Trace Carroll, who was teammates and best friends with Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham in high school, is returning to Scottsdale Chaparral to lead the football program.
Carroll played for two of the greatest high school coaches in Arizona history, Ron Estabrook and Charlie Ragle. He played at the tail end of Estabrook's career and the start of Ragle's tenure at the school.
He was an offensive lineman, next to future NFL tackle Taylor Lewan, on the 2008 team that reached the state final, before losing to Scottsdale Saguaro. The quarterback of that team, Spencer Stone, is actress Emma Stone's brother.
"As a proud alumni and as a former football player at Chaparral for Ron Estabrook and Charlie Ragle, I look forward to continuing the program’s great success," Carroll said.
Carroll, like Dillingham, got into coaching almost immediately after graduating from high school, helping Ragle out at Chaparral. He spent the past six years as a quarterbacks coach at Phoenix Pinnacle, which produced Spencer Rattler, and had Devon Dampier in his first two years before he transferred to Saguaro.
"We were high school best friends," Carroll said of Dillingham. "My freshman year, in computer lab, we hit it off. Our families got Arizona Cardinals season tickets together. We'd tailgate together. He's still one of my best friends to this day."
Chaparral posted the job twice after Doug Nisenson stepped down, before hiring Carroll. Nisenson left Colorado to lead Chaparral the past two seasons, when the Firebirds went 2-8 in 2023 and 3-7 last season.
Ragle followed Estabrook at Chaparral in 2007, and led the Firebirds to four straight state championship game appearances from 2008-11, winning titles in 2009, 2010, and 2011, before moving onto the college ranks at Arizona. He is now an assistant coach at Arizona State.
"I went to Chaparral to play for Ron Estabrook," Carroll said. "He was the man."
When Ragle took over, Carroll said, he was a "player's coach."
"They're similar but very different," Carroll said. "They both had that dynamic personality. I was really scared of Coach Estabrook as a young player. With Coach Ragle, he was the ultimate player's coach. He would motivate us. Any time it got bad, we weren't mad at him. We were more mad at ourselves that we let him down."
Carroll calls Ragle a coaching model, "a big influence and part of my life."
Carroll hopes to build Chaparral back into an elite program, retaining top players already there and supporting local youth programs that feed into the high school.
"They're just like me, they're regular neighborhood kids," Carroll said. "They work their asses off for their coach. That's what I see. We're going to connect with the youth program a little bit better. We're going to get this thing back for sure."
To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trace Carroll returning to his roots to lead Chaparral football
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