Jay Campos and Rollin Gridley both reached the state championship football game five times. Their experiences couldn't have been more different.
Gridley, the legendary Tucson High coach, went 5-0, winning titles in 1937, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945. The Badgers were universally favored, the bully in Arizona prep football, with a combined record of 44-5 in those five seasons.
But Campos and his Sabino High Sabercats couldn't catch a break. They reached the state championship games of 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2016, always meeting a Gridley-type bully.
Mica Mountain head football coach Jay Campos leads his players through an afternoon practice, Dec. 2, 2025.
Campos lost to 13-0 Glendale Cactus in ’05, to 12-1 Scottsdale Saguaro in ’06, to 13-0 Canyon del Oro and Ka'Deem Carey in ’09, and to 12-1 Queen Creek in ’16. Even though Campos had gone 134-35 across his 14 Sabino seasons, winning a Hall of Fame-type 80% of his games, he couldn't catch a break. He always faced The Big One in the Big Game.
Campos didn't coach a game from 2017-24, embarking on a career as an athletic director and assistant principal at Cienega and Mica Mountain high schools. Now, just 49, Campos began Act II this year. He coached Mica Mountain to an 11-2 record entering Friday's 4A title game against — you guessed it — 13-0 Arcadia High, the No. 1 seed.
But this time the football gods smiled on Campos and his Thunderbolts. They scored on a 98-yard kickoff return and an 18-yard interception return to beat Arcadia 42-17.
Can you imagine the sense of accomplishment and serenity?
Only two other football coaches in Tucson history, Jeff Scurran (Sabino, Santa Rita, Catalina Foothills) and Flowing Wells' Larry Hart have qualified for more state championship games than Campos. Hart went 1-5. Scurran went 3-5. It's really hard to win the Big One, right?
Jay Campos, who went to bed a very happy man Friday night, could write a book about it.
