After losing 40-24 to Chandler Prep to finish off a 0-10 season in 2017, a players-only meeting between the Scottsdale Prep's graduating and rising seniors for the next season ensued.

 

“There were a lot of games (last season) we came out of not being excited to play football again, maybe not even wanting to play football again,” quarterback Oscar Frias said.

 

Scottsdale Prep had surrendered 418 points while scoring only 64 “It was just a really rough season,” Frias said.

 

Lineman Matthew McNulty, lineman Alex Wiley and cornerback Westin Powers were just a few of the eight graduating seniors for Scottsdale Prep at the meeting.

 

Benham, Thomas Anctil, Nathan Polk and Simeon Walther were the group of juniors tasked at leading the Spartans as seniors for the next season.

 

The majority of the talking at the meeting was from Walther, the heart-on-his-sleeve running back who is considered by his teammates as the talker of the team.

 

“We sat in the locker room with our seniors and said ‘well, it’s been a tough season but we know we can do better,’” Benham said. “(The seniors) said, ‘No matter what the cost it’s your job to keep the team alive. It’s your job to make sure that next year we have a team. It’s no longer our responsibility it’s yours.’ That was passed on with a lot of tears because they knew they were going to miss it.”

 

The 24 points on the scoreboard and the meeting that followed lit a fire of hope for 2018.

 

“After the final game last year, we played pretty well and honestly the kids were pretty excited about getting going into the next fall season,” coach David Primavera said.

 

“(Chandler Prep) were predicted to got to the playoffs,” senior offensive lineman Clark Benham said. “We played (our) best game of that season,”

 

In a season clouded with the darkness of a winless campaign and the potential of losing the program dangling over their heads, any semblance of hope was to be cherished.

 

“I think it was the only game that our team said, ‘ok let’s play another game,” Frias said. “We figured out at the end of the year that we do have potential,”

 

Then it was time to go to work.

 

During the offseason, at least 15 Spartans were regularly attending morning workouts, a mark unprecedented for any Scottsdale Prep sports team.

 

“They seemed more dedicated to football and more dedicated to improving themselves physically and mentally for the season,” Primavera said. “I think they really just decided they didn’t want to go 0-10. And if they were going to go 0-10, if they were going to struggle again, they were going to give it their all.”

 

For three days-a-week from 8 to 9:30 a.m. the Spartans worked their tails off. It was during those workouts that Scottsdale Prep’s hard work paid off.

 

The Spartans finished their 2018 with a 5-4 record. For the first time in six seasons, Scottsdale Prep had won more games than they lost.

 

“We’re not the same team,” Primavera said. “We’re not going to fall over.”

 

Controversy struck for the Spartans in the first game of the season. Down 12-10 late in the fourth quarter, Scottsdale Prep was on the verge of losing their 13thstraight game, having not won since Oct 14, 2016.

 

“I was thinking, ‘Oh, here we go again,”’ Primavera said.

 

Not so fast coach.

 

Frias, Walther and the Spartans offense constructed a game-winning drive in the closing moments. Scottsdale Prep had just won their first game in nearly two years.

 

But the Spartans train of success did not stop at the next station. Instead, the locomotive kept on rolling.

 

The next week against ASU Prep, the Spartans scored over 30 points for the first time since Sept 9, 2016. The team comfortably handling the Sun Devils in a 33-12 win.

 

In week three, Scottsdale Prep was down 9-0 in the third quarter but went on to outscore San Carlos 19-6 down the stretch in a 19-15 victory. The win marking their second straight away from home.

 

“That’s when we knew we had something pretty special going on with our team this year,” Primavera said.

 

The first stop for the Spartans train came in week four in Scottsdale Prep’s shutout loss to Trivium Prep. But the loss did not dampen the team’s spirits.

 

“This year was more of a family,” Frias said. “I played in middle school and I played (as a) freshman and I never felt anything like this ever. We never made it seem like someone was better than someone else in the locker room. We would not scream at each other in the locker room ‘why did you do this,’ it would be more positive more (of) don’t worry about it, shake it off.”

 

“Last year, the locker room, it was a lot of emotion, a lot of sadness,” Benham said. “This year was different than anything that I’ve experienced.”

 

The brotherhood that was Scottsdale Prep’s locker room had traditions outside of weekday practices and Friday night games underneath the lights.

 

After practice on Thursday nights, the players all went over to Barro’s Pizza to enjoy a pregame meal and bond as a team. Even with essays to write, tests to study for and homework to finish, the Spartans still found the time to connect with each other on a deeper level off the field.

 

“I enjoyed being in the locker room this year,” Frias said. “It felt like a brotherhood.”

 

The Spartans were nothing short of a family by season’s end, a family that had grown since the final whistle of the 2017 season.

 

Daxton Strader had never played a down of football in his life prior to 2018. Strader had always been a hockey player, most recently playing for the Horizon Huskies in the Arizona High School Hockey Association.

 

Also playing baseball in the spring, Strader grew up in a household filled with athletes. His father was a three-sport athlete who at one point had a tryout with the Cincinnati Reds while his younger brother Devon followed his older brother’s footsteps in baseball and hockey.

 

“We really push each other to be better,” Strader said. “But mostly it’s just really fun to have someone to play with.”

 

For Strader, the grind and costs of travel hockey became too much. The junior needed a sport during the fall. Strader’s friend, Finley Hobbs, was Scottsdale Prep’s leading receiver in 2017 and was on the recruitment trail for new players for next season.

 

“(Finley) kind of talked me into (playing football),” Strader said. “Football sounded so cool, I made time for that.”

 

And just like that, Strader was a football player, and a pretty good one too.

 

By seasons end he was awarded the team MVP, caught four touchdown passes on offense, had two interceptions and two fumble recoveries on defense and averaged 38.8 yards per kick-off return while scoring a pair of touchdowns on special teams.

 

Strader impacted each phase of every game without any prior experience. Without Strader, the Spartans turnaround season may have not been possible.

 

“Honestly, I just enjoyed spending time with the team,” Strader said. “The bus rides were fun, the car rides, those are the kinds of things you remember.”

 

On a roster that expanded from less than 20 players to over 30 in one offseason, Strader was not the only impact addition for Scottsdale Prep.

 

Freshman Carson Boyll had two touchdown grabs and 23 total tackles in six games. Sophomore Logan Dunlap finished second on the team with four sacks.

 

Strader, Boyll, Dunlap and even Strader’s brother, Devon, who also joined the team as a freshman, were the missing pieces to a puzzle that last year’s Spartans could not possibly solve.

 

Added pieces, improved play at quarterback and expert coaching fixed a program that was at one point a sinking ship.

 

But what may have kept the Spartans afloat above all else was this year’s senior class. Thomas Anctil, Benham, Simeon Walther, Jacob Polk and Cal Spooner will be missed. There isn’t a single Spartan who’d tell you otherwise.

 

“The younger guys really learned from (the juniors and seniors) and took their example to heart,” Primavera said. “They never were lazy on the practice field or the game field.”

 

“If I were to be a senior, I would want to be just like them,” Frias said.

 

Although they are departing, the future this senior class leaves behind is bright. Besides the return of Strader, Frias returns for his junior year. His third under-center for the Spartans, Frias will have comfort in knowing his top three targets return in 2019.

 

With two of the team’s top three leading tacklers in sophomores Thomas Reinhardt and Michael Barnes also coming back, the Spartans are set up for a future success.

 

“When football season starts were forced to see each other and that’s when we have that brother hood again,” Frias said. “I’m excited to play again. (Last year) ended on a really good note. I really want to try to branch off of that kind of how we ended on our best note possible last year.”

 

Humbled by defeat, resilient through adversity and triumphant in the end, there’s a new sense of optimism within the Scottsdale Prep football program.

 

“Everything about football season next year is exciting,” Frias said. “Except for maybe the conditioning.”