Cropp leaving Pusch Ridge after 'one for the ages' season

In early September, Pusch Ridge Christian football coach Troy Cropp quietly told assistant coach Jerry Harris he planned to resign at year’s end.

The Lions were 2-1 at the time. No one had any idea of what lay ahead.

Two weeks later, Cropp told Pusch Ridge athletic director Lonnie Tvrdy he was seriously considering leaving coaching; the 45-minute drive to Pusch Ridge — Cropp operates a State Farm Insurance agency on the far east side — and the time required to properly coach the Lions was costing him precious time with his family.

The Lions were 4-1. Good, but nothing special.

Finally, in mid-October, Cropp and Tvrdy agreed this would be the coach’s final season at Pusch Ridge.

“Troy is also starting a new business venture,” Tvrdy said last week. “I was hoping he could coach for a few more years, but I knew this was the best for and his family.”

And then the Lions rolled, finishing 13-1, winning the Division IV state championship in a series of wild finishes.

“Three come-from-behind wins,” Cropp said last week. “It’s one for the ages.”

On Tuesday, Cropp told his team he was leaving the school. The Lions and their immediate families will celebrate the remarkable season at a banquet Sunday at the Oro Valley Country Club.

“I don’t think my tank’s empty on the coaching side,” says Cropp, who was 37-9 in four seasons at Pusch Ridge. “But it is my conviction to spend more time with my family. I preach to the kids that family is the No. 1 priority and I want to make sure to do all I can to be the best husband and father I can be.”

Cropp and Tvrdy agreed that Harris, a defensive coach, would become the new Pusch Ridge head coach. Harris, the executive vice-president of Southwest Energy, a mining and metals firm, played football at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in the late 1980s.

“What gives me a lot of peace about (leaving) is that the coaching staff will remain intact; they are so good and had such a big part in the championship,” says Cropp. “We started eight sophomores this year; the cupboard is not bare at Pusch Ridge.”

The Lions will share one more “game” with their coach. They are to be introduced at halftime of Thursday’s Arizona Cardinals-Minnesota Vikings game at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Not bad for a school that didn’t start its football program until 2000.