Sports

There are times when 53  1/2 yards can feel like it invades a coach's personal space as much as a dented facemask.

On certain Friday nights, football coaches can stand on the sideline and know the man across the way is liable to bring the worst out of him. There is history standing between them, and at times, that relationship can bleed into the game.

It might have festered for years or it might be because of something that happened late in a game that night. Either way the relationship between two coaches can change on one play, one doctored game tape or two very different set of standards.

"There is fine line that can be easily crossed, and a lot times, you cross it unknowingly," Lakeside Blue Ridge coach Paul Moro said. "You go to shake a guy's hand, and he is nowhere to be found."

Final minutes

Many times the rub is in the final score. A team overwhelms another, the second and third teams get sent in the game, the scoring continues. Running plays are the protocol, but it's not as easy as it sounds.

"Say you are the winning coach and all of a sudden no passes are the expectation," Moro said. "Yet you continue to pass because you have to get ready for the next opponent. It's all about the standard you have. We will not score into the 60s. That's my philosophy, but other coaches are trying to get some honors and records for their players. Is that right? It's debatable."

It's a situation that can get the competitive side of a coach percolating. He is embarrassed, angry and looking for answers. It can boil over after the game or be held onto until the following year, or a decade or two.

The game between Scottsdale Saguaro and Avondale Agua Fria on Sept. 19 had an odd finish that got the Internet message boards burning up.

Saguaro won 70-6 with Agua Fria's lone score coming very late in the game when the backups were getting minutes. When Agua Fria got ready to kick off, coach Kelly Epley noticed Saguaro's first-team kick returners were back in the game so he instructed the kick to go out of bounds toward Agua Fria's bench.

Sagauro coach John Sanders decided to have them move 5 yards back and re-kick instead of taking possession. The kick again went out of bounds, this time toward the Saguaro sideline. Again, 5 yards back and re-kick. It went on another three or four more times before it was squibbed to one of the up men.

"All he has to do is accept the kick and the game is over, that is all that needed to happen," Epley said. "I don't want to risk giving up another score and embarrass my kids or risk someone getting hurt. One of our guys was blown up on the sideline.

"The bottom line is we got to stop people. I get that, but when it was obvious that we were running clean jerseys (second and third unit) out there, it was clear where we were at in the game."

From Sanders' perspective, he was just trying to do the same thing as Epley - run out the clock.

"Our philosophy as a program is to make them re-kick in that situation," Sanders said. "There is a reason the kicking team is penalized. Those penalties were on Agua Fria, not us. They got upset and thought it was something more than that. It really wasn't. We just wanted to run out the clock, and that's what we did once we got the ball."

Gray area

Blowouts are part of the game. Bending the rules isn't always viewed the same way.

For example, a wide receiver mingles along the sideline just before the ball is snapped and jumps into the field of play with hopes of being unnoticed. It was legal, but did it break the ethical code?

"I think most of those are illegal now, but for the longest time you could do it," Moro said. "A few years back we got beat on a play like that. That's something you have to decide for yourself if it is right or not. We don't coach to cheat. Others teach holding, thinking if it is not called, it is not cheating or breaking the rules. Does that make it right? What kind of message are you sending the players?"

There are other incidents that can be explained as happenstance on one sideline, but are viewed as something completely different on the other side.

Laveen Cesar Chavez coach ran across this earlier this year when there were a couple of jersey changes at halftime. It was perceived as trying to hide players to gain an advantage, when he said it was a late delivery on a special order.

"Davonte Neal wanted No. 3 because his father wore it, and it was his number in Pop Warner, but Cesar Chavez didn't have a No. 3 home purple jersey," Rattay said. "It didn't show up at the start of the game, so he wore a different number, a jersey that didn't even match.

"That's all it was. There was no big conspiracy there."

But there are some conspiracies when it comes to game tape exchange. Some copies can be as grainy and bumpy as the Zapruder film. Plus there might be more footage of a grassy knoll than the field.

"There are some stories there that go way back," Gilbert coach Jesse Parker said. "You got coaches that would cut out good plays. Or they send a parent's (video) tape taken from the front row and you see nothing but cheerleaders and the bench.

"Coaches that resort to that kind of stuff don't get it. You can't put yourself above the game."

There are other incidents of lore that can spark debate from spies in an office near the visitor's locker room to filming coaches signaling in plays.

All of it comes down to deciding what a coach believes is right and how it can be perceived differently by the guy he's supposed to shake hands with afterward.

"A lot of that stuff falls into a gray area," Moro said. "You have to figure out if it is something you want to do and if you can live with after the fact. That's the person, the one in the mirror as they say, that you truly have to answer to."