Richard Smith
West Valley Preps

John Ganados was a second generation Dysart Demon, graduated in 1990 and did not expect to come back.

But after 16 years as an assistant coach at Thunderbird High in Phoenix, his next generation brought him back home.

About a year later he was the Dysart head coach. Ganados was hired in February to replace four-year coach J.R. Alcantar, now the new coach at Phoenix Cesar Chavez.

“My son decided he wanted to transfer to Dysart, why I didn’t know. So we ended up here last year and he ended up being the quarterback. I didn’t want to coach and J.R. convinced me to coach,” Ganados said. “This is my dream. For all these years that I coached, I knew this was the place I was waiting for.”

Ganados was a senior on the 1989 team that finished the regular season 8-1 and reach the 3A semifinals in a 10-2 season overall. Dysart football did not approach those heights again for 27 seasons.

That is when Alcantar’s fourth team finished the regular season 9-1 and won the Black Canyon Region before being trounced by Cactus in the playoffs. Kobe Ganados won the starting quarterback job as a sophomore.

“I was expecting a little bit less when I came here. The football team had talent. I think this year we can step it up even a little bit more,” Kobe Ganados said.

For a downtrodden program with two straight decades of losing seasons and no hopes of a playoff berth, making the postseason in 2015 and 2016 was transformative.

Elston Cadle, a two-way lineman who will be a senior next year, was not originally planning to play for Dysart but a friend talked him into it.



“As a freshman we didn’t have the support. In my sophomore and junior year, everyone started coming together because we started winning more games and earning more respect,” Cadle said. “We still have the same support and hopefully it gets even better.”

As the new guy on the staff, Coach Ganados said he did not say much last year.

He did sit back and learn from Alcantar and his staff after 16 years on Brent Wittenwyler’s Thunderbird staff, including the Chiefs’ shocking 2010 state title.

“J.R. did a great job with preparation for the games. He did an excellent job getting the kids prepared, the film and the scouting to get us to that level of success. I learned a lot from him in that aspect,” Coach Ganados said. “I didn’t say a whole lot because there were like 20 coaches and I was the new guy on the block. I learned a lot from Coach Wittenwyler at Thunderbird. So the day I got my staff, with the way I do things and the culture of this school, I had a plan to mesh everything together.”

Two 2016 assistant coaches decided to stay at Dysart. Coach Ganados said the good news is they are the offensive and defensive line coaches.

The new coach said returning players are feeling the largely new staff out, but now realize the coaches are serious.

He said the just finished spring practices had good numbers, with 60 players in the weight room.

“It’s tough because you had the same coaches for three years. You have to get used to the different stuff. This offseason’s been good. We’ve been working but we need to work a little harder and get stronger,” Cadle said.

Cadle said the offense is pretty similar, but the defensive scheme is almost entirely new.

Coach Ganados said the players have been more successful fundraising than people around the program.
He also said teacher Sandra Oligny has been invaluable’ leading tutoring and checking up on players grades and eligibility.



“Administration has supported me 100 percent. They’ve worked with me and given me what I asked for. I got to meet the new assistant superintendent and he’s for athletics. We painted the weight room,” he said.

He said he is looking forward to summer conditioning, Dysart’s three 7-on-7 leagues and camp in northern Arizona in early July.

Ganados may be hired on campus as a full time substitute. That helps to interact more with players and scout out athletic talent roaming the hallways.

“Everywhere I go I run into alumni. My brothers live here. They know Ganados is coaching at Dysart,” Coach Ganados said.

Kobe Ganados saw his profile rise as the new kid on campus as a starting quarterback. That has gone to another level this spring as the coach’s son.

“School life has definitely changed. A lot more people know you now. He’s still my coach, not my dad, on the field,” Kobe Ganados said.