Adonis Watt is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Centennial High School for AZPreps365.com

After Andrew Taylor graduated from Centennial High School, he went to the University of Tulsa to play football. After college, Taylor had a choice to make: To keep playing and try to go to the NFL, or stop playing and figure out what to do next with his life.

His father, Centennial football head coach Richard Taylor, recalled this conversation, his son asking if it was okay to stop playing football.

“‘Son, I hope you’ve never been playing for me,’” Richard Taylor recalled. “I thought he was going to become an architect because since [he was] a little boy, he always drew things.”  

Well, in a way he is an architect, except he draws up defenses with formations and players, instead of buildings with concrete.

The father-son coaching combination leading Centennial into the Open State Championship finals December 2 has built and established Centennial’s culture over the last 20 years, Andrew Taylor as defensive coordinator since 2001, and head coach Richard Taylor since 1990.

Originally, when Andrew Taylor started coaching, the plan was for him to coach a year and then they would revisit the idea of him continuing to coach that next year.

The year after, Richard Taylor went on to hand over the whole defense, and they’ve been going ever since.

You would think that because of the hunger to win, every once in a while the two coaches may get into it on the sideline. This isn’t the case, though. Andrew Taylor said a reason for that is Richard Taylor instills confidence in all his coaches by letting them do their job without his micromanagement.

Richard Taylor said there was a time early in his career where he wanted to be responsible for all three sides of the ball. But as he went along, he learned going on like that wasn’t going to lead to success, because he simply didn’t know everything.

To see the evolution of Richard Taylor from then to now exemplifies why he’s won so much. A part of being a high school coach is communication with your players in a way that helps them understand the coaching for that week, but allows them to play free. This can be difficult because of the amount of film the coaches watch.

According to defensive back coach Steve Isaac, defensive coaches chart every play of the offense they’re about to play. Andrew Taylor manages this by asking himself, “As a dedicated 16- or 17-year-old kid, how much of this would I retain?” With this way of thinking, he coaches his players but still allows them to step on the field and just play ball.

Going into their 24th year coaching, the goal remains the same for the Taylors. They will lead the No. 3 Coyotes against top-ranked Liberty Lions at 5 p.m. December 2 at ASU’s Mountain America Stadium in Tempe.