Anna Pratts is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Bourgade Catholic for AZPreps365.com

Bourgade Catholic football coach Andrew Yates has only served in the position for two seasons, but his approach has turned the team into a brand new program.

“You come into a culture where winning is not in it and off-season work is not a thing,” Yates said. “The first year was really about getting kids in shape and teaching them the game of football.”

Prior to Yates’ tenure, the Golden Eagles had a 0-20 overall record through the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. His goal was to rebuild the foundations of the program, while also creating meaningful and deep connections with his players.

“Building that bond with each and every kid is how you pull the most out of them,” Yates said. “If I can get this kid to love me and I can show this kid that I love him — not through my words but through my actions — he’s going to run through a wall for me every single time.”

Taking over  a winless team, Yates had to make sure that his players trusted him first, focusing on coaching second. Getting to know his players one-on-one, showing that he cared about them and about the program, investing his time into them was how the students started buying into his methods.

“I’d book it over here for 45 minutes during rush hour just to get offseason training,” he said. “Every single day, regardless of who showed up. There’d be days I just had one kid, but I’m going to be there for that one kid, trying to breathe into him and create that relationship.”

Some of his players — senior captains Eli Salas and Angel Jacquez and junior captain William Lopreto-Tobar — describe Yates as the person they can always count on and who has done so much for all of them, both on and off the football field.

“The first day he came in, he had established right then and there that he’s someone you can go up and talk to, even if it’s outside of football stuff,” Salas said. “He’s always been there, not just as a coach but as a brother. Knowing that you have a guy like that as your head coach helps you trust even more, helps your morale as a team. It is a big part of our success.”

A lot of Yates’ approach comes from his own lived experiences. As the kid who wasn’t introduced to football until eighth grade Yates feels as though he can really relate to his players, motivating them to persevere by telling them his personal anecdotes.

“He was like us in high school,” Lopreto-Tobar said. “He didn’t have a winning season like we did, but the work he put in paid off and that is what he showed us.” 

The 30-year-old coach — the oldest member of his staff — describes his journey with football as something that he had to earn. 

“I didn’t grow up as the best athlete,” Yates said. “I wasn’t the best guy on my high school team and I for sure wasn’t the best guy on my team in college. I get a kick out of exceeding expectations.”

Both Yates and his players were told that they wouldn’t win at Bourgade, but he took that as a challenge and an opportunity to turn his athletes into winners.

“Bourgade has always been looked at as a school that never wins, but as soon as coach Yates stepped in, he killed that whole mentality,” Jacquez said. “He really implemented in us that we can do what we want to if we just put our effort in. That’s his biggest thing: trying, giving 100% of your effort. It was a culture shock for a lot of people.”

Despite the intensity, Jacquez said that Yates’ approach helped the athletes understand who was in it for fun and those who really wanted to win. According to him, that mindset laid the foundation for a culture of “success and camaraderie.”

Telling personal stories isn’t the only way that Yates has ensured that he, his coaching staff and his student-athletes are connected. Once the team hit the ground running at the start of last year, Yates has tried to be as involved in practice as possible.

“The good thing about this staff is that we can relate to the boys, we’re not just the guy who’s going to sit on a lawn chair and tell you what to do,” Yates said. “All of my coaches strap up in cleats and get after it. We’re out there doing a whole scrimmage. It’s important to be able to show these boys how to do it and not just tell them.”

Jacquez believes that was one of the reasons the team bought into Yates’ philosophy so quickly.

“It was refreshing; we had a new head coach, a young head coach,” Jacquez said. “Coach Yates doesn’t have the textbook way of working — like weight room sessions and things like that — he prioritized other things. He cared more about making you a better athlete, not just a strong bodybuilder.”

After their first win of the 2025-26 season against San Pasqual Valley — their first win in two years and a collective favorite memory for Yates and his players — the team realized that Yates’ unorthodox approach worked, encouraging the team to show up even more consistently. 

To Yates, the team’s success comes from their mentality and their intention and intensity in which they approach everything they do. 

“In the game of football, it’s kill or be killed, hammer or nail,” he said. “When you make it that important to the boys, they execute. All I can do as head coach is put them in position, can’t make the play for them.”

He describes his team as “underdogs” and “believers.” 

“Football taught me that it’s a lot about minor setbacks for major comebacks,” Salas said. “Going 0-20 was not a good feeling at all, but it shaped us into who we are today and into the mindset we have.”

Buying into his approach, not giving up when results weren’t coming and believing that they could do more is what got the Golden Eagles to the state playoffs this year — the first time in 13 years. 

“Being the underdogs all three years to finally get where we want, being in the position we want to be in, I’m proud and blessed to be a part of that,” Salas said. “We set a footprint on this team and we turned this program around for sure.”

Now, the standard is the state playoffs. The Golden Eagles finished the season with a 6-4 overall record, and made the playoffs before falling in the first round to Camp Verde. They know they can continue to do better.

“I’m putting on myself (the responsibility of) the offseason, getting kids to come out to put in the work before the season starts,” Lopreto-Tobar said. “Growing together in the summer as a team to go into this new season ready and prepared. The expectation is that (the playoffs) is something we should be doing from now on.”

As a rising senior and captain on the team, Lopreto-Tobar hopes to carry on the legacy of accountability, responsibility and discipline that he has learned from the current seniors on the team and those who have mentored him. 

With a mix of purpose, grit, community and trust, Yates and the Golden Eagles’ path to a solidified winning program has only just begun.