Led by first-time head coach Jeffrey Bollnow, Tanque Verde football, boasting a winning record for the third time (and just the second time in a non-COVID-impacted season), is hosting a state tournament game the first time.
The 2023 Hawks (8-2, 5-1 2A San Pedro) also have set the school record for wins in a season.
No. 7 seeded Tanque Verde hosts No. 10 seeded Parker (7-3) on Friday at 7 p.m.
“It’s pretty cool,” Bollnow said. “For me, it’s my first year here but just the excitement around campus, like it’s just a really big deal.
“It’s exciting to bring playoff football to Tanque Verde for the first time, so all this first time stuff is really cool.”
The Hawks enter the postseason on a three-game winning streak and having won seven of eight. That one was loss was 7-0 at No. 14 Willcox, the 2A San Pedro region champions.
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Head coach Jeff Bollnow works with his linemen at Tanque Verde High school Tuesday afternoon as the Hawks prep for the Class 2A state tournament. Bollnow, in his first year at TV, guided the Hawks to a winning record for just the third time overall.
Tanque Verde is hosting a white out for Friday’s game and the first 500 fans will get a free TV football t-shirt.
“I’m anticipating a big crowd,” Bollnow said. “I think it’s gonna be rocking.”
Bollnow follows former UA All-Pac-10 receiver and New York Times Best-Selling author Jay Dobyns, who coached Tanque Verde for three seasons before resigning.
Before Dobyns got there, Tanque Verde had a 24-98 record starting in 2007, the program’s first season, including an 0-10 record in 2019.
Dobyns went 3-0 in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, 6-3 in 2021 and 5-6 in 2022, reaching the state tournament for the first time.
Last season TV lost at Morenci 32-0 in the first round of the state tournament.
“There was a ton of nuts and bolts that we built off of what was already here,” Bollnow said. “So if anything, it was the foundation of what we were doing and it allowed us to really accelerate quickly.”
Bollnow’s father, Kirby Bollnow, is a prominent local referee, who got into officiating after he moved on from youth football. Bollnow was on the Oro Valley Dolphins for their inaugural season and his dad coached him in Pop Warner.
“To stay close to the game and close to me he started reffing and then for Friday nights he would chart penalties at my game so he was able to watch me play from the sidelines,” Bollnow said.
Bollnow was a defensive back and receiver at Mountain View. He served as defensive coordinator at Cienega and Sahuarita before the head-coaching opportunity presented itself at Tanque Verde.
Wanting to coach at a small school, Bollnow “flirted a bit” with Benson before realizing TV was the place for him.
“I was looking for a small school,” Bollnow said. “At small schools more coaching has to happen because you have less kids so you have teach more things and so I really wanted to test my coaching out.”
Tanque Verde has 736 students according to the AIA’s most recent census.
The Hawks’ stars, like senior running back/linebacker Gavin Gilbert — Gilbert has rushed for 1,262 yards so far this year — have gotten much of the attention, but Bollnow said their offensive line has been great too.
“Our offensive line to me is our strongest position group,” Bollnow said.
He noted seniors Eli Clausen, Jacob Norris, Toby Herfkens and junior Carter Filip on the offensive line plus senior tight end Josh Lopez.
Against Benson in the Hawks’ regular season finale, TV senior quarterback Grayson Bradshaw ran for 102 yards on 11 carries and Gilbert ran for 177 yards on 27 attempts.
He also mentioned sophomore safety Rocco Haggard, who got an interception to seal the game last week.
“He’s only a sophomore so I’m excited to see what he does in the playoffs and the rest of his career moving forward,” Bollnow said.
At the 2A level, it’s not unusual to see forfeits tied to numbers; for example, Catalina High School had a game ended prematurely earlier this season because the Trojans’ opponent had too many injuries, or, inversely, not enough healthy players.
Yet, as a sign of the growth at Tanque Verde, the Hawks had enough interested to add a junior varsity team this season.
It’s been a banner year for Northeastern football in the Tucson area as Sabino, as a four seed in the 3A tournament, is also hosting a playoff game Friday night. Sabino is about 10 minutes away from Tanque Verde and before TVHS opened, many Tanque Verde Unified School District kids went to Sabino.
“You always kinda hear people talking about East-side football,” Bollnow said. “I’m just happy that Tanque Verde’s in the conversation. We’re gonna continue to just kinda do our thing and not pay much attention to the other programs and what they’re doing but it’s nice to be in that conversation, I’m not gonna lie.”
Video Vault
Earlier this season, the Star was on hand as Tanque Verde routed Catalina, 58-0. Star correspondent James Kelley shared these videos of the Hawks’ scoring plays:(tncms-asset)093cf2f4-dda5-5111-bd3f-5a4fc39d4049[1](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)0c3abd2e-2038-555a-81fb-33a6deba28e0[2](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)45e6da98-f47c-5021-ae35-71a5139314ee[3](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)7aeac91f-405a-55dd-9413-e99c6fc8d771[4](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)7cb28eb2-2d77-59b9-b26b-a707cb56bd3f[5](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)df074343-dca9-5ac8-9344-094cc599f95a[6](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)000070f3-bdf8-5706-a2d4-a37a6662e98c[7](/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)1e2f4db9-5dd2-5590-a857-e2d801cd2460[8](/tncms-asset)
VIDEO: Tanque Verde junior Deion Harrison scores on a 33-yard touchdown run to put the Hawks up 9-0 in their eventual 58-0 rout of Catalina on Sept. 22, 2023 at Catalina High School. Video by James Kelley/Special to the Arizona Daily Star
