Scottsdale Christian football driven to win 2A title behind QB Atkinson, Trapp twins

Scottsdale Christian football players and coaches got up early Monday, in an attempt to beat the heat, while it was still in the 90s, excited for the official AIA countdown to a new season.

This is always the annual renewal of hope when Arizona high school football teams can put on the helmets for the first time. This week, the 3A through 1A schools go through the Arizona Interscholastic Association's heat acclimatization process as the small schools build toward the start of the season on Aug. 17, 18 and 19. That's opening week.

The big schools, 6A through 4A, put on the helmets next Monday with their opening games the last weekend of August.

For Scottsdale Christian, the excitement is about building with a strong core of offensive players with quarterback Jack Atkinson and the Trapp twins, wide receiver Andrew and tailback Jacob.

Those three guys got the Eagles to the 2A semifinals last year. Now, a year older, wiser, stronger and better, and with former Scottsdale Notre Dame Prep assistant coach Mike Sheahan now in charge of the program, they feel they can get over that semifinal hump and win a championship.

It begins with the talented Atkinson, who has the size (6-foot-4, 195 pounds) and abilities (1,707 yards, 30 TDs passing in nine games as a junior) to play at any level in Arizona, including 6A, according to Sheahan, a former SCA assistant coach.

Atkinson is excited to have Sheahan leading the team his senior year.

"The weight room is totally different," Atkinson said. "There's progress. On the field, it's totally different. The energy is top notch. It's just fun to have him around. He's hard but that makes it better. We're trying to win state. That's our goal."

Sheahan coached a little bit of everything under George Prelock at Notre Dame. He came from an established, winning 5A program. So he knows how to win, how to assemble the parts and put the best product on the field to succeed. He saw it coming together this summer with help from a great staff that includes three-time Super Bowl champion Dale Hellestrae, who remained from last year's staff as the offensive line coach.

He knew Atkinson and the Trapp brothers would be excellent leaders, but he's seen how 6-7 basketball player Hunter Wales has emerged and how he'll be able to take advantage of his size and athleticism at tight end and defensive end. The other defensive end is 6-6 Davin Rucker.

"When you look at us, we're not 2A," Sheahan said.

Sheahan is hoping the size, and added strength will go a long way into holding up the gold ball in the end.

Last year, the Eagles went 10-3, losing to Morenci 71-40 in the semifinals. They also lost their season opener to Morenci 30-6 and lost their only other game of the season to eventual state champion Pima 42-7. In the Pima loss, Atkinson was out with an injury and Jacob Trapp filled in at quarterback.

Sheahan sees a renewed hunger to go all the way. The only time SCA won a state championship in football was 1983, when it was called Class C, known as 8-man football today. They were runner-up a few other times in 8-man, but have never been to an 11-man state final.

"The kids wants practice to go longer," Sheahan said. "When does that happen. It's awesome."

The relationship among Atkinson and the Trapp brothers began in middle schools. They're all best friends, doing things off the field, such as playing golf together.

"We're all really close," said Andrew Trapp, Atkinson's favorite target, who caught 47 passes for 894 yards and three TDs last season.

Jacob Trapp, who ran for 262 yards and three TDs and caught 13 passes for 201 yards last year, said they play lots of golf.

Asked if Atkinson is pretty good at golf, Jacob shakes his head and says, "He's not."

"On the football field he's very talented," Jacob added. "I like him a lot as our QB. We're very blessed to have him."

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: SCA football driven to win 2A title behind QB Atkinson, Trapp twins