La Joya Community football rebuilding with 81-year-old DC Bob Burt commanding the field

Bob Burt is the first coach to arrive at Avondale La Joya Community's football field on Thursday evening.

He shouts out for a long snapper to work on special teams with the punters.

Burt, at age 81, still commands the room and the field, getting everybody's attention.

After undergoing major back surgery in late June, putting four screws in his back. He was back coaching a month later. He was finally able to ditch the cane last week, now able to get around from station to station.

"I'm fine," he said. "It's not about me. It's about the kids."

Burt is part of new coach Adam Beene's staff. Actually, a big part. He's the defensive coordinator.

"He was my defensive coordinator one year at North Canyon and thought he was going to retire," Beene said.

That didn't last long.

Burt was back on the sidelines last season at Buckeye Verrado, serving as defensive coordinator on a 7-4 team that lost to Vail Cienega in the first round of the 5A playoffs.

When he found out Beene was leaving North Canyon and was taking the La Joya job, Burt jumped back in the mix with Beene.

It's a big rebuild job.

La Joya, a 5A Conference team, went 0-10 last year after having the 2020 season taken away by COVID-19 when the Tolleson Union High School District electing not to play fall sports.

Last year's team gave up 477 points, so Burt has work to do.

"These kids are so hungry, and they're so coachable," Burt said. "They're really good kids."

Burt has been coaching football since 1962, starting in the high school ranks in California at St. Paul working as an assistant under Marijon Ancich, who ended up being known as the John Wooden of high school coaches in California with three CIF championships and 19 league titles.

Burt's first head coaching job came in 1966 at Pater Noster in Los Angeles, before serving as head coach at Santiago High from 1969-74. He joined Terry Donahue's staff at UCLA in 1975 as the defensive line coach.

When Dick Tomey was hired to lead Hawaii a couple of years later, Burt joined him to be his DC for three years.

He became the head coach at Cal State-Northridge in 1986, going 8-3 his first season. His quarterback in 1991 was Sherdrick Bonner, a basketball player, volleyball player and a high jumper on the college's track and field team. Bonner ended up having his number 13 raised in the rafters at Footprint Center as one of the all-time greatest Arizona Rattlers, leading them to their first Arena Football League championship in 1994.

"He went out without practice in the spring and high jumped 7 feet," Burt said. "That's the kind of athlete he was. I don't know how he didn't get in the NFL."

When Burt sent his defensive backs coach to scout a 6-foot-4 defensive back in Azusa, California, the young coach came back excited, saying, "I've got the film."

"What film?" Burt asked.

Film of Bonner playing quarterback. It was the first time he had played quarterback and shredded the defense.

"I made Sherdrick a quarterback," Burt said. "We got him because I let him play volleyball, basketball, track.

When Burt left college in 1995, he led Temescal Canyon High School in California to a league championship. In 2016, he was inducted into the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Hall of Fame.

He moved to the Valley about five years ago, knowing he didn't want to be a head coach again. He ran the defense at Shadow Mountain, before joining Beene at North Canyon for one year.

When North Canyon shut out a school in California early in the 2018 season with Burt as the DC, he said the kids cried. It was one of two wins for the team.

"I just love working with kids," Burt said. "We're hard on them. But it's not negative. It's never negative. The kids feel good about what they're doing."

The players aren't stuck in the past. They feel like they've been given a new lease on football this year under a new regime.

It was enough for senior linebacker/H-back Mykell Swanson to return to football after not playing the last two years. He transferred from Glendale Apollo after his freshman year.

"The coach is really positive," Swanson said. "It's a good learning experience."

Senior two-way lineman Juan Martinez doesn't think the program was gutted by not having a 2020 season, although several players that year left for schools that were playing football.

"The kids just needed more experience," Martinez said. "That's what we've got this year."

Martinez said that Burt has everybody's respect.

"He has your attention," he said.

Burt was featured by the American Football Coaches Association in "Power of Influence," which is done annually on one high school coach in the nation.

That's a huge honor for Burt, who has the same passion to help kids as he did as a young coach in the 1960s.

His body, he said, is telling him this year will probably be his last year coaching.

The landscapes have changed. But it's still football. It's still teaching. It's still fun.

"We've got enough here," Burt said. "If we stay healthy, I think we'll be OK. I don't know what that means. But I love it."

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter @azc_obert.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: La Joya Community football rebuilding with aid of 81-year-old DC