Story by Austin Burnett
If you drive about three hours southeast of Phoenix, you will eventually arrive at a Thatcher High School. Home of the Eagles and the 2016 2A Football State Champions.
The Eagles are off to their first 7-0 start since 2013, but will face their toughest test next week , when they take on Round Valley in a rematch of the 2016 2A State Championship.
“Their hard work and dedication and love for Eagle Football is the driving factor behind last year’s state championship team and is exemplified even more by this year’s team,” head coach Sean Hinton told Sports360az.
Hinton changed the face of Thatcher football when he took over in 2015 by developing a ground and pound, hard-nosed style of football with his team and his players have bought into his system.
“Two years ago, when I took over we completely changed everything they were ever taught about football,” Hinton said. “And went back to the old school smash mouth veer option football that their dads probably played at Thatcher but this team has a better understanding of the offense that’s better than I’ve seen as a player or coach at Thatcher High School.”
The Eagles don’t have a large graduating class this season, but Hinton is excited about the seniors he has.
“We have a small senior class number wise somewhere around 10 but the few we have do a great job,” Hinton said. “We have some captains that lead by example like our work horses Layton Alder and Shane Cooke and others that lead on the field like our field general Tyler Roebuck and hard hitting MLB Jordan Herbert. We also have a pair of Junior captains both named Quinten. QT (Quinten Turley) is our spark plug playmaker on both sides of the ball and Q. Mack is the leader of an offensive line that is huge part of our success.”
Thatcher has a bye this week but will take on Round Valley on Friday, Oct. 13 in a battle of the undefeateds and a rematch of the 2A state title game.
