Kevin Redfern is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Desert Heights for AZPreps365.com.

A small conglomerate of four Desert Heights football players are referred to by athletic director Courtney Martin as “the knuckleheads." After practice, these four players are all smiles as they watch their classmates participate in a volleyball match.

Just a few months ago, three of these four players were not even thinking about playing football. Two had never played a down in their life.

Jacob Dawson, now a senior and a receiver on the team, saw eight of his teammates graduate in May. Looking at the new roster, he felt the need to recruit some classmates in order to replenish their team for their first season in the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) in 2020. 

As a small school playing in an eight-man football league, reinforcements are essential.

His first move was to go get one of his good friends.

Senior Jeremiah Nebrich has been friends with Dawson throughout his tenure at Desert Heights. Nebrich, a former basketball and soccer player, was not actively playing any sports for the school.

“I knew he was athletic,” Dawson said with a sly smile.

After a few conversations, Dawson quickly got Nebrich working out with the team. Looking back, he is grateful that he signed on to play football for the first time in his life.

“This team has given me friends, who I now count as family, and the idea that you gotta stick together no matter how hard it gets,” Nebrich said.

Among the seniors who graduated last year were a solid group of linemen and pass rushers. Dawson had little trouble finding the perfect athlete to plug in those holes.

Senior Joey Williams is proud of his battle scar that he received in his first season of football. His hand wrapped in a thick cast, he smiles and laughs about playing football with one hand wrapped in a club due to a broken thumb sustained while playing. Williams was planning ahead for his second and final year playing basketball at Desert Heights when Dawson reached out about playing football.

“This kid is a rock,” Dawson said, “I told him (he) would be our starting defensive end, and look, (he was) our starting defensive end for the whole season.”

Williams also will play basketball for the Coyotes this winter, and hopes to continue playing in college.

The 2020 Desert Heights interschool recruiting class was not done after Williams. The program needed a future for when the new core of seniors moved on. Look no further than freshman Mark Nunez.

“He’s gotta run the team next year,” Dawson said.

Nunez, unlike Nebrich and Williams, had a year of football experience under his belt from when he played as a sixth grader. Along with the camaraderie of football, Nunez credited his return to football to man’s natural attraction to violence.

“I missed hitting,” he said.

All of the “knuckleheads” mentioned their gratitude for the Coyote program and the relationships they have built in their short time on the gridiron, but they also are eager to get a win.

The Coyotes (0-5) get one more chance Friday at Mohave Accelerated (0-4) in Bullhead City.