Logan Brown is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Saguaro High School for AZPreps365.com

After a tumultuous close to his career at Arizona State, staying in Arizona was important to Zak Hill for his next step. 

“Path-wise, [my family and I] knew we loved Arizona,” Hill said. “I’ve got two kids, so we wanted to stay here. I was thinking ‘all right, what’s my next step?’ and thought it might be a good idea to try and find a head [coach] job.” 

Hill, a native of Hillsboro, Oregon, first enjoyed success as a college coach at Eastern Washington, before joining Boise State and later Arizona State as offensive coordinator. After leaving the Sun Devils' program, Hill was an assistant coach with ALA Gilbert North when he noticed a job opening at football powerhouse Saguaro, which was built by head coach Jason Mohns, who now serves as tight ends coach at ASU. 

“Before I even submitted an application [to Saguaro], I had multiple conversations with him [Mohns] trying to figure out if it’s a good fit and see what the situation was there from a lot of different aspects,” Hill said. “We had a relationship from my time recruiting [in] Arizona, recruiting Saguaro. Mohns is a great, great dude, and I wish him the best at Arizona State. We’ll keep in touch because I know he cares greatly about Saguaro and has a ton of history there.” 

Saguaro athletic director Matthew Harris acknowledged Mohns was part of the discussion to bring Hill in as his successor. 

“[I] had extensive, lots of talks with coach Mohns,” Harris said. “Obviously he was really invested. We had a couple of really good candidates internally and externally, so there were a lot of opportunities. I feel like, to a certain degree, coach Mohns was very invested and passionate about making sure we’d make that next best choice for our head coach, as well.” 

Hill reached out to Harris about the head-coaching position at Saguaro in December and began interviewing in January. Harris said the interviews occasionally lasted more than three hours, as the Saguaro hiring committee was “very purposeful” in its search for a new leader of the football program. Part of that process was acknowledging the end of Hill’s time at Arizona State, which was marred by an NCAA investigation into recruiting violations during the COVID-19 dead period. Harris said the school did its due diligence, but Hill’s quality of character as a person and a coach won out. 

“Obviously we did our homework too and found out as much as we could about the situation,” Harris said. “I had a conversation with the compliance director at ASU and there was very little he could say about the ongoing investigations as far as details go, but similarly for any of our other candidates, anyone that we spent time talking to, all they could do was talk about what a phenomenal coach and what a phenomenal person coach Hill was. One person we talked to said they would love to have their young student-athlete playing for coach Hill. Everyone he came in contact with had nothing but phenomenal things to say about coach Hill.” 

Hill declined to comment on the ongoing NCAA investigation. 

Hill’s brief stay at ALA Gilbert North was his first job in high school football since 2008, when he was head coach at Hillsboro High School in Oregon for one season. Under Randy Ricedorff at ALA Gilbert North, Hill got a taste of Arizona high school football that convinced him to search for a head-coaching position. 

“I felt like I wanted a new challenge,” Hill said.” I enjoyed my time at ALA [Gilbert North], great people over there, great administration, and Randy Ricedorff does a phenomenal job there. That was an awesome opportunity for me and experience. But I just felt like I wanted to have a new challenge for myself. Looking around at high school jobs, with Saguaro I was intrigued by all the winning and some of the players they have there. After talking with Mohns and the [Saguaro] administration, it felt like a good fit and a good challenge to take.”

Harris said the staff at ALA Gilbert spoke well of Hill’s time with the program and the school, where Hill also taught physical education classes. Ultimately, Harris made the decision to bring Hill on as the fourth head coach in program history. 

“He knows what it takes to build winning-championship DNA in his players and knows how to help them individually grow, as far as on the field and off the field,” Harris said. 

Hill’s first season at the helm of the Sabercats has been filled with highs and lows. With just one week remaining in the regular season, Saguaro currently sits at 4-5 with losses to some of Arizona’s top programs including Basha, Centennial, Liberty and Salpointe Catholic, and undefeated California power Sierra Canyon. Hill explained how he’s using his experience at the college level to elevate the Saguaro program for this season and beyond. 

“The college experience has been good from a structure and standards expectations,” Hill said. “Doing things at a high level, the time commitment that’s at the college level gives you perspective and that experience of what it looks like. I’ve got some recruiting background, so I can give some recruiting advice. I’m trying to structure things semi-college-like with the time that we’ve got." 

Hill also expressed some of the challenges he’s faced this year considering the load of responsibilities placed on his shoulders. 

“You have a ton of support staff at the college level,” Hill said. “The equipment guy, your training staff, who’s doing the fundraising, all that stuff. Whereas in high school, you’re kind of involved as the head coach in all of that. The scope of being a high school coach is much broader than at the college level.” 

Despite experiencing the learning curve of a new head coach, Saguaro’s senior starting quarterback Mason Bray spoke glowingly of Hill’s experience leading the offense, in addition to the work of assistant coach J Wood. 

“With coach Hill and coach Wood’s mindsets,” Bray said, “I don’t think I’ve ever had two guys help me as much as them. I don’t think I’ve ever had two coaches as good as them. They’re behind me every play, asking me what I see and coaching me up. Just helping me a lot.” 

As the Sabercats look to make a push toward the postseason, Hill is only focused on getting his locker room ready for the next opponent, using more than a decade of experience in college football to prepare his team not only for Friday nights, but for whatever comes next. 

"I’m just trying to keep everyone focused on the day,” Hill said. “That 1-0 mentality, just win this week and focus on this week. Don’t travel too far back. “What has happened has happened, and we can only control what we’re doing today. Just trying to get that right mindset so we can compete and develop at a high level, and then just try and play as many games as we can, whatever that looks like.”