Terry Seward is one of the most innovative coaches to lead players and teams in the history of high school football in Southern Arizona.
Seward, who hails from near Kansas City, Mo., coached for more than 30 years at Sunnyside as an assistant and head coach. He served as a defensive coordinator under Paul Petty and Richard Sanchez and advanced to the state tournament in six of his seven years as head coach from 1982-88.
He was known to change defenses from game to game to adjust to the opponent. He also was a master of putting his players in the right position at different parts of the game to get the most out of their ability.
legendary Sunnyside football coach @SSBDFootball @SunnysideHS @SHSDevilSports Terry Seward is in the Lions Den with @MtnLionFootball Matt Johnson and @AllSportsTucson pic.twitter.com/8BWN4TQHCv
— Andy Morales (@AndyMorales8) July 26, 2021
His teams included legendary players such as Harry Holt, Sam Giangardella, David Adams, Fred Sims, Jerry Beasley, George Duarte, Bobby Valdez, Glenn Posey and Philo Sanchez.
One of the many interesting stories Seward mentioned during the podcast was his background of being a PE teacher at Elvira Elementary School when Adams was a second grader. Adams helped him as a teacher’s aide at such a young age. Seward showcased Adams’ athleticism as a young age by having his classmates try to catch Adams in drills to no avail.
Adams went on to be an All-Pac-10 running back at Arizona.
Seward’s interview is the third in a series of interviews with local coaching legends co-hosted by Mountain View coach Matt Johnson, who came up with the idea. . Longtime Amphi defensive coordinator Ed Roman and Pueblo coach Saturnino “Curly” Santa Cruz were interviewed earlier. You can access the interviews in the following player:
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District
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