Hansen's Top Teams, No. 64: Toughness, perseverance led Sunnyside to 2001 state championship

Sunnyside produced so many Power 5 football prospects in the early 1980s that it was difficult to keep track: Freddie Sims, David Adams, Jon Horton, Jerry Beasley, Bobby Valdez, George Duarte …

Yet the Blue Devils could never break through and win the Big One, could never get to the state championship game.

In a move that didn’t create headlines, former Pueblo High School state wrestling champion and recent UA grad Richard Sanchez joined the Sunnyside football staff in 1981, assigned to the freshman team.

No one would have suspected that Sanchez was the man who would unlock those state championship dreams.

It took time — Sanchez first coached the Blue Devils to five state wrestling championships from 1990-94 — but when he agreed to leave his wrestling post to coach a struggling Sunnyside football team in 1994, he began one of the most compelling prep coaching careers in Tucson history.

None of it was easy. In Sanchez’s first season, Sunnyside was routed 69-12 by Amphi, the city’s most feared football program. The Blue Devils lost 62-0 at Lakeside Blue Ridge. Sanchez’s Blue Devils went 7-13 his first two seasons.

But by 2000 they were 13-0, playing mega-power Scottsdale Chaparral in the state finals (losing 28-14).

By 2001 they beat Arizona’s rising power, Scottsdale Saguaro, to reach the state championship game. A week later Sunnyside won it all, overpowering Phoenix Greenway at Sun Devil Stadium, 28-6.

Sanchez wasn’t one to spend time chatting about himself with reporters. When asked the formula to Sunnyside’s unexpected rise, he simply told me “work works.’’

To build the 2001 state champs, Sanchez became one of the first Tucson coaches to implement a year-round football program. Amphi’s Vern Friedli, Sahuaro’s Howard Breinig and Sabino’s Jeff Scurran were also “work works’’ advocates. All had been state champions. Sanchez made the work pay off and became a state champion, too.

Sunnyside won with toughness and perseverance, not size and speed. The “biggest’’ players on the 2001 title team were linemen Sam Sotelo and Aaron Esquivel, who both were close to 200 pounds, if that.

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How did Sunnyside do it? It punched its opponents in the face, figuratively. It ran the ball with an unwavering commitment behind modest-sized linemen Jaime Martinez, Ned Norris, Walter Arvizu, Esquivel and Sotelo.

They opened holes for 5-foot 7-inch tailback Philo Sanchez — the coach’s son — who gained 2,479 yards, then the third most in Tucson history behind Sabino’s Nathan Wize (3,101), Amphi’s Michael Bates (2,740) and Mountain View’s Kevin Schmidtke (2,740).

Ironically, Sunnyside opened the season with a 26-7 loss to Scottsdale Saguaro, in which Sanchez was limited to 20 rushing yards. In the 13 consecutive wins to follow, here’s how it went:

Sanchez gained 165 yards in a win over Sunrise Mountain.

He followed with 204 yards against Pueblo, 232 in a big-time showdown win over Amphi, 124 against Santa Rita, 163 against Palo Verde, 229 against Nogales, 183 against Cholla, 247 against Marana, 225 against Rincon/University, 335 against Prescott, and 108 against Goodyear Millennium.

In the state semifinals against Saguaro, Sanchez, the coach, changed tactics against a team that had stacked its defense to stop Philo and the running game. Quarterback Victor Cunes passed for 275 yards in 35 passing attempts. That strategy wrecked the favored Scottsdale team.

A week later in the championship game, Sanchez and the running game ruled. Sunnyside ran the ball 54 times; Sanchez gained 184 yards. The Blue Devils were champions.

After the game, the normally inscrutable Sanchez raised the trophy above his head in a photo op, celebrating eight years of “work works.’’

Two years later, Sunnyside won its second state championship, 12-2 overall, defeating Phoenix Cactus.

Sanchez’s Blue Devils went 105-24 from 1999-2009. After the 2010 season, he resigned to accept an administrator’s job in the Sunnyside athletic department.