TJ Hayes is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Chaparral High School for AZPreps365.

As the calendar turns to December, the Chaparral football team is hot off four straight wins, including playoff victories against Perry (33-7) and Pinnacle (41-36) in the first two rounds. They’ve put themselves in great position to repeat as 6A state champions under head coach Brent Barnes in his fourth season at Chaparral. 

Despite a 6-4 regular-season record, Chaparral has been saving its best football for now — playoff time. The Firebirds’ highly competitive schedule saw them fall in close games to three of the eight eventual Open Division teams. Despite those losses, Chaparral still is one of the elite high school football teams in Arizona. 

In the 6A bracket, Chaparral is ranked No. 2 and will take on third-ranked Williams Field in a semifinal matchup at home at 7 p.m. Friday. Despite the multitude of injuries they've sustained over the course of the season, the Firebirds keep fighting and welcome the next-man-up mentality. The culture that has been built in the last four years under Barnes is something special to see. But to understand how this program has been rebooted in recent years, we have to look back at the man at the helm, Brent Barnes.    

Barnes started his coaching career here in Arizona at Buckeye Union in 2003, working alongside his dad, Bobby Barnes, a prominent high school football coach in the Valley. Brent Barnes saw an opportunity to be an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at a young age working with his dad, from whom he learned the ins and outs of leading a football team. 

“I kind of got to get my feet wet real real early in my career and kind of learned on the fly,” said Barnes.    

“I was at a place (where) the program was kind of down, and we improved and got a lot better. I had some success as an offensive coordinator for a year or two, but I felt like I hadn’t been somewhere that was a big-time program, a championship level-type program, and I wanted to do that.” 

This led to his move in 2006 to Oklahoma, where he had originally grown up and played quarterback at Santa Fe High in Edmond. After two years as an assistant at Yukon High School, he got hired as a wide receivers and running backs coach at a football powerhouse, Tulsa Union. In all three of his years there, Union won championships in the state’s largest classification. Being around all that success and elite talent helped Barnes learn plenty in a short period of time.  

“That staff was just an incredible staff,” he said. “What I really learned was (the) structure of how you manage an elite program like that. Practice plans, practice schedules, and then offensively it was everything from top down: how to structure the playbook and the run game to fit with the passing game, all those kinds of intricate details.”

“Being there around that quality of a staff, and seeing how things were done, I felt like then I was fully equipped to run a championship program and to do what we need to do offensively. … My time at Union was kind of like a master's class for me.”  

In 2011, Barnes moved on to become offensive coordinator at another powerhouse program about two hours south, Norman North. This opportunity allowed Barnes to take on more responsibility and apply everything he had absorbed in the three years he was at Union. In his second season at North, the team made its first-ever state championship game appearance. 

In 2015, Barnes briefly accepted the head coaching position at Notre Dame Prep in Scottsdale before backing out for family health reasons and choosing to remain in Oklahoma. Soon afterward, he took over as head coach at Norman North, where he led the Timberwolves to a 26-9 record in three seasons. His 2016 team enjoyed a historic year, finishing the regular season undefeated for the first time in school history before falling to Tulsa Union — his old team — in the state championship game. Led by Drake and Isaac Stoops, the twin sons of former University of Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops, North also set records in points per game, yards per game and passing yards per game, along with the most wins in school history (12). 

“I got to really take everything there (and) apply it,” said Barnes. “We had team success. We weren’t just throwing the ball everywhere (getting) yards and points (and) not winning, we were winning.” 

Around this time, Chaparral was coming off a stretch of seasons with limited success, something that the Firebirds program was not accustomed to. After winning three consecutive state titles from 2009-11, Chaparral shuffled between three different head coaches in six seasons and won only eight playoff games during that period. Entering the 2018 season, Chaparral was moving up to the 6A division with the big dogs, and the Firebirds were looking for a reboot.   

Barnes was lucky enough to grab a hold of an opportunity like this, moving back to the Valley where his coaching career began. From his first role as an offensive coordinator at a 4A school in Buckeye to the head coach of a dominant program at Chaparral, this was his biggest opportunity yet.

In Barnes' first two years at Chaparral, he transferred his prolific passing attack to the Firebirds, increasing almost all of their offensive statistical marks. In his second season, Barnes’ team made the inaugural Open Division playoffs with an 8-2 regular season record led by quarterback Jack Miller, who went on to play at Ohio State.

After a tough first-round loss, the Firebirds rebounded in 2020. Despite playing a shortened eight-game schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chaparral rallied as the No. 7 seed in 6A and won its first state championship since 2011 with a 24-14 victory over Gilbert Highland in the final. In three years, Barnes pushed Chaparral back into the status of the state’s elite programs and won a state title.  

Chaparral’s offensive coordinator, Tim Kohner, has known Barnes since he arrived at the school. Through the course of a couple of lunches, Barnes felt comfortable enough to hire him as the team’s offensive coordinator. Since then, they’ve worked hand in hand with the rest of the staff to create a championship culture. 

“The culture we try to instill is that of hard work, dedication, integrity, and attention to detail. (All) life lessons, really,” Kohner said. “There was a lot to clean up on and off the field … some kids didn’t like it and transferred, and some bought in. ... Barnes cares about (the) kids and that’s what you want first and foremost in a coach. We all try to instill grit, determination and toughness that should help them in marriage, school, jobs, and life. That’s the point of sports, in our opinion.”   

The Firebirds players love being coached by Barnes and the staff he’s surrounded them with. Along with putting them in the best opportunities to succeed, Barnes teaches more than just football. This is a critical stage in most young athletes’ lives, and the extra time and effort Barnes takes to teach his players about life is unmatched. 

“He has seen the same success stories, and knows what it takes,” said senior defensive end Anthony Lucas. “Learning things about being a young man, for my future life, and on the field has impacted me to be who I am now from him. He’s a great mentor and coach.” 

Winning is obviously a priority for Barnes, but his biggest is shaping these young kids into becoming men. 

“He really prepares us for life in general,” said starting quarterback Brayten Silbor. “Football is football, he’s going to be the greatest coach he can be — and he is a great coach — but outside of that he teaches us about responsibility and what family is.” 

“He cares so much about us,” said starting senior linebacker CJ Eastwood. “The life lessons he’s taught me is (about) hard work. Through it all, tough times are going to come, and you got to just push through it.”   

Barnes also knows when to tap back into the “kid” and make things fun for his players at practice when the time is right. 

“We’re always having fun,” said Silbor. “Just to get a chance to play football is fun, but I mean he loves football, that’s his life … sometimes he’s going to yell, whatever, that’s his job. That’s what it takes to win.”  

These seniors Barnes has had under his wing for four years not only are now ready for life, but also ready to succeed at the highest level on the field. Barnes made it clear that he wanted to build this program the right way when he started here, and since he has done nothing but that. With only two transfers in his time at Chaparral, he has worked with and won with the guys that grew up around the area.

“We want to develop the guys that are here,” said Barnes. “We just believe we have a system and a way of doing things that if guys buy into it and learn it, you can be successful in it. We’ve had great quarterbacks, you have to have great quarterbacks to do what we’re doing … We've (also) had wide receivers now this year that have stepped in (like) Grady (Hickey), he didn't even play wide receiver, he was a running back, and leads our team in receiving. Gavin Higley is close to 1,000 yards now. Guys that weren’t big-time known playmakers have really stepped in.” 

Having experience as a former quarterback, Barnes believes that gives him an edge coaching offensively and knowing where guys can be their best and succeed.   

Silbor, Chaparral’s starting quarterback, has already broken their school record for passing yards in the 10-game regular season. He will be able to continue to add to what he’s already thrown for the more games they play in the playoffs. 

Lucas, who had never played football before he came to Chaparral as a freshman, has through his years of development become the No. 1-ranked football player in Arizona and has totaled 19.5 sacks and 42.5 tackles for a loss in his three-year varsity career. He is weighing scholarship offers from some of the top college programs in the country, including Alabama, Oregon, LSU and USC. 

Players like Grady Hickey and Gavin Higley have also had breakout years at the wide receiver position, possibly setting them up to play at the next level. 

Going forward, Barnes will be in the conversation as one of the best high school football coaches in Arizona. He will continue to build from within and put out championship-caliber teams every year, as well as preparing his players for the long life they’ll have after football.