De La Torre ready to bring 'ideas that work' to Dobson

Former Florence football coach George De La Torre told Dobson High's administration at his interview for their vacant football position if they wanted a football coach he wasn't their man.

Again.

"That's what  I said," De La Torre said on Wednesday afternoon. " I have ideas that I still work. I have an offensive coordinator and a defensive coordinator. Everyone has Xs and Os. But what I want to help build is an infrastructure behind athletics. That infrastructure is what it's all about. Hard work, ethics across the athletic program. Not just football. All sports.

"To me athletics are all on one page. I don't see football, basketball, baseball as separate entities. We're all coaches at one school with kids training together."

Dobson's administration wanted De La Torre. They've offered him the job. He has accepted it. Official acceptance and confirmation of De La Torre is expected from the Mesa district governing board at its next meeting on Feb. 7.

"I can't wait to get started, just waiting for board approval," De La Torre said. "If it doesn't happen, then I'll probably be coaching freshman football at Florence." 

Don't get De La Torre wrong, He wants the football program to succeed. But he also wants all its athletes to succeed. His ideology flows around getting the kids on the same page. No special roads. The same map and same destination. He cautions it doesn't happen overnight.

"It's built on trust," De La Torre said. "You have to keep communicating it. Communicating often and clearly. In a respectful way. It worked at South Mountain and it worked at Florence. It didn't happen overnight. My first year at South we were 4-6 and had seniors who were starters the year before who were going to do it their way. At Florence we had some seniors my first year that felt the same way. We ended up having one senior that year, and one win. Every year after that we got better. The kids understood what they were supposed to do, and took the responsibility to follow through. That's what made us better.

"I like to see kids be multi-sport athletes. I've never groomed kids to be just football players. Dobson is unique among the Mesa schools. It sits at the apex of Tempe and Chandler. The four Chandler schools, Marcos de Niza, Corona and the Ahwatukee schools are showing us the standard."

To De La Torre's point his teams at South and Florence improved every year. At South his three teams won 4, 7 then 12 games. At  Florence the progression was 1, 7, 11 and 12. Those numbers coincide with a story he relates to kids from a family experience.

De La Torre has a granddaughter who recently was diagnosed with cancer and underwent chemotherapy for a year. The chemotherapy gradually made her better. She is now in remission.

"I tell the kids about that," De La Torre said. "With chemo, it's one drop at a time. That's the way it is with the athletic program. Slowly building the infrastructure. The wins may come slowly. But if everyone is on the same page, the wins come and the programs get better."