Sam Rolfe was named as the new football coach at Catalina High School on Thursday, and he immediately recognizes the barrier in front of him.
“We’ve got to get to the playoffs. It has to be done,” Rolfe said.
The new coach was alluding to the fact that Catalina has never made the state playoffs in the program’s 50-year history despite a few agonizingly close calls.
Rolfe takes over for Shawn Wasson, who resigned in November after eight successful seasons with the historically unsuccessful program.
Rolfe served as a volunteer coach with Catalina last year, and was an assistant at Santa Rita from 2002 to 2006. He also coached with his father’s high school team in Massachusetts for several years in the 1990s.
“I like the challenge of taking over a team and trying to overcome something,” he said from Glendale, where his Catalina wrestling team begins competition in the 4A-II state meet today.
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“Now that the football program has been established by Shawn, it makes it a little easier for us to come in and finally get to state.”
Wasson led the Trojans to 7-4 record in 2002 and 2004 — their first winning seasons since 1974 — but missed the playoffs both times.
Last year, Catalina went 5-5. A last-minute loss to Santa Rita in the season finale kept the Trojans out of the state tournament by one point in the statewide power rankings.
Rolfe is in his sixth season as Catalina’s wrestling coach and has worked with Wasson in the school’s physical education department for five years.
“I know the school and the kids, and I really feel like the program is on its way up,” Rolfe said. “I honestly think we have a really good chance of making state this next year.
“We lost some key components from last year’s team, but we have some good young guys in the program and we should compete very well.”
Coaching vacancies still exist at two area schools in the 4A ranks: Catalina Foothills and Rio Rico.
