(Desert Vista football coach Dan Hinds is four wins away from victory No. 100. Photo by Steve Paynter/maxpreps.com)

By Jenn Baluch

Not all heroes wear capes.

Desert Vista High School’s football head coach Dan Hinds has been a hero on campus and has been carrying a legacy of success for the past 14 years. Hinds grew up playing Pop Warner and high school football.

His high school football coach and dad were part of the reasons he wanted to start coaching. Hinds started out as the freshmen coach at Desert Vista and worked his way up to varsity, following in the footsteps of his father, Benny.

“When I played Pop Warner football my dad was my coach,” Hinds said. “It just runs in our family, loving the game, it was part of our upbringing.”

Coaching football for 14 years comes with a lot of memories.

One of Hinds’ favorite moments came in 2007, when Desert Vista beat Red Mountain in the state semifinals. Red Mountain had more than 50 seniors and was expected to win state.

Three days before the game it rained non-stop, and the field was “underwater.”

“We knew it was coming. In practice we were dunking footballs in buckets of water,” Hinds said. “Our kids were getting used to the wet ball. That night (semifinal game), we didn’t lose one ball, and they fumbled (a lot). Our kids played a really great game.”

Paying attention to the details helped Hinds’ team win 14-7 and reach his first title game.

But the 2007 championship game, a 34-21 loss to Brophy, didn’t deliver the ending Desert Vista expected. The state championship rings arrived four years later for Hinds and Desert Vista, however, when Desert Vista defeated Hamilton 45-19 in the 2011 final at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Another big game awaits 5-1 Desert Vista this week, when it hosts crosstown rival, 5-0 Mountain Pointe, in one of the more highly anticipated Ahwatukee Bowls in recent years. The game will be televised on Cox 7 on Thursday.

You can bet that Hinds’ boys will be well-prepared.

“We are very fortunate and should not take any moment with him (Hinds) coaching us for granted, because he brings the best out of his players,” Desert Vista safety Jazz Green said.

Desert Vista coach Brent Miller echoed Green’s sentiments.  

“Coach Hinds has always been an excellent football coach, but I think his greatest strength is his integrity,” Miller said. “You can always trust that coach Hinds will have the student athlete’s best interests at heart. His two main goals are to win football games and develop young men into responsible adults.”

Hinds plans to coach at the school he “loves,” Desert Vista, until he no longer can.

He’s not interested in coaching at a higher level because of his family, his biggest support team, Hinds said. Constantly travelling like college coaches do doesn’t appeal to him.

Hinds, who is four wins away from his 100^th coaching victory, feels right at home at Desert Vista. 

“I have the greatest job in the world. I want to do it until I physically can’t do it anymore,” Hinds said. 

Baluch (https://twitter.com/jennbaluch) is a Sports Journalism junior at Arizona State. She was assigned to cover Desert Vista High School this semester for her Sports Journalism class.