The Fountain Hills High School football team officially began team practices on Monday, July 24, but some players got a head start on their new playbook in a football camp at Cal Lutheran University from Thursday, July 13, to Monday, July 17. The Falcons practiced on collegiate facilities and they bonded through team activities like going to the beach.

“We definitely got a lot of good work, and we got a lot of conditioning,” senior Cannon Lipps said. “We got a lot of technique stuff. We have a lot of new freshmen, so we had to coach them up a whole lot, but they got it pretty easily. We got to go to the beach. That was always really fun.”

The camp also helped Pete Schermerhorn, or “coach Scherm,” familiarize himself with his new team. Schermerhorn moved to Fountain Hills two years ago after retiring from football in Michigan and was hired earlier this year. He’ll be the fourth head coach in four years, but he’s the most experienced football coach Fountain Hills has hired in that time, and maybe ever.

Schermerhorn enters his 36th year as a coach this year and was head coach at his alma mater for 27 years. He led Portage Northern High School to seven conference championships and 17 playoff appearances in that time, and his teams had a 26-7 record over his last three seasons.

“He’s forgotten more football than I’ll know in my whole life,” assistant coach Tom Ferington said about Schermerhorn.

Schermerhorn took all the seniors out for dinner on the last day of camp at Cal Lutheran and stressed the importance of leadership and taking ownership of the team. The Falcons have a lot of holes to fill in the roster from graduated seniors last year, and there are several key areas to improve on from last year’s 5-5 season.

The Falcons kept their leading receiver and two top sack getters from last year, but they lost five of their eight all-region players to graduation. The three returning all-region players will all be seniors this year, and they include center Nate Barnard, outside linebacker Cannon Lipps and wide receiver Gannon Young.

All three earned all-region second team honors last year and hope to be better this year. Young averaged 19.8 yards per catch last season and hauled in eight touchdowns and 711 yards on 36 receptions. The Falcons rushed for 1,384 yards and averaged 6.3 yards per carry as a team last year behind Barnard on the line, and Lipps earned recognition on defense with a team-high 6.5 sacks and 14 quarterback hurries.

Other seniors to keep an eye on include Gabe Haynes, who was second on the Falcons with five sacks last year, Jaxson Butcher, Jayden Harned, Liam Jagodzinski, Jordy Miranda, Lucas Phillips and Julian Sepulveda. Juniors Sam Barnard, Jack Boersma, and Vinny Allison are also key players for the Falcons.

Miranda and Harned are playing football for the Falcons for the first time, and Butcher is playing his first full season. Harned has shown quick acceleration and great speed in soccer, and Miranda has the size to immediately bolster the Falcons’ running back and linebacker groups.

Graduated senior Nico Cini was hurt in the first game of last season, and the Falcons were without a kicker and punter most of the year. The Falcons attempted many fourth down conversions that otherwise probably would’ve been field goals or punts, but Butcher hopes to shore up kicking duties this year. He joined late last year, but Butcher’s punts went higher and further than last year on day one of official practice, and he also ran crisp routes in receiving drills.

“I’ve been to the offseason practices since day one and have only missed a couple due to vacation,” Butcher said. “Our football camp really helped me out and helped me hone my skills. I started wanting to become a receiver last year and really became dedicated to it when the offseason started. Being a senior, I wanted to help lead and help build the future of Fountain Hills football. Lots of seniors have stepped up in big ways to help lead this team.”

The Falcons graduated 17 seniors last year, including two-year starting quarterback Spencer Nelson. Nelson led the region with 1,959 passing yards and also accounted for 363 rush yards and 23 total touchdowns as a senior. Cannon Lipps and Sam Barnard are battling for signal caller duties this summer, and both benefitted from the extra preseason practice in California.

“It showed me a new perspective on college athletes and stuff like that,” Lipps said. “We got our training done and it was hard to the mind because you had get up early in the morning, hit a workout and hit another one. By the end of the trip, we were more mentally prepared than we ever could have been.”

Barnard and Lipps are the two top returning tacklers on defense, and whoever doesn’t win the position battle for quarterback will likely end up a top target for the other on offense. Lipps ran for 151 yards and two touchdowns on an average of 8.9 per carry last year, and over his first two years, Barnard averaged 8.56 yards every time he touched the ball.

Schermerhorn recruited a former assistant of his from Michigan to be the new defensive coordinator, and this will be Tod Miller’s 40th year in coaching. Miller has a background in powerlifting and led the Plainwell high school powerlifting team to four state championships and three national championships from 1998-2002. Lipps said Miller’s coaching makes sense to him, and said he wants the Falcons to play aggressive and technical on the field.

Practices have just begun, but the first game is right around the corner. The Falcons start their season against Kofa High School at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 18. The Falcons will have to take a long road trip to Yuma, but Kofa is 1-19 over the past two seasons. In week two, the Falcons host Bourgade Catholic on Friday, Aug. 25. The Golden Eagles had a 3-6 record and the Falcons beat them 44-14 last year.