Jared Cohen
Chaparral high school football players and coaches have moved on from the great program to be successful at the next level, whether it be college or pro.
Former head coach Charlie Ragle moved on to the University of Arizona to be part of Rich Rodriguez’s staff, last season’s offensive line coach Grey Ruegamer moved onto the University of Washington and that just scratches the surface.
The most recent and maybe the most unique of all, Firebird defensive backs coach Bryan Chesin will now be getting the opportunity to mix his passion for football and his great video editing skills and apply it with a job with one of the most prestigious sports production companies out there, NFL Films.
“I have been hired to be a part of an apprenticeship program that works within the producing department,” Chesin told Pros2Preps.com. “There were different avenues I could choose from and I decided to go the NFL playbook route because that allows me to do X’s and O’s, allows me to watch game film and talk football.”
“I am just a football obsessed freak so it’s pretty cool,” he added.
For NFL Films, Chesin will have the opportunity to use his experience as a football coach to his advantage. In fact, NFL mentioned in their job description that they preferred to have a former player and coach so they could notice things other might not and be able to apply it to their work.
“It’s crazy because I never played college football,” Chesin explained. “I worked in the video room while I was at the U of A but I always wanted to coach. The reason I first got hired at Chaparral was because I did videos. Charlie (Ragle) hired me, I busted my tail and eventually got a position with the team.”
“Producing video is what I do for fun,” he added. “So the fact that I now get to turn something I did as a hobby for hours on end into a career, it’s unbelievable.”
It is a huge opportunity for Chesin because many others who have had this apprenticeship have gone on to work for various departments as well as coaching staffs at the highest level of the game. It is a dream of Chesin’s to work in that capacity for an NFL team so this becomes his first step in that direction.
His football coaching experience has been mentioned but now to his video producing experience. Out of college at the University of Arizona, Chesin had a passion for producing and editing short films. After becoming a coach, he would help players create highlight packages to send out for recruiting purposes and then starting last season, Chesin would take footage from Chaparral’s games and make motivational videos to be played for the team on fridays before they took the field.
It was all something that he would do just for fun.
Fun from one video in particular ended up becoming award winning on a national level.
Footballscoop.com is a web site that is very popular amongst the coaching community. They announced they were going to do a football video contest so Chesin decided to submit one of his. The video he gave them was the motivational video used prior to the game against Chaparral’s rival, the Saguaro Sabercats.
Sure enough, the video won the award for best football video in the high school division. Check it out:
“I got a call from a random number from Louisiana on my way to work and picked it up and was told they loved the video and that I had won,” Chesin said. “I started honking my horn on my car and pumping my fist. People probably thought I was crazy but it was really cool.”
Chesin had begun the interview process with NFL Films before winning the award from footballscoop.com. But he mentioned to the producer he was in contact with that he had won it and to check it out. The NFL Films producer called for a follow up phone interview and at the end of the interview said he saw that motivational video told him it was great.
“I dont know if that was the pushing point for me to get the job, in fact I doubt it,” he explained. “But the fact that he saw it and thought it was good was a cool feeling.”
Now, Bryan Chesin will move onto New Jersey and begin his quest for his dream. However, saying goodbye to his fellow coaches and the players at Chaparral was definitely not easy after devoting so many hours and also carrying so much pride in a program that has done so much for him as a person.
“Not a lot of things, especially at this time of year, would pull me away from Chaparral just because I love that place with everything I’ve got,” he mentioned. “The place really made me a man and made me grow up so, to get this opportunity really was my dream job.”
