Noah Furtado is an ASU journalism student covering Carl Hayden High.

All Carl Hayden High football players hit the sleds at every practice, no exceptions, in adherence to a mandate from head coach Steven Arenas — who was an offensive lineman during his playing days. He said his guys ought to have “nasty” in them.

And the ethos was a smashing success.

The Falcons ran roughshod over most opposing defenses to punch in 46 rushing touchdowns — a program-best in at least a decade — with a stout front seven on the other side of the ball amassing 29 sacks — their most in five seasons — as evidence of the hard-nosed character Arenas pushed his players to embody.

Fueled by strength, size and experience at the line of scrimmage, Carl Hayden muscled its way to a 6-4 record for the program’s first winning season since 1996 in Arenas’ first full campaign at the helm.

But it’s personnel, and there aren’t many familiar faces back for the Falcons this season.

Arenas brought back only a pair of starting offensive linemen and one starting defensive lineman to a roster that’s also young at numerous other positions.

“That's what it comes down to,” Arenas said. “It just comes down to game experience.”

Carl Hayden split the first two non-regional games on its schedule. A 40-26 road win over Tempe High marked considerable progress from its opening shutout loss at Prescott High.

Jaime Zayas, who once played quarterback, had himself a breakout day with over 30 carries for 280-plus rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns against the Buffaloes, shrugging off a sub-20-yard display on the ground in his running back debut.

The 5-foot-7, 160-pounder said he’s 10 pounds heavier than his listed weight, which was a by-product of a busy offseason in which he juggled a position change behind an inexperienced front five that’s since been stabilized by senior guard and team captain Brayan Beltran as well as junior tackle Lee Renteria, the group’s two returning starters.

Renteria, in particular, was spotlighted as the most consistently impressive performer at Arenas’ favorite drill.

“He's a big kid, didn't play any football up until last year,” Arenas said. “Got thrown in Week 2 as a starting left tackle and never gave it up since. And so, he's really grown in the offseason. He's gotten a little taller, a little wider and he's just, he's got some nasty to him.”

On the opposite side, a similarly youthful defensive line has Arenas especially keen to the development of senior defensive end Luis Coronado, the replacement for Jordan Talbert, who happened to have as much or less exposure before his dominant senior season ensued.

In just his second year playing the sport, Talbert was nearly unstoppable off the edge with 16 sacks over a 10-game season. And though Coronado is unlikely to replicate such expeditious growth, he’s across from senior defensive end Moses Everest, who had four sacks last season.

They burden Talbert’s unprecedented success together.

“He’s a kid that's really, really new to football,” Arenas said of Coronado. “I mean, he's a big, good-looking kid. He's [6-foot-3], about 205 (pounds), lots of range, but again, very limited football experience. So we're trying to keep it really simple with him, and just letting him play fast.”

The roster turnover that’s put Coronado and several other players in pressure-packed positions to produce could be an insurmountable detail in Carl Hayden’s search for continued success, but diversifying the team’s identity in light of a wideout and secondary group bolstered by basketball athletes appears to be a potential workaround for Arenas.

“We want to run the ball,” Arenas said. “There's no secret about that. But I think this year, we definitely have some players where we can spread the field a little bit and spread some guys out to run the football. We have some playmakers who we have from our basketball team, who've come out this year and really got some skill. So we're excited to spread the ball around.”

Sophomore quarterback Jonathan Montes seconded such excitement: “Whatever it takes to be better as a team, we'll do exactly that. And we're starting to throw the ball more, so hopefully that gets going.”

Junior team captain Kendre Pride may play a central role in the effort as he’s joined in the receiving corps and secondary by seniors Adrien Armstrong and Gavin Rosser, his basketball teammates who have potential to add speed and agility as two-way contributors.

“Last year, when we'd get into a tough game, our defense would carry us out and get four-and-outs, four-and-outs, four-and-outs and give us multiple chances to score,” Pride said. “I feel like this year, we won't need our defense to really carry us because we'll have multiple options and get touchdowns, move the ball, move faster.”

Pride was the team’s lone 1,000-yard rusher — the program’s fourth straight season with such a player, excluding its one-game campaign in 2020 — as starting running back a season ago, but Arenas said he saw greater potential for the listed 6-foot-1, 170-pounder on the perimeter.

And even more so on defense.

“Looking at his future, I think he's a next-level defensive back,” Arenas said. “So (we) try to kind of showcase his skill set a little bit out in space, more than in between the tackles. He's got great length, great range for his spot. He's a [defensive back], so I think he could play corner or free safety at the next level." 

With Pride on the backend, Arenas added: “We think that our secondary or backend is probably as solid as it’s ever been in a long time at least.”

In shouldering amplified expectations, Carl Hayden continues the pre-regional portion of its schedule at Moon Valley High on Friday as Arenas and his largely remade collective of players attempt to translate the hope stirred from last season into fuel for an even greater follow up.

Its school and surrounding community are now at attention.

“A little more buzz on campus,” Arenas said. “We got some people, some of our staff members, who are excited and similar to my staff. To hear their stories about what sports was like when they were in high school and where we're at now across all of our sports is really cool.”