James Copeland s an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Betty Fairfax High School for AZPreps365.com.i

In the world of high school football, it can be hard to come into a situation as a new head coach.

The situation could be very tumultuous and ever changing from the previous year. Many head coaches in their first year attempt to set a culture change and help build a foundation for future players to come to within the program.

For Keith Mannie, his main focus is bringing academic and discipline to a young Betty H. Fairfax team that graduated 22 seniors the year before he got the job. 

“We are trying to build some discipline and structure for our younger guys," he said. "I want them to be students first and foremost, focus on their academics and school work. We will have a welcoming environment, however I want them to know that with that comes hard work.” 

Mannie is not short on playing experience and coaching experience. He played high school football himself and also played hard enough to play college football at Langston University.

He did not get into the coaching world until he was 27. He had lots of success working at a private school in Oklahoma, where he not only coached football, but was named head track coach for his efforts.

He then moved to a bigger school where he had to work his way up to the varsity level for football. After that, he moved into the Phoenix area and took the freshmen job at Fairfax for a year before taking the head coaching job  on the varsity level

Mannie is hoping to use this experience to rebuild the Fairfax program to winning football. With most of the coaching staff from the year before moving on, and all of the upperclassmen graduating, he has a lot of underclassmen on the team this year who need more playing time and structure in order to gain wins.

While Mannie has a lot of football knowledge and coaching under his belt, his main focus is on the kids.

From his own personal experience, he knows how much impact a coach can have on a player. When he was in high school, he unfortunately quit the team after freshman year, but was able to fall back into the sport and was helped by Kevin Gordon, who was the coach of the team at the time.

He motivated Mannie to return to the sport that he has since flourished in. Mannie really takes joy in helping kids become young men. 

“I had my own personal experience freshman year where I actually quit the team. The head coach at the time, Kevin Gordon, who is a great man that I still keep in touch with, pulled me back in and just talked to me about life. I just love helping the kids. I will run into some kids I’ve coached and it’s awesome to see how they’ve grown,” he said.

Many of the coaches have also bought into the new culture. Coach Martwon Weaver is the defensive coordinator of the Stampede. Weaver had high praise for Mannie, praising him on what he has done on the job, as well as how the players respond to him.

“I think he has very high standards but realistic goals. I like how involved he is with the players, and they have truly accepted him as head coach, seeing that he truly cares about them. He took on a hard project not a lot of people would be willing to do,” he said.

The players have also seemed to really respect how hard he is on them, while also caring a lot about them.

Dual Machar Wie, who is one of the few seniors on this year’s team and the star safety and running back, had many positive things to say about Mannie. He spoke of how he really wants to see them succeed as men and football players. He spoke of the standard Mannie has already set, and how the players are responding to it.

“He is the coach that shows us respect even when we mess up, he makes sure we learn and do better," Wie said. "He holds us to a high standard making sure we get to class on time and stay on top of our grades. He’s always making sure we treat everyone with respect and not causing any problems.”

While the Stampede have struggled so far, being 0-5 head into Friday's 5A Metro game at North, the team has seemed to really rally around Mannie and the changes he has been making to the program.

In the future, the coaches and players hope this culture can result in wins, but in the meantime Mannie truly is creating good men on the field.

“He truly cares about every single one of us. He would go to war for us and we would do the same for him,” Wie said.