Sunday Rewind: Hinds standing tall after win over MP - Ahwatukee Foothills News
As his player celebrated inside the visitor's locker room at Mountain Pointe, Desert Vista football coach Dan Hinds had trouble walking.
If this was still the 2009 season there might be concern that the stiffening of his muscles might be the result of a voodoo doll with one Hinds' dissenters at the controls.
But this was more about cramps, a quick and painful muscles spasm, while his players were going crazy Friday night after soundly beating Mountain Pointe 24-0 in just less than three quarters before it was called an account of weather and safety issues.
A cramp brings everything to a screaming halt, the victim can't function or think about anything else, until it lets go.
Kind of like a 2-8 season.
It's hard to believe now that the Thunder is 3-0, having outscored opponents 125-6, this year and 13-3 since the start of the 2010 season, but Desert Vista was in a bad place not long ago.
And most of that venom was directed at Hinds.
"Everyone had some had things to say about him when we were going bad," senior running back and linebacker Mike Arredondo said. "But they didn't know what we thought or what it was like in the locker room. We never felt that way."
The way Desert Vista, which made the Class 5A Division I state semifinals last year, handled Mountain Pointe on Friday really showed how silly those concerns were considering the rest of Hinds' 11-year tenure.
The Thunder were better in every facet of the game against Mountain Pointe as Hinds beat Mountain Pointe coach Norris Vaughan for the first time in three attempts. After this Desert Vista will be considered one of the few teams that could test Hamilton.
Yes, the Thunder have looked that good.
"I feel like this has always been a great program in my opinion, that thing (2-8 season) was a bump in the road," Hinds said. "We got right back on track and we are we back this year."
The game was officially called a forfeit and goes into the record book as a 1-0 win, but there is no telling anyone in the Thunder program that they didn't get the best of the Pride to the tune of three touchdowns and a field goal.
Hinds guided the Thunder to the state title game in 2007 so it is hard to call the game against rival Mountain Pointe a signature win, especially when it came so early in the season, but it was pretty telling.
The 2011 season might very be defined by the Desert Vista talented junior class but it is the senior class, at least a handful of them that had to endure the difficult season two years when Hinds and his staff weren't exactly revered.
There were a few troublesome signs back then and even more negativity, but Hinds and company never let it change their cohesiveness.
"You can't let it get to you," Hinds said. "You can't listen to those people. What matter is the guys around you, the players and the coaches. No one else."
Mountain Pointe self-destructed a bit and it helped Desert Vista take control of the game, but it was clear that the Ahwatukee Bowl was going to the Thunder's way.
"We felt like we had a really food game plan," Hinds said. "The kids stuck with the game plan and this was a big win for us. Mountain Pointe is a good football team and it is always good to beat a team of that caliber."
Contact writer at (480) 898-7915 or JSkoda@ahwatukee.com . Follow him on Twitter @JSkodaAFN.
11 Sep, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGxKhP_zQUucDrN_u4EaRxq9fVk_Q&url=http://www.ahwatukee.com/sports/prep_sports/article_7125ed2e-dc3e-11e0-9753-001cc4c002e0.html
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