Keenan Vaughan is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain Ridge High School for AZPreps365.com.

 

Freshman catcher Joe Forbes could do nothing but watch. After just two innings of play, the Mountain Ridge High School Mountain Lions were down 15-2 to the top-ranked Hamilton Huskies at home in front of a crowd full of prospective coaches on March 21, 2022. 

Instead of going quietly into the night, Mountain Ridge nearly did the unthinkable and rattled off 12 unanswered runs. Despite ultimately losing the contest, the comeback that could’ve been signified the moment that Forbes said he knew the right people were in place in his school's athletics department.

“We had dudes that were willing to fight and dudes that were willing to scratch and claw until the very end,” Forbes, now a senior. “I knew this program was special and the coaching staff was special and we had a very strong culture.”

Mountain Ridge High School Athletic Director Tony Miller also holds the near-comeback in fond remembrance but had something else on his mind after receiving an email just before this interview began. 

While laying out his answer to the question of why some schools prioritize winning above all else, he finally broke the news: the Mountain Ridge High School football team won the state sportsmanship award.

“This is a program that, just a couple of years ago, we were near the bottom when it came to sportsmanship,” Miller said.

Miller will travel to Austin, Texas, on December 15, to accept the Quality Program Assessment award at the NIAAA/NFHS National Conference. The plaque and banner he is set to receive is yet another recognition of excellence for ‘The Ridge Way,’ a student-athlete atmosphere constructed over his four-year tenure that emphasizes success on and off the field.

"This wasn't just an award for us,” Miller said. “It is a way that we carry ourselves. It truly does embody what we mean by, ‘The Ridge Way.’”

The core tenants of ‘The Ridge Way’ can best be seen within the high school’s Hall of Fame and annual induction ceremony. While the honor has been bestowed upon athletes such as Pro Bowl long snapper, Jon Weeks, and Olympic gold medalist, Jade Carey, the three pillars put athletic accomplishments at the bottom of the list.

The first pillar: character. Teaching student-athletes how to showcase good character win or lose has become mandatory across Mountain Ridge athletics. Through the guidance of the coaching staff and creating an all-sportsmanship honors team, doing the right thing on the field or even away from school becomes a conscious decision.

“You will never see one of our athletes here at Ridge acting up outside the field,” Forbes said. “You’ll never see us acting up on the field. It’s very classy. We have core values here at Ridge, and I think that really sets us apart from a lot of other schools and makes us unique.”

The second pillar: impact in the community. Going beyond mere recommendation, classes and sports programs at Mountain Ridge require student-athletes to fulfill a “community outreach program.” Similar to the policy on sportsmanship, coaches hope mandating that players spend time by serving food at soup kitchens or helping with trail maintenance at Thunderbird Conservation Park will encourage them to eventually do it on their own time.

“We’re always looking at ways to make our community a little bit better, a little bit prettier,” AP English instructor and mentor coach Mark Faust said. “And the athletes buy in and you see them participate. It’s something that is an expectation that we do.”

Mountain Ridge also balances the significance of athletics with academics. This past year, 13 out of 24 athletic programs recorded a combined GPA of over 4.0, and one-third of student-athletes are currently enrolled in AP courses, according to Miller.

In addition, the 2023-24 school year saw the creation of the All-Ridge Awards, which nominated 70 student-athletes on the aforementioned all-sportsmanship team and all-academic team to be recognized in an end-of-year banquet.

“Mark and I can tell them to do the work all we want, but ultimately they have to choose to want to do that work at a super high level,” Miller said. “That’s their choice to want to be great.”

What separates the coaching staff at Mountain Ridge athletics from other schools could be its teacher-first mentality. The time spent in the classroom isn’t just a precursor to standing on the sidelines. It’s an opportunity to teach students and athletes that adding a trophy to the display case is just as important as academic excellence.

“Those two things are married together and you can’t do one well without the other,” Faust said. “So you got to put academics first, and our athletes continue to demonstrate that on the field, and off the field.”