The Arizona Republic high school football 2022 Coach of the Year: Basha's Chris McDonald

Chris McDonald wanted to unite the Chandler Basha football program, the school and community when he got hired in 2018.

The program was broken. Players were leaving. He inherited a program that won a total of five games in the previous two years. He had to rally the community.

His first Basha team went 6-5. After a 4-7 hiccup 2019 season, the Bears kept rising through the Premier Region forest of giants and became that elite program, the one that elite players wanted to be a part of.

This season, it was time to break through. After a humiliating loss to Peoria Liberty, the Bears regrouped and won their last seven games, rallying to beat Chandler Hamilton, shutting down Chandler twice, and holding of defending state champion Scottsdale Saguaro 28-21 on Dec. 10 for the school's first state football championship.

Basha (12-1) finished ranked No. 14 in the nation by USA Today and No. 10 by CalPreps. It was the first time in Basha history that it was nationally ranked.

It was a dream season, and McDonald crafted it. He is The Arizona Republic's 2022 High School Football Coach of the Year.

McDonald believes it starts with the players buying in as a team.

"Player leadership and player accountability," he said. "A lot of the kids bought into the core values of what we wanted. It was steered by the captains. We had a bunch of guys who could have been in captain roles. Narrowing it down to four was probably a disservice to six other kids.

"So what I did was name (senior offensive lineman) James Durand the overall team captain. That’s undeniable for us. There’s just a lot of selfless kids. Guys like (defensive back) Cole Martin. He was always part of the spotlight but it wasn’t like he was really looking for it.

"Everybody got better around him. He wanted other guys to get their share, get their love. It was a lot of kids buying into team and having success."

After Liberty handed Basha its only loss, 35-7, McDonald moved Martin from cornerback to safety. He became Basha's version of Arizona Cardinals defender Budda Baker.

"I think defense was really good," McDonald said. "But I thinrk when we moved Cole to safety, it made it really great. That was kind of a game changer. He can run from anywhere on the field."

Martin helped keep Saguaro quarterback Devon Dampier at bay in the final quarter when he intercepted a pass, coming out of nowhere.

"I compare him to the Budda Baker of high school football," McDonald said. "He's all over the place."

It's going to be hard to defend its Open championship, but McDonald has the foundation in place and he returns several key pieces, including quarterback Demond Williams Jr., who was clutch down the stretch.

Basha has won 28 of its last 31 games.

"There’se pressure," McDonald said. "The kdis want to show it wasn’t a fluke. It’s a difrerent team. We’re going to have a different set of circumstances than the team this year had. But, yeah, there are expectations now. "

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter@azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: The Republic HS football 2022 Coach of the Year: Basha's Chris McDonald