After building his football dynasty at ALA-Queen Creek, Detmer was moved over to ALA-Gilbert to take over the football program there. ALA-Gilbert has also done very well in a lower division, and their coach (a well-loved and genuine good guy) resigned as a “fall guy” as fallout for the “Gilbert Goons”* mania. I’m sure he was given a golden parachute, but the student body staged a walkout in protest of his resignation. Detmer is definitely someone who can calm down the frustration.
Max Hall and James Verenski were elevated to assistant coaches under Rich Edwards at ALA-QC (Hall was previously the offensive coordinator).
*The “Gilbert Goons” are young men and adults who have been beating people over the last year in a series of vicious beatings (In and Out, parks, etc.), with victims apparently being random. One of them, a high school student, died from the beating at a Halloween party with hundreds of people. Police are trying to gather evidence for charges and prosecution, but the slow pace of investigation has frustrated people who want results (there is a vigilante feeling in the air). When an ALA-Gilbert football player was arrested, some people clamored for American Leadership Academy to be “held accountable” ---- though, as I’ve pointed out to people when they have asked me (I’m at the Ironwood campus), what exactly, were they supposed to do before any arrests were made? Just discipline kids based on Tik Tok allegations, public rumor, etc.?
It will be interesting to see if ALA-QC remains upper echelon. Detmer will probably elevate ALA-Gilbert to a new level (as in, moving up divisions in a few years). In Arizona, winning moves schools up, and losing moves schools down. ALA-QC has been forced to compete in the Open Division (very top teams in the state), even though their competitors have thousands more students than they do.
The arrests have been mainly white teens and young adults. Two of the arrests have been black, which deflates the claim that it was a “white supremacist” Mormon thing. It appears to be wealthy young men acting like thugs. It’s not an infiltration of enemies of the U.S.
sounds like a tale as old as time…though in the modern age I expect it to be increasing…you teach kids that they are priviliged and some will start taking you at your word…especially with slow modern wheels of justice.
It’s a terrific situation (as was Queen Creek). One player, Kyler Renner, was arrested, but it’s not a systemic thing.
We kind of knew wheels were turning three weeks ago, when Ricedorf was forced out,
but like I said, he’s a nice, upstanding guy, and we’re confident that he was compensated on his way out. He also has a string of state championships and playoff appearances to his credit. He’s a sacrificial lamb to try to placate community activists. I wish they had stood with him and supported him.
When people have said “ALA is hiding and harboring criminals,” I’ve answered, How does a school do that, exactly? Put them in the attic or something? We’re not law enforcement. We’re also not responsible for crimes committed off-campus by a rogue student — especially if these things are unknown to us.
Thanks for the clarification. I hope Detmer succeeds as a HC.
My experience with Detmer was way back when he was at BYU. His wife (or soon to be, can’t remember) worked at the place I was working. We had a softball game, and his wife brought in a “Ringer” named Detmer.
He was so fun to be around, even though he was a “Big Time” player, he took time to visit with those around. Pretty good softball player.
how does someone beat a 16 year old to death and keep it quiet? Everybody knows, it is just a matter of time that charges are filed.
What is not clear to me why Detmer would move from a sure thing over to this hot bed of problems, McKay, could you help clarify?
He’s moving from a terrific situation to another terrific situation. The one player who was involved (Kyler Renner) was arrested. Both schools have indoor fieldhouses and state-of-the art facilities. ALA-QC was the small school in the open division (enrollment of 1200 competing against enrollments of 5000); ALA-GN is 4A and is coming off of a state championship last year and a run this year.
Ty Detmer is literally the nicest guy anyone will ever meet, and he will do what he is asked. If they asked him to go coach one of ALA’s schools in the South (e.g., Wake Forest), he would do that.
You’ll notice the Gilbert boosters aren’t complaining. While the Queen Creek boosters are upset, they get Rich Edwards back (who built the ALA-QC dynasty in the first place), and they still have Max Hall, now as a co-head coach.
In Arizona, anyone can attend whatever school they want, but if you transfer, you have to sit out the first half of the season. The AIA (Arizona Interscholastic Athletics) is considering changing it to the second half, so transfers would be ineligible for the post-season, so it’s not like the entire ALA-QC team will suddenly transfer to ALA-GN. Ty Detmer was a big draw for high school recruiting, though, especially for kids who have a real chance of playing Division 1. And for kids who want to play in a really good passing offense. Their defenses have also been good; they played state 6A champions closer than anyone else the last two years in relatively low-scoring games.
Personally, I’d like to see Detmer over Sitake at BYU. I don’t think his firing was his fault, and he was only given a year, unlike Tuiaki, who was given miles of rope to hang himself with.
I feel bad for Ricedorf (the coach who was let go). I feel he did nothing wrong, and they should have stood by him. Notice that he had nothing but good to say about ALA and his time there. I’m sure he was paid a large severance, and was asked to help them out with a PR problem (that actually shouldn’t be a PR problem).
Well, let me interject an opposing viewpoint that apparently isn’t aloud. But anyway, Sitaki was the head coach and wanted the offense to run a certain way and Detmer didn’t want to. End of story. Do what the boss tells you to do. Time to move on. Get over it cougar Fans.
Sitake doesn’t know how to run an offense, doesn’t know how to evaluate an OC and he especially doesn’t know how/when to call gadget plays. Sitake has had zero experience in coaching offenses. That is why he needed to hire a legit OC to run the show. ARod isn’t the answer.
All highly rated players in this cycle were Jay Hills. Who has Arod brought in to fix an anemic O?
We are 9 months away from a Coaching change. book it Danno.
What amazed me in the past 3 years of recruiting, we brought in 4 stars (Bowers, Swanson (this year)) tight ends and yet, ARod does not use the tight ends in his schemes. Why?
This is probably pay-walled for you guys, so I’ll provide some excerpts. TL;dnr: State 6A football champion head coach Zak Hill joins ALA-Gilbert with Ty Detmer.
“In his only season as head coach, Hill led Saguaro to the 2023 6A state championship, after a season filled with injuries that derailed the team playing one of the toughest schedules in the state. . .”
" Hill said he will be part of the athletic director duties with Jeff Oliverson, who left ALA Queen Creek to become that AD. Hill said will also help out Ty Detmer, who left ALA Queen Creek as head football coach to lead the ALA Gilbert North football program . . ."
“ALA reached out to Hill, who was part of (fired) Randy Ricedoff’s staff in 2022, when the (ALA-Gilbert) Eagles won their first 4A state title, before moving up last year to 5A. Hill had been the offensive coordinator at Arizona State and Boise State before being hired at Sahuaro . . .”
