Perseverance Pays

Details?
 

"Ummm, let's see … oh yeah, it was a three-day getaway to Pinetop over the Fourth of July.''
 

A day off?
 

"Aw, shoot,'' he says. "I don't know when. July?''
 

Two-time state championship Sunnyside football coach Richard Sanchez chuckles when asked about his leisure time.
 

"I only have one speed — full speed. In the summer I'm here from noon to 7 p.m. every day,'' he says. "During the season, after our Friday night games, I'm back in the office at 6 Saturday morning and again on Sunday at 8 a.m. Like it or not, this is what it takes to compete for championships.''
 

In the 21st century, Sunnyside, at 75-13, and Salpointe, at 65-16, are Tucson's most successful football teams. No other local team has won more than 55 games in that period. The Lancers and Blue Devils meet tonight at Sunnyside, and Sanchez positively beams when he says "there should be about 7,000 people in the seats; it will be packed.''
 

What Sabino's Jeff Scurran and Amphi's Vern Friedli were to Tucson high school football in the '90s, Bene and Sanchez are today.
 

This is no accident; no one in Southern Arizona football has paid more dues, applied more sweat and completed more planning than Salpointe and Sunnyside.
 

"There's no other way,'' says Bene, 40, a 1984 Lancer grad, an all-city quarterback in his sixth year as head coach. "I was a veterinarian for a few years and it was a 24/7 job. I like this. I consider every day a workday, and that's just the way it is.''
 

Sanchez, 49, was a state champion wrestler at Pueblo High School in the 1970s, a perfectionist who coached Sunnyside to five state wrestling championships. In 1994, he smacked his lips in anticipation of applying his wrestling theories — 12 months of hard work, no compromises — to a Blue Devils football program that had slipped.
 

"If you expect to play in these big games like we have (tonight) against Salpointe, you had better expect to outwork the other guys,'' he says. "When I took this job, I studied what Howard Breinig had done at Sahuaro and what Vern Friedli had done at Amphi. The one common thing was that they were very demanding. Whatever time I put in, I expect my kids and my coaches to put in.''
 

What goes unspoken is that Bene and Sanchez have assembled coaching staffs — long hours, ridiculously small pay — that belie any "high school'' label.
 

"The way these coaches go about their business, you'd almost swear they were college staffs,'' says Bob Logan, a 1980s UA assistant coach who is now director of development for the UA College of Science (and also Salpointe's special teams coach.
"Dennis has a professional attitude and that carries through the entire program. The qualifications of the people who coach for him are amazing.''
 

Linebackers coach Eric Rogers, for example, is a CDO grad who played at UConn and in the Arena Football League.

Offensive line coach Jeff Mounts played at Vanderbilt and is in his 20th season on the Lancers' staff. Billy Seymour, the head junior varsity coach who has been elevated to the varsity after an 8-0-1 season, was on the Michigan roster when the

Wolverines won the national championship in 1997 and was a teammate of Tom Brady.
 

Bene's defensive coordinator, Joe Bernier, is a Salpointe grad who has been on the Lancers' staff for 17 years.
 

"Joe is outstanding; he's the first guy I hired,'' Bene says. "All of our coaches — Mark Teixeira, Dean Misenhimer, Todd

Schulte, Al Alexander and our strength coach, Carla Garrett — are invaluable. My brother, Rocco, keeps all of this organized. It's no small operation.''
 

Sanchez is similarly blessed.
 

Offensive coordinator Glenn Posey is a former head coach (Flowing Wells) with college playing experience at NAU. He is as good as they come in high school football. Robert Bonillas is a 1990s UA letterman from Nogales who has become a kindred spirit to Sanchez, one of the city's leading young coaches.
 

"It's funny,'' Sanchez says, "but I have so many people ask if they can help us coach that I have to turn many of them down.

Robert was coaching at Nogales High School and said he wanted to spend a day with me to see how we did it. He showed up and showed interest; I really wanted him. He is an exception.''
 

Most of Sunnyside's coaches are Blue Devils to the core: Adam Foster, Raul and Alex Samorano, Dale Perkins, O.J. Flores, Jose Gastellum, Jamie Ferguson, Victor Cunes, Hank Urena and Ralph Gallegos.
 

"We preach loyalty; we preach coming back to Sunnyside,'' says Sanchez. "I believe that's why we have done so well and that's why we play in so many big games. We're all in this together. We all know what it takes.''
 

Tonight's game, Sunnyside vs. Salpointe, is Tucson's high school football game of the year.
 

Neither the Lancers nor Blue Devils are surprised to be there.
 

"A lot of work has gone into this game for both teams,'' says Bene. "It's a privilege to be part of it.''