Chadwick, Ocampo ready to make their coaching mark on prep football

As Michael Chadwick attempts to build upon almost 100 years of history at Yuma High, Simon Ocampo begins the first chapter at Gila Ridge. While both of the Yuma area's newest football coaches had offers on the table from other schools, they each found the challenges of their current positions too intriguing to pass up.

Though Ocampo is only three years removed from his playing days as a linebacker at New Mexico State, Gila Ridge marks his second stop as a head coach. He led 3A Pojoaque High near Santa Fe, N.M., to a school record for wins last season as a rookie coach.

In contrast, Chadwick has 11 years experience as a defensive coordinator, special teams coordinator and assistant head coach throughout Washington state, but Yuma High is his first destination as an on-staff head coach. He replaced Rhett Stallworth, who guided the Criminals to two city titles in three years before accepting an offer to fill the football vacancy down the road at 2A Yuma Catholic in April.

"The history and tradition were a big draw for me. In my opinion, that's a hard thing to find in high school football," said Chadwick, who also had offers to coach in Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, Florida and Arizona. "I analyzed everything and evaluated the options, including the level of play - that played a part in my decision as well."

Ocampo is the latest in a long line of high school head football coaches in his family, following his father, a 30-year veteran coach currently at 3A Eloy-Santa Cruz, and two older brothers.

He said he's not only dedicated to the long-term task of building a program from scratch, but he's also committed to doing what he can to improve the quality of football within the community.

"It's tough because you have to get a full staff together, and what's even tougher about it is we have no middle school football here in Yuma. That's something I'm going to have to remedy," Ocampo said. "When it's all said and done, win, lose or draw, I'll put my stamp on this place one way or another."

Gila Ridge's student body will consist of only freshmen and sophomores this year. Its football team will compete at the junior varsity level the first season before making the jump to varsity in year two.

Ocampo added that in addition to program building, his respect for Gila Ridge principal Jamie Sheldahl was a major selling point for him in accepting the position.

"He's a man of his word, and he's a big time football supporter," Ocampo said of Sheldahl. "To be honest, I've never had a principal like this before. He really knows what it takes to succeed at this level and build a program."

Chadwick filled out his coaching staff with four assistants who all have playing or coaching experience at Arizona Western College and or Northern Arizona University. Defensive coordinator Curt Weber is the lone holdover from last season's staff.

Chadwick added that he expects a smooth transition into the new phase of his career.

"I'm a very organized person, and I've spent a lot of years coaching football, baseball and boxing so it's nothing new to me," he said. "I've always been either a coordinator or an assistant head coach and in a role of responsibility."

Ocampo said at this point, he and his staff have to go over a lot of fundamentals for those who have never played organized football, but he added he expects his teams to be entertaining and well-disciplined.

"We constantly harp on the kids about doing what the coaches ask. That's all they have to do, and we're going to do it with 100 percent effort," he said. "On offense, we're going to do a bunch of stuff that I think will be fan-friendly. On defense, we're going to be multiple, especially in years to come. I think we're going to be real exciting."

Chadwick added that though he's new to the school and to the area, he's taken an interest in Criminal football's rich tradition and he thinks it's important his players understand it as well.

"I think the points we're trying to drive home right now are improving or building upon the character attributes of our participants," he said. "Our expectations are that our players are going to represent the alumni of Criminal football. I want them to take pride in the fact that they are representing almost 100 years worth of participants in this program."

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Derrik Miller can be reached at dmiller@yumasun.com or 782-6520.

Originally published July 25, 2007.