Fresh challenge for Scurran

But less than six months later, more than 70 athletes lined up on a dusty practice field for the start of spring practice. The number would have been larger had the school's baseball and track and field teams not still been in action.

Even more noteworthy: Nearly as many parents were on hand to watch their children start the long process toward preparing for the 2007 season.

What prompted the sudden surge in enthusiasm?

Oh, just your standard hiring of a new head football coach, one who brings with him a legacy of taking struggling — or in one case nonexistent — programs and turning them into powerhouses.

Since the announcement in early February that Jeff Scurran would be taking over at Santa Rita, filling the spot left open when Louis Nightingale resigned after eight seasons, the buzz about football has exploded at the Southeast Side school.

"These are great kids," said Scurran, the former coach at Canyon del Oro and Sabino high schools and Pima College. "We'd be waiting for the weight room to open up, and there's 40 or 50 kids out (on the practice field) playing pickup football. The quality of people that we've gotten out . . . frankly, I was surprised."

Why Santa Rita?

Scurran's last coaching stint was from 2001 to 2004, when he created Pima's football program and led it to a bowl game in his final season.

He announced his retirement from coaching during the 2004 season and since then has split his time among producing coaching videos for youth football organizations, doing motivational speaking for national strength and conditioning company Bigger, Faster, Stronger and playing with his grandson Julian, now 5.

Throughout his hiatus, though, Scurran says he was constantly asked about going back to high school coaching since stepping down from Sabino in 1999. He has been rumored to be in the running to fill every prep opening over the past two seasons.

Of all the places to return to coaching, Scurran admits he never thought he'd end up at Santa Rita — which has had just four trips to the playoffs and no postseason wins since opening in 1969 — even though reclamation projects have been his forté.

"That's all I'd ever done," said Scurran, who had inherited losing programs in his six previous high school coaching stints. "I've never known anything else, because those are the jobs that open up."

Scurran, who turns 60 in July, was talked into taking the job by first-year Santa Rita principal Jon Hanson, who sought out Scurran as the person to resurrect the Eagles because of Scurran's reputation.

"I needed a coach of his caliber," Hanson said. "And if you get a chance to get the best coach in the state, if not one of the best in the country, aren't you going to grab him?"

Added athletic director Dave Honeycutt: "Certainly, his reputation precedes him. He's proven he gets programs going."

Hanson said he hopes to have Scurran on staff for the 2007-08 school year as a guidance counselor who specializes in athletes, though as of yet that position has not been posted on the Tucson Unified School District Web site.

Currently, Scurran is being paid a stipend of $1,833.98 to handle the offseason weight-training program as well as spring football, though on paper he is listed as an assistant track and field coach. Hanson said the counseling opening he hopes to have Scurran fill will be posted in the next few weeks, with Scurran going through the official interview process during the summer.

Instant impact

Rumors of Scurran's hiring quickly circulated through the small Santa Rita football community this past winter, instantly raising the spirits of the program's few holdovers.

"It was uplifting," said junior Joe Chiusano, 16. "The attitude here has completely changed. Everyone has a positive outlook."

Said junior Chris Johnson, 17: "When you hear his name, you know you're going to do well. All of the players were excited that he chose us."

So were several Santa Rita athletes who previously had shown no interest in playing football for the school. Johnson's friend and classmate, junior Tony Rubiano, decided to go out for spring practice for the first time after hearing about Scurran.

"He gets you hyped up to want to try even harder," Rubiano, 17, said of Scurran.

Boys basketball coach Jim Ferguson said Scurran's presence at the school will do more than just improve the football team's record.

"He brings excitement," Ferguson said. "Football also does a lot for school pride."

In addition to more bodies, financial support for the football team has picked up drastically. Booster Club President Michelle Smart, a longtime friend of Scurran's who also will serve as his administrator in the fall, said more than $15,000 has been raised since March in the form of advertising for game programs and stadium banners.

"There was 86 cents left in the (booster) account when we got here," said Smart, whose husband, David, is an assistant on Scurran's coaching staff. "We literally had to start from scratch."

The money collected so far has gone toward new uniforms and an upgraded weight room, which is now housed in the northeast corner of the gym. Previously, football players would work out in a weight room on the northwest corner of campus, underneath the cafeteria, then walk across campus to get to the practice field.

Parents also are getting more into the program, as evidenced by several dozen moms and dads watching the first Scurran-led practice April 30. That workout was followed by a family barbecue in the football stadium.

"He's getting a lot of respect from the kids," said Dave Lillie, whose son David III is a junior. "When Scurran was hired, he came and told me, and he was ecstatic about it."

Added Eric Goble, father of Santa Rita junior Andrew: "All the boys that will be seniors are so excited now. Days after he (Scurran) started, they were already talking about going to state."

A settling-in process

Spring practice, Scurran said, has been about getting kids to find a position they can be comfortable with, so they're excited about returning for summer passing leagues and then preseason workouts in late July.

"Nobody knows what their roles are," he said. "You can't win like that. Nobody can win like that."

Off the field, Scurran has told his players that if they have to take summer school to remain eligible, then they must take advantage of free tutoring that will be offered by assistant coach Kevin Amidan. Hanson said he is supportive of this tutoring plan as an effort to improve athletic eligibility at Santa Rita.

"Anytime you have a program that's struggling or laboring, for whatever reason . . . you've got to inject some life into it," Hanson said. "The hope is to do something with keeping our athletes eligible."

Amidan, 25, is one of four former Scurran players expected to be part of the Santa Rita coaching staff. He is scheduled to receive his bachelor's degree in special education from the University of Arizona on Saturday.

Scurran doesn't know how well his first Santa Rita team will do, and he's not making any predictions. His only losing seasons as a coach in Arizona were in his first at Sabino (3-7 in 1988) and Pima (4-6 in 2001). At Sabino he went 12-1 the second year en route to 127 wins and three state championships in 12 seasons and by his second year at Pima, the team was nationally ranked.

It's also been almost eight years since Scurran last coached a high school game. That was the 1999 Class 5A state final, which Sabino lost 21-14 to Mesa Mountain View.

"I'm trying very carefully not to make some of the mistakes I've made in the past," he said. "I'm trying not to predetermine things."

Still, his players have high hopes, even based on just a few workouts.

"Where we are right now, we're so much farther along than where we finished last year," said junior T.J. Schneider, 16, who will likely be one of the Eagles' captains when the team makes its debut under Scurran Aug. 24 at home against Pueblo. "And we've still got four months to go."