Rough Rock revives football program after 8-year hiatus

By Lee Begaye
Special to the Times

ROUGH ROCK, Ariz. – It’s been eight years since the Rough Rock Sun Devils fielded a football squad.

Rough Rock played its first game since the 2016 season when the Sun Devils hosted the Many Farms Lobos on Saturday. The visiting Lobos trailed early but they bounced back with a 40-6 win.

Rough Rock is playing an independent schedule this year. Eight years ago they competed in the 1A North 8-man football conference.

Due to declining enrollment, second-year athletic director Hank Charleston says the school administrators wanted to revive the athletic programs in hopes of enrolling more students at the 1A school.

“The school administration wanted to resurrect the sports programs,” Hank said. “We are losing a lot of kids to surrounding schools. Kayenta bus comes near here and takes students, so does Many Farms and Chinle.”

“Those kids want to play sports, and we didn’t have it, so we’ve lost a lot of kids to those schools,” he continued. “We would like for them to come back and play for us if they are sitting on the bench at those schools.”

The game on Saturday did have some logistic issues. The scoreboard failed to synchronize with the clock operator as the officials had to manually keep track of the time. And due to the summer monsoon the field had mud on some parts of the sidelines.

“Getting sports up and running was a massive undertaking, but I must credit the maintenance crew,” Charleston said. “They handled everything: holding flags, working on the scoreboard, and, over the past two days, draining and trying to dry the field. I feared the game might be canceled.”

Besides those inconveniences, the Rough Rock team played with a thin roster as some of the students that attend the school went home for the weekend.

With that the Sun Devils suited up a dozen players with 11 of them playing most of the time. In contrast, Many Farms brought their entire squad.

“We had nearly our full roster here,” sixth-year Many Farms coach Johnathan Begay said. “We did have two injuries, but this is the largest group we’ve had in years.”

Set at the foothills of Black Mesa, the Sun Devils had first possession. Rough Rock quarterback Deronne Tsosie dropped back from its own 15-yard line and hit wide receiver LaDainian Carroll as that pass went through the hands of Many Farms defensive back Carlos Gonzales.

Carroll then raced down the field for an early 6-0 cushion for the home team.

On its first possession the visiting Lobos turned the ball over to Rough Rock, but their defense came up big as they pushed Carroll back for a safety.

From there Many Farms took control as it completed several successful drives led by senior Mathias Yazzie, junior Larren Charley and Gonzales.

Charley scored from 12 yards out that put Many Farms ahead at 8-6 minutes into the second quarter.

Following an interception from Charley, the Lobos opened up a 14-6 cushion with two minutes left in the half with Charley completing that drive with a 25-yard score.

“We adjusted our offense and opted for a wishbone formation,” Begay said.

Many Farms continued its dominance as its running game took a toll on the shorthanded Rough Rock squad. Fatigue started to set in for the Sun Devils as they dealt with cramping issues. At times, they only had 10 players on the field.

At the other end, Many Farms accumulated significant yardage. In one drive, Gonzales stretched Rough Rock’s defense with a 62-yard rushing TD, as that score put the Lobos up 20-6.

The Lobos increased that margin to 27-6 with a one-yard TD from Damion Lopez with Gonzales kicking the extra point.

The Begay-coached team tacked on two more TDs in the fourth quarter with Charley scoring from one-yard out while Yazzie completed a 10-yard TD pass to Dylan Grant.

“We had the game; we just didn’t have enough players to rotate,” Rough Rock coach Rudy Yellowhair commented. “We got fatigued in the second half. Some players didn’t show up to the Saturday game, but we had 18 players available.”

Offensively, Charley led Many Farms with three rushing TDs while Gonzales added one.

The Many Farms coach was happy that Rough Rock revived its football program after not playing for eight years.

“It’s great they are bringing back their program,” he said. “These kids look like they worked hard.”

Begay laughed when asked if he was afraid to lose some players to Rough Rock as the school hopes to see an uptick in enrollment.

“Yeah, we lose kids to other schools, but they will be good if they keep at it with their football program,” he said.

Rough Rock plays at Valley Sanders on Saturday while Many Farms will have a bye week as the Lobos will prep for Chinle on Sept. 6.

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