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For some Huskies, title game a long time coming
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“It’s going to be tough to stop,” said Mesa Mountain View defensive end Ridge Nielsen, who will see plenty of Hamilton’s offense in Saturday’s 5A-I state football championship game.
Lisa Olson, Tribune
It was a pretty good passing attack in seventh grade Pop Warner: Trey Peacock to Kerry Taylor and J.T. Dixon. Six years later, Peacock, Taylor and Dixon are catching Brad Gruner passes for Chandler Hamilton. A lot of passes — 135 to be exact.
“It’s going to be tough to stop,” said Mesa Mountain View defensive end Ridge Nielsen, who will see plenty of Hamilton’s offense in Saturday’s 5A-I state football championship game.
Taylor hasn’t surprised anyone. The silky smooth 6-foot-1 wideout has already committed to ASU, which he plans to honor while the Sun Devils coaching search continues.
Peacock, however, is a late arrival. He barely saw the field last season in the Huskies’ deep rotation, but graduation and an increased work ethic gave him a chance.
So, too, did the Taylor family. Kerry’s dad, Keith Taylor, owns Warehouse Sports, a sporting goods store in Chandler. Armed with parachutes and weights, Kerry Taylor and Peacock went through sprint and strength drills every day this summer, sometimes twice a day.
They run extra patterns after practice, then lift weights.
“If we make it to the NFL, we’ll give him his money back,” Kerry said of his father’s investment.
The pair have 1,700 yards and 17 touchdowns between them.
“I didn’t know much about him coming in,” first-year coach Steve Belles said of Peacock. “If he worked hard, he could earn a role. Sure enough, he worked at it, and wouldn’t you know, he’s pretty good. They work out together and it works extremely well.”
With Dixon at tight end, plus running backs Covaughn Deboskie and Tony Sims (1,900 combined yards), the Huskies average 417 yards and 38 points per game.
“If you double-team one of us, the other will hurt you,” Peacock said. “If you double-team us both, which I don’t know if you can do, you can’t stop the run.”
Taylor has been a part of every Hamilton state championship game, including in 2003 and 2004.
But the reason he did extra wind sprints and lifted extra weights year-round isn’t because of what he’s won, but what he lost: the 2005 title to Brophy.
“As long as we’re putting points on the board, I don’t care how it happens,” he said.
“We need to finish what we started.”
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