Jake Allen new football coach at Sahuarita

Jake Allen was officially hired Thursday by the Sahuarita School District as the new head football coach at Sahuarita.

Allen, who recently resigned his position at Pueblo after leading the Warriors for four years, takes over a program that went 3-26 in three years under previous coach Jake Price.

Pueblo went 13-17 in Allen’s tenure, including a 6-4 record in 2022.

Very excited to announce I’ll be the head football coach at Sahuarita High School. Time to get to work! pic.twitter.com/3v0rJafRAI

— Jake Allen (@Coach_J_Allen) January 4, 2024

“Their admin has a huge plan to pour resources into football,” Allen commented of Sahuarita. “That community is starving for a winning program. Sometimes you gotta bet on yourself and my gut says we can build there.

“There’s a lot of work to do. We will have a high ceiling.”

Allen and Price come from the Gary Minor/Matt Johnson coaching tree at Ironwood Ridge and Mountain View.

Johnson coached Ironwood Ridge to the 2012 state championship with Allen, a Nighthawk alum, on his staff.

Sahuarita has competed in the 4A Gila the last two seasons after previously being in the 3A South.

The program was slated to return to the 3A level before last season but the school successfully petitioned the AIA to remain in 4A because of the amount of travel involved in the 3A South with schools in the upper northwest side (Pusch Ridge) and northeast side (Sabino) of Tucson and distant stops at Safford, Thatcher and Morenci.

The 4A Gila last season was comprised of Amphi, Sahuarita, Empire, Douglas, Rio Rico and Rincon/University.

The region will have at least three new coaches next season with Allen now at Sahuarita, Jeff Scurran resigning from Rio Rico and Khyree Copeland resigning from Rincon/University.

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