Phoenix schools enjoy.

Inheriting an experienced linebacking corps and offensive line that “could start for any 6A team I’ve ever had” always helps--even if, besides Barber, his receivers and secondary are mostly inexperienced by comparison. They did pass a steep learning curve against “bigger, faster kids” from Kingman and Prescott.

“For us, a school of 1,800 to 2,000 kids lets us know where we stand,” he said. “I know we can compete with 3A guys if we can compete with those guys.”

But Winslow, which just scored its own upset of a larger 4A school at Flagstaff, also has a shutdown defense and more experienced playmakers, like quarterback Jace Lyons and speedy wide receiver Micah Johnson, whose 60-yard punt return made the difference for the Bulldogs in their opening win at Monument Valley.

The two upperclassmen have hooked up for four touchdowns this season--all from 30 or more yards, including a season-long 67-yarder Sept. 30 to beat the Eagles.

That touchdown came early in the second quarter, and it was enough for senior Gage Thomas, who led the team in both tackles (nine) and rushing yardage (72, including the other Bulldog TD in the first quarter). Thomas' two-way effort inspired the rest of the defense to allow just 56 yards rushing by Flagstaff, clamping down for a 14-12 upset in Northern Arizona University's Walkup Skydome.

After Winslow, though, comes perhaps the biggest test of Hathcock’s first season: Senior Night against No. 2 Round Valley the week before returning to his old haunt, East Region co-leader Show Low, followed by the finale at a 15th-ranked Payson team fighting for its postseason life.

“I will say, they learn fast,” Hathcock said of his hardy survivors. “They’re not afraid to run. They don’t complain. Sometimes, I wonder if they even have an opinion.

“It blows me away. It’s such a breath of fresh air.”

A reinvigoration that will help carry out his late mentor’s lessons Hathcock remembers since his freshman year, when Moro won his first title over Snowflake.

“I did not want to replace Paul Moro,” Hathcock said. “I didn’t come here to change the tradition; I’m here to embrace it.”