Last season, Mayfield's team was beset by injuries, which weakened the team at crucial times.
"We had a lot of two-way starters, and at one point we had seven kids who were two-way starters out," Mayfield said.
In order to avoid a similar fate in 2010, Mayfield and his coaching staff made an exerted effort in the off-season to recruit Sunnyslope athletes from other sports - basketball, wrestling and baseball, to name a few. The campaign has been a success, Mayfield said, as his team will gain at least 10 new starters in crossover athletes.
"I think we accomplished it," Mayfield said. "We really have some kids out there that are going to play significant minutes and help us in a depth situation."
Now that the new athletes are on the team, the next step is to teach them football. Luckily, their athletic gifts do a lot of the work for them.
"They've got speed, athletic ability that just has to translate into football," Mayfield said.
Sunnyslope aims to return to its 2008 form - when it went 7-4 and reached the playoffs in Mayfield's second year as coach. With his reloaded roster, Mayfield thinks it's doable.
"I'm really excited about this season," he said. "I think it's going to be one of our better seasons in quite a few years."
ABOUT THE TEAM
Class and region: 4A Division I Western Sky.
Head coach: Tim Mayfield.
2009 record: 2-8.
Playoff result: No playoff result.
Returning players: 15
Returning starters: 7.
Players to watch: Ben Maraz, Sr., QB/LB; Max Yohnka, Sr., WR/LB; Chase McLaughlin, Sr., WR/LB; Ashton Young, Sr., WR/DB.
COACH TALK
Questions about this year's team:
How is this year's team different from last year's? The biggest difference is we really recruited athletes on our campus that weren't playing football last year. So our skill level, our depth is going to be better than last year.
The team will succeed if . . . they believe in themselves. That's the biggest key for us. We open up with two real difficult games with Greenway and Saguaro. If we can believe in ourselves we could pull out wins in those games.
What is the biggest asset you have on the team? We don't have a lot of superstars on our team. We don't have one or two guys where you say he's going to get the ball every time. Our biggest asset is we have across the board offensively and defensively good football players.
by Zach Buchanan - Jul. 29, 2010 11:16 AM
The Arizona Republic
