'It came down to a safety standpoint': Sequoia Pathway cancels remainder of football season

Maricopa Sequoia Pathway, a 2A school, has canceled the remainder of its football season due to dwindling numbers, coach and Athletic Director Kerry Taylor said.

"It came down to a safety standpoint," Taylor said.

Taylor said this was a district decision.

District Athletic Director Robb Floco said that through the coaching change from last season and multiple seniors graduating, "our numbers were low in starting the football season."

"It also didn't help we had a few injuries earlier in the year, as well," Floco said in a text. "With the youthfulness of the program, we had to make an educated decision for the safety of our student-athletes and the future of the program.

"Pathway's leadership team will look to build the program from the ground up next season."

Exodus of players in transion

Taylor, who led Phoenix Arcadia and Gilbert San Tan Charter programs, took over in March as head football coach and the school's athletic director.

Donnie Margerum did not have his coaching contract renewed after last year's team went 5-5.

By the time he took over, Taylor said only nine players were left, all of them either freshmen or sophomores.

"The previous staff made sure to have as many players transfer out before the school hired a new football coach," Taylor said. "We increased to 16 kids throughout the summer and then started the season with about 20 kids. Still not enough to play football but we tried."

Margerum, who is now the linebackers coach at Phoenix Mountain Pointe High and the defensive coordinator at Papapo's junior college team, said that his kids still go to Sequoia Pathway and that when he was let go, "plenty of kids were upset with the school's decision."

"But I would never encourage kids to leave what was being built on that campus," Margerum said. "I continued to work on campus as a teacher until the school year ended. I had a chance to see how Taylor interacted with the players, staff and general students on campus. It was not pretty. Instantly, I knew he was going to have a rough time at SPA. He did some things that rubbed the boys the wrong way, and ultimately most of the boys transferred before I even decided where I was going to coach."

Margerum believes a toxic environment created by Taylor led to players leaving the program.

No contests for opponents in power rankings

Sequoia Pathway started the season 0-4, getting outscored 247-20.

SPA was scheduled to play Arete Prep on Thursday but that game was cancelled.

Arizona Interscholastic Association Executive Director David Hines said that the rest of Sequoia Pathway's opponents will be counted as a "no contest."

The remainder of the teams on Sequoia's schedule — San Tan Charter, Whiteriver Alchesay, Eloy Santa Cruz, Heritage Academy Laveen and Phoenix NFL Yet — will all have those games count as "no contest" in the power-point playoff system.

"Due to family issues, we had two kids move out of state," Taylor said. "We have had four kids struggle with grades. And a couple of kids with injuries left us with 11 kids for this week.

"With fall break, we were going to have another two kids out of town on family trips. So for best safety of the kids moving forward, it was best to not continue until our numbers get back to a competitive level."

Margerum said it was hard watching this season play out.

"We had a good thing going, maybe a shot at a state title this season and this is the result!?," Margerum said in a direct message. "I feel for the boys and the school as a whole! Hopefully someone there can take some accountability and get things going in the right direction."

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Taylor called the program "a big mess," when he came in with a lack of discipline.

"There were things that weren't done the right way, and the new staff comes in and starts doing things the right way, making sure kids show up to practice, and that you're going to lift weights," Taylor said. "Certain players aren't willing to put that time and effort in. That's where we were at."

Zach Bachelder, who was an assistant under Margerum at Sequoia Patheway, said in a direct message that there were well over 20 kids from last year's team that were still on campus when Taylor got the job.

"They were willing to give him a chance and continue to build off of the success we had in years prior," Bachelder said. "Ultimately he rubbed the boys the wrong way by threatening them to not play in their spring sport matches if they didn’t attend an offseason meeting and throwing shade at us (the previous staff). The boys knew how much we cared for them and they didn’t like that one of the first things that came out of his mouth was negative."

Taylor said, "I knew coming in, taking this job, it was going to be a complete rebuild, to come into any program and have no returning players from last year's team."

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sequoia Pathway cancels remainder of football season