PHOENIX – Despite back-to-back winless seasons, Bourgade Catholic High School’s football program is entering the 2025 season with renewed optimism under a new head coach and a new region.
The last time the Golden Eagles had a W in the win column, was Sept. 10, 2022, when they beat Washington High School 42-2 at home. Since then, the program has cycled through several head coaches which has led to dwindling player turnout.
Those factors drove Athletic Director Ritesh Khatri to petition to the AIA (Arizona Interscholastic Association) to move Bourgade down from the 3A to the 2A region.
“We are currently a 0-26 team that has forfeited games the past two years due to low numbers of athletes who could participate safely,” Khatri said.
Bourgade, with about 350 students, had been the smallest school in 3A, nearly 150 fewer than the next closest program. Combined with consecutive seasons finishing with fewer than 30 players, the Golden Eagles struggled to compete.
“I hope this move helps build our football program back to where we used to be and beyond,” Khatri said.
In January, after months of searching, Khatri hired Andrew Yates, a former assistant coach at ALA-West Foothills, as the Golden Eagles’ new head coach. It is Yates’ first head coaching position.
“With Coach Yates, I feel the excitement to play the game of football is back,” Khatri said.
Last season, Yates was on the staff for an ALA-West Foothills football program who made it to the 3A state championship.
“There was zero hesitancy in taking the job here,” Yates explained. “I saw it for what it was and I saw the potential instantly. I want to be a great football coach and I believe all great coaches can go anywhere and they win.”
Almost immediately, Yates wanted to get on campus so he could start building relationships. He was introduced to the team back on Feb. 3 and while still teaching full-time at ALA-West Foothills, made daily drives to Bourgade. “School would end and I’m sprinting to my car trying to make it down the Northern Parkway and Grand to make it out here on time, just showing the boys that I’m here, I’m consistent,” he said.
Yates then introduced team workouts, speed camps, and new approaches to training, diet and mentality. “When I first got here, they were just a group of kids that really couldn’t trust anyone,” he said. “I’m asking them to do all these weird performance things that teams don’t usually do, like breathwork and central nervous stuff, warm up and then we go out I’ll do something like a sprint session.”
Though players were skeptical at first, attendance grew over the summer with 25 to 30 players showing up regularly which was not something that had happened in years past.
“It took me showing up and telling the boys, you’ve got to stick with it,” Yates said. “I can draw the perfect practice plan, the perfect training schedule, all these things can be perfectly in place but it comes down to intention.”
That consistency has stood out, especially to seniors who have endured multiple coaching changes.
“He has the best character out of all the coaches I’ve had,” senior right guard Orlando Ruelas Quintero said. Ruelas Quintero, who has played on varsity all four years, is on his fourth head coach. “It hurts a little bit but I know I was sent here for a reason by God. There’s a reason why I stayed.”
Senior Devin Lopez said he has also seen a change in the program.
“Last year, I learned that not everyone is going to stick around through the good and bad and people who do stick around are the people you need to keep close,” he said.
Ruelas Quintero said this season feels different, both in his approach and the way the team has come together. Part of that, he explained, has come from improved accountability.
“Last year, everybody kept blaming other people rather than focusing on themselves and fixing their mistakes,” he said. “This season we’re more in sync, everybody’s trying to work together.”
Like many of his teammates, Ruelas Quintero has spent the offseason training harder than ever and hopes to play football beyond high school. While his team goal is much simpler: get back in the win column.
“This season I’m just taking everything personal,” he said. “Everybody’s doubting us and I’m just trying to prove everybody wrong.
For Lopez, who missed much of last season due to injury, has shifted into being a steady voice and example for younger players.
“Showing up every day, telling my teammates to lock in, just show up and give their best effort,” Lopez said of how he’s grown into a leadership role.
His personal goal is to rush for 1,000 yards this season, but what he values most are the connections built on the field.
“I feel our team has bonded way stronger than previous years,” he said.
Yates has also seen the difference in how the team carries itself from when he first stepped on campus.
“Night and day,” he said. “The biggest difference is the boys’ intention and everything that they do. How they approach practice, how they approach competition, how they approach getting better, because they see the payoff.”
Yates said he also wants the Bourgade Catholic community to recognize the strides the Golden Eagles have made. That their support will play a key role in helping the team turn the corner.
“This is not the same team,” Yates said. “This is a completely different football team. We have a lot of the same players, but these boys, they’re not just boys anymore, they’re young men."
Bourgade Catholic will open its football season on the road against San Pasqual Valley High School on Friday, Aug. 21, at 7 p.m. The Golden Eagles’ first home game is on Friday, Aug. 29 against Coronado, with kickoff set for 7 p.m.
Click here for their full 2025-26 season schedule.
