Cam Gaddis is 'the right guy' to revamp Santa Rita's football program

Santa Rita hasn't won a game since 2021, and the Eagles are riding a 28-game losing streak. The Eagles didn't field a team in 2023 due to a shortage of players.

Santa Rita hasn't produced a winning season since 2009. Since then, the Eagles have been a combined 18-119-1 and have dropped down to Class 2A in recent years.  

That's a tough sell for any coach, even for someone like Gaddis, who played at Santa Rita during one of the winningest stretches in school history. 

"At first, I didn't want to do it," Gaddis said. 

Considering it was his alma mater, Gaddis gave it second thought and sought advice from coaching mentors and friends. Someone told him, "It might be a career-ending spot," Gaddis said.

"'You might go there, you don't win, things don't happen and then you don't get to coach anywhere else,'" Gaddis recalled. "I didn't look at it like that. I looked at it like there isn't any expectations. If I do go in here and win some games, that says a lot.

"If I don't win some games, that doesn't say anything because they haven't really been winning games. There's no pressure. The principal gave me full reins to come in here and change the program and do what I want to do."

Added Gaddis: "There's a lot of talk around the city about Santa Rita football and how it's downgrading and how it's a lower-level school, the enrollment is down. I got sad hearing that, because when I graduated from there, it was a big school and our athletics programs were competing with everybody around town. Now, it's the exact opposite and the numbers are down."  

Gaddis pondered and accepted the challenge. 

"You know what, if anyone is going to do it, why not me?" he said. "That's why I took on the job."

Gaddis, who is a first-time head coach, is entering his first season at Santa Rita, one of several high schools on Tucson's east side with a history of success in athletics. Gaddis had a firsthand experience with Santa Rita having a successful program.

Scurran ball

When Gaddis was a freshman at Santa Rita in 2006, the varsity football team went 0-10. 

Gaddis considered transferring, but the school hired longtime Southern Arizona head coach Jeff Scurran, who famously coached Sabino High School and Pima Community College. Between his high school, coaching and professional career in Europe, Scurran has won over 300 games as a head coach. 

After the 2006 season, Scurran "came in and turned everything around, from the weight room, to the jerseys we wore, to the way we worked out," Gaddis said.

"That's what I'm taking on now, the approach he took to revamp the program and change the culture," Gaddis added. 

Santa Rita went 11-2, won the 4A Gila Region championship and advanced to the 4A-II state semifinals in Scurran's first season.

The following season, Santa Rita posted a 12-2 record and fell to Scottsdale Notre Dame Prep in the state championship game. Santa Rita returned to the state title game in 2009, but fell to Glendale Cactus at Arizona Stadium. 

In three seasons from 2007-09, Scurran was 34-7 and led Santa Rita to two state championship appearances. 

Some of Gaddis' assistant coaches were his teammates at Santa Rita. Gaddis, who played defensive back and wide receiver at Santa Rita, said his favorite moment at Santa Rita is a toss-up between a 97-yard pick-six to beat Sabino — Scurran's former team — or playing for a state championship.

"Hard work pays off, because I never thought I'd ever be playing for a state championship," Gaddis said. 

Scurran said, "It's great Santa Rita is hiring someone from the most successful period in that whole football program."

"There's going to be a learning curve, but there's no doubt in my mind that Cam is the right guy," Scurran said. "He's got the right buddies around him that help him coach. Cam has the fire, the experience and in several areas of football, he's got knowledge beyond his years. He's the right guy." 

Gaddis played cornerback at Pima College for head coach Pat Nugent and transferred to Middle Tennessee State, before a professional career in the Canadian Football League and the Indoor Football League with the Tucson Sugar Skulls. 

Gaddis played a few seasons with the Sugar Skulls, but injuries — including a broken rib, a punctured lung and a broken foot — derailed his playing career. 

"When that started happening, I was like, 'Football can't last forever. I'm getting older and I'm getting hurt,' so that's when I started transitioning into coaching," Gaddis said. "Injuries definitely put me in the coaching hat." 

Gaddis, who is married and has four children, started a youth training program and 7-on-7 organization, "Gaddis Gainz Elite," which has developed nearly 90 players over the years. Gaddis has also been an assistant coach at Tucson High, Cienega and Walden Grove. 

Gaddis having success at Santa Rita "would be a thrill for me," Scurran said.

Said Scurran: "These kids are all my children. They're grown men, but they're all my kids. Like a dad, I get really proud when my kids do well. Cam has done a great job transitioning as a parent, as a father and as a person. It's been great seeing him fulfill those roles, because that is the most important thing."

Reviving the east side

Santa Rita currently has around 30 players for its 2026 roster. Compared to schools like, say, Salpointe Catholic or Mica Mountain — or even Sabino, the Eagles' counterpart in Tucson Unified School District, Santa Rita has a smaller roster compared to others around the state. 

However, it's a stark contrast to what the Eagles had last season when they attempted to have spring practices, but only six players showed up. 

It's not just a Santa Rita issue; it's a nationwide issue. The awareness of concussions and other injuries in football — coupled with athletes specializing in one sport and training year-round and standout football players either leaving Tucson or playing for schools with prominent football programs — has affected rosters for schools like Santa Rita, Palo Verde and Rincon/University, among other inner-city schools.

Open enrollment has allowed programs with better resources and facilities to become landing spots and poach kids who live near other schools. 

"It's hard because Tucson is not a football city," Gaddis said. "It's a money issue. Everybody wants more money to do things to their facilities. That's why I think the schools that are not in the inner city are doing so well, because they have the money and the community support. My goal is to get into the community and get the support back from the east side." 

Tucson has "good youth programs, but we're losing our best talent to Phoenix," Scurran said.

"A lot of kids are transferring for the opportunity to play on a big stage in Phoenix," Scurran added. "Kids that live near Santa Rita are transferring away. Cam has to keep those kids and attract more. The anchor on him is TUSD and what they're willing to do. ... As important as the head coach is, you can't do it by yourself, you need a lot of help. And that help is going to have come from the school and administration and TUSD, which has been reluctant to get behind some of their sports programs." 

Gaddis is humbly aware that he's got a tall task ahead as far as building a roster over the next few years, but he's encouraged by his roster of nearly 30 players, especially after Santa Rita didn't field a team three years ago and only had six players arrive to spring practices last year. 

"The numbers are better; they're responding and adjusting to the culture change, but it's about getting everybody onboard," Gaddis said. "We're doing better than what they've done in the past. That's all you can ask for. 

"I just want them to believe in themselves. If you believe in yourself, you can do anything. That's the biggest thing. I took this job because I want to help kids develop their skillset and go to college. Say they don't go to college, I just want them to be good young men, because I know if I didn't have a coach, I don't know where I would be. Not just the development of my football skills, but the character, the discipline, things like that.

"That goes a long way and it's the reason I coach — and it's why I came back to Santa Rita to help these inner-city kids. ... It's just about getting the community educated and understand that Santa Rita football, yeah, we were dying, but now we're back and growing.

"We just need to get kids in here to help us win. I know it's going to take time, but there's kids on the east side. We just gotta keep them on the east side rather than going all over town." 

'EAT'

Gaddis is implementing "EAT" (pronounced eat) into the Santa Rita football program. It's an acronym for effort, attitude and toughness. 

"Those are the things we can control," Gaddis said. "I can come in with a playbook and scheme, but if you don't come out here with a good effort and you don't have a good attitude, you're not going to like it. Toughness, physical and mental toughness, that's what these summer workouts are doing.

"We're in the weight room, running in the hot sun. That's what our program is going to be based off of: effort, attitude and toughness. If they can control those things, it's going to make or jobs easier as coaches. That's what we're trying to do. We're looking for kids who want to turn around this program." 

The mission to turn around Santa Rita football started in the spring and summer workouts. The offseason is where championship teams are built. 

"Now the culture is, 'Well, I'll just show up to workouts when school starts,'" Gaddis said. "I'm like, 'We can't do that, guys. If we want to play football, we gotta do spring ball and summer workouts. There's a whole process to this.'

"Just trying to get these guys to understand the process from when I went there. When I was at Santa Rita, the culture was different. We worked hard, we expected to win and when we went on the field, people feared us. I'm trying to get that back."

Gaddis' tough-love approach didn't resonate with the Santa Rita players at first. Gaddis can count on two hands the number of kids who quit after the spring. 

"They told me, 'Coach, I didn't sign up for this, I signed up to play football.' I tried to get them to understand that what they did last year wasn't football," Gaddis said. "If we're going to compete, we have to learn how to prepare.

"At first, spring ball was tough, because we tried to get them to show up every day, work out, run in the hot sun, learn plays. We're throwing a lot at them, but the good thing is, the kids are adapting and it's contagious."

Unlike last season, the Eagles participated in multiple 7-on-7 tournaments and had joint practices with other schools at Mountain View. The Eagles competed in three 7-on-7 tournaments across Southern Arizona this summer. 

Santa Rita has yet to have a fully-padded practice, but Gaddis is confident his Eagles can win at least one game for the first time since people were wearing COVID masks on the sidelines. 

"The record said 0-10, but it's not a 0-10 team," Gaddis said. "They just need the coaching and the right guidance. I think that's what me and my staff are going to do.

"I don't know if it'll show in Year 1, but those wins are going to roll in, for sure."