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Brophy, Notre Dame take state football titles
By Ambria Hammel, The Catholic Sun
January 3, 2008
After three years of varsity play, Notre Dame Preparatory’s football coach, Scot Bemis, led his team to its first state championship last month at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.
The Dec. 7 championship win momentarily tied Bemis with his childhood friend, Scooter Molander, who serves as Brophy College Preparatory’s varsity coach. But the two didn’t stay tied for long.
The next day Molander, whose team is in a different division, led the Brophy Broncos to their second state championship title in three years on the same field where Bemis won the night before.
“We played as a unit,” said Scooter Molander, Brophy’s varsity coach. “Everyone was willing to think of the whole before themselves.”
He said the players loved and trusted one another, filling in for injured teammates in various positions. Molander credits the 5A Division I victory over Desert Vista High School to teamwork and nearly year-round training.
Although he described the players as smaller than usual, Molander said the athletes kept themselves in good physical condition. They also learned from their errors.
“If you’re willing to learn from your mistakes, there is good that come from losses,” he said. Both Brophy and Notre Dame posted 11-1 records for the season.
Learning from the past has a huge payoff, as Bemis will attest.
“It was very fulfilling,” the coach said of the Notre Dame Saints’ 4A Division II championship. “I didn’t feel it until I got dumped with a bucket of ice. It was a pretty shocking feeling.”
Bemis remained focused on each play of the final game, not thinking about the possibility of victory until Notre Dame was up by two touchdowns against undefeated Mingus Union High School from Cottonwood.
The Saints had a strong passing game all season, Bemis said. The players threw at will all over the field, which kept opponents on their toes.
He called the game against a Catholic school from San Francisco a key part of the Saints’ season. Notre Dame made up a large point deficit in the second half to win.
“We played exceptional football after that,” Bemis said.
The football championships marked the seventh and eighth state titles for Catholic teams at three local Catholic schools in one season.
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