The Chandler Unified School District has announced Ty Wisdom as its next coach, replacing Rick Garretson, who stepped down in November after six seasons, according to a news release. Wisdom’s teams have excelled here in the Valley as well as in his home state of Nebraska.
The Chandler Unified School District has announced Ty Wisdom as its next coach, replacing Rick Garretson, who stepped down in November after six seasons, according to a news release.
With the hire still subject to CUSD Governing Board approval, Chandler High would be welcoming a coach from Nebraska who’ll be starting his second stint in Arizona.
Wisdom will arrive not only on the heels of guiding an Omaha high school team to a state title in the big-school division in Nebraska in November. He’ll also be returning to a state where he worked as an assistant at Valley Vista High in Surprise before moving on to be the head coach at Horizon and Desert Vista.
After attending high school in western Nebraska, Wisdom tried to continue his career at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, but it was derailed by injuries.
This past fall, Wisdom led the Millard South Patriots to their first state title in 15 years, winning the Class A championship in the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ Memorial Stadium.
That’s the same field where former Chandler High School standout Dylan Raiola guided the Huskers as a freshman starting quarterback this season.
In another Chandler connection, Millard South, which didn’t lose to any Nebraska opponents this year, dropped its season opener at a Chandler Unified district school — Basha — before winning all 12 of its remaining games.
Wisdom has plenty of coach awards and accolades, including a 2019 coach-of-the-year award from a Phoenix TV station and NFL Coach of the Week during the 2016, 2019, and 2020 seasons.
Wisdom and his wife, Crystal, have two children: Jennings, age 6, and Harlee, age 3.
“We welcome the Wisdom family to the CHS community, and we look forward to great success as we move forward,” district staff wrote in the release.
Wisdom has fairly large shoes to fill in terms of maintaining a recent winning tradition at Chandler High.
Before the Arizona 6A and Open Division playoff fields of teams finally caught up to the Wolves the past few years, Garretson led Chandler High to back-to-back undefeated seasons and Open Division championships in his first two campaigns, followed by a narrow 2022 championship game loss.
Garretson had been on the staff of CHS coach Shaun Aguano, who led the Wolves to their first four titles in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
The Wolves went a combined 57-13 record under Garretson. They were eliminated with a 27-24 first-round playoff loss to CUSD rival Perry on Nov. 15, with Garretson announcing the following week that he’d step down.
Garretson will stay on as a district faculty member for the remainder of the school year and will help with the transition now that Wisdom has been hired.
There was no information about how quickly Wisdom will be able to relocate to Arizona again.
Jason W. Brooks News Editor | Chandler Independent
Jason W. Brooks joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in July 2021 as an associate editor. After a year covering Buckeye, he has covered Chandler since the fall of 2022, in addition to assisting the Daily Independent throughout his time at INI.
Education: University of New Mexico, bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication, print emphasis, English minor.
Random Fact: He and his siblings witnessed a Space Shuttle launch and landing in the same year in person, on opposite coasts.
Hobbies: Karaoke, bicycling and American Sign Language.
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