Video Interview with Centennial Arizona OL Tanner Hawthorne

College Football, High School Football, Recruiting News Leave a comment

Written by Ryan Wright

Just two games into the 2014 season Centennial High School was a team teetering on the brink of disaster. A tough 28-24 loss to Chandler followed by a 31-21 loss to Basha put the Coyotes in a tough hole to climb out of going forward. A lot of teams would have folded up the tents and mailed in the rest of the season, but that’s not the type of young men head coach Richard Taylor and staff mold into football players.

The Coyotes dug in deep going 12-0 the rest of the season capturing an Arizona High School State Championship along the way. The run to glory included two contests against Liberty High School, a Peoria cross town rival of Centennial. The first win was in Game 5 of the season, a 17-14 nail-biter, and the second one was a 26-14 win in the state title game.

Centennial had great talent in 2014 seeing, at last count, two guys sign letters of intent; RB Dedrick Young – Nebraska and DT Brett Tonz – Colorado.

The scary thing for opposing Arizona high school teams during the 2015 season is the Coyotes have a ton of returning talent ready to defend their state title. Some of the guys getting next level looks include OL/DL Marshall Nathe (ASU), OL Steven Bailey, OL Tanner Hawthorne, LB Bozton Sanders, QB/CB Isaac Steele, and DE Randy Rodriguez.

The Coyotes took a road trip to Irvine, California for the weekend ending up at Concordia University in Orange County for a couple of days of team practices. The team used the time to practice and bond as a unit before heading back to Arizona to kick off fall camp to begin the gauntlet of making another run to a state title.

Hawthorne, coming in at around 6’6”, 275 pounds, has four offers that include Missouri State, Weber State, South Dakota State, and Adams State with Arizona State, Cal, Arizona, Montana State, and Oregon showing interest.

In a Recruiting News Guru exclusive interview I caught up with Tanner getting an update on his offseason workouts, a recruiting update, and a look ahead to the 2015 season.

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