This is it in many ways.
The final regular games of the 2018 high school football season are Friday night. A few teams will advance to the postseason. Most will pack up their equipment until next year.
Jeff Scurran may also coach his last game after an illustrious career in Tucson that started in 1984 when he was hired at Canyon del Oro High School following three years of coaching in Oregon. He has coached 28 years at the high school level and 35 years overall.
Before his hire at CDO, he was the head coach at Tahoe-Truckee (Calif.) High School in 1978 (after starting at the California-Nevada border school in 1973 as an assistant), and prior to that, he had a two-year stint (1970-71) at a grade school in Atlanta while he was taking graduate courses at Georgia State.
No. 20 Catalina Foothills (4-5 overall, 2-2 in the 4A Kino) hosts fifth-ranked Sahuaro (7-2, 3-1) with an upset victory needed to have any chance of making the playoffs.
RELATED: RECENT INTERVIEWS WITH JEFF SCURRAN ABOUT HIS COACHING CAREER
The Arizona Daily Star reported Scurran’s hire as head football coach and counselor at CDO on May 30, 1984. He took on the underdog role, one he cherishes, from the start.
“If you talk to people up here (in Oregon),” Scurran told the Star, “they’ll tell you we’re pass-happy.”
“We’ll be fun to watch, but in the situations we’ve been in, we’ve had to pass because that’s what you do against bigger, stronger teams. We’ve had to loosen them up and the only way to do that is with the passing game.”
Jeff Scurran’s Catalina Foothills players raise him on their shoulders chanting, “300! 300! 300!” celebrating his 300th career win last year (KVOA-TV video capture)
Facing a young Buena team, Scurran won his debut with CDO on Sept. 7, 1984. The Dorados won 24-12 in Sierra Vista, not with the pass but with a ground game that gained 224 yards on 50 carries, including 146 yards on 27 carries by Marty Silva.
Some 34 years later, and now at 306 career wins in his coaching career, Scurran, 71, may be on the sidelines for the last time in Tucson on Friday night. He has won an incredible 80.1 percent of his games overall, 84.9 percent of his games (233-41-1) as a high school coach in Tucson.
Here is a list of teams with the record at each head-coaching stop for Scurran (with research performed by AllSportsTucson.com):
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