Cesar Chavez athletic director fed up with football 'recruiting' in Twitter blast

Laveen Cesar Chavez Athletic Director Lenny Doerfler took to Twitter on Saturday after seeing that a Chandler Hamilton assistant football coach had reached out to a Chavez player in a direct message.

Doerfler put out a tweet late in the morning, saying in capitals, "STOP CONTACTING/RECRUITING CHAVEZ FOOTBALL PLAYERS."

Doerfler added in the same tweet, "There is absolutely no reason for a coach, player, parent, trainer or anyone else to reach out to one of our athletes online or in person. A few examples of what our athletes are receiving."

Doerfler, tagging Chavez head coach William Chipley, followed that up with screen shot of Hamilton defensive coordinator Tim Dougherty engaging in a direct message conversation on Twitter with the Chavez player. Doerfler blocked out the player's name and Twitter profile photo.

Chipley followed that tweet, tagging high school football media in the Valley, with his own tweet, saying, "This is very frustrating when u are working ur tail off to build a program the right way."

Chipley added this tweet:

Doerfler told The Republic on Saturday late afternoon in a direct message that he plans to place his concerns with the Arizona Interscholastic Association.

Doerfler also tweeted a screenshot of a conversation through direct message on Twitter of Desert Edge coach with a Chavez player in January. Chavez went to the AIA then, claiming it was a violation.

According to the AIA Executive Board minutes in February, the AIA found Desert Edge in violation and gave the school a one-year warning. In the screen-shot message, co-head coach Mark Carter replied to co-head coach Marcus Carter's son's message on whether he could give a player a ride to school if he enrolled at the school with "yup."

The Agua Fria district responded by reprimanding the coach for "failure to uphold AIA bylaw and district policy regarding student transport."

"Student transportation was and will continue to be a topic in all future coaches meetings," the school's corrective action stated.

There was a mass exodus of players at Cesar Chavez after the 2020 AIA season in which Chavez was left to just three games because the Phoenix Union High School District delayed the season and ended it after a few games because of COVID-19.

Chipley, who has been coaching in the community since Jim Rattay's days as head coach, tried piecing the program together in his first season as head coach in 2021.

Hamilton head coach Mike Zdebski was not at the final high school football 7-on-7, Big Man competition of June run by Chilly at Maricopa last week.

Zdebski said he asked defensive coordinator Tim Dougherty about the messages that Doerfler posted.

Dougherty said the Chavez player, who ended up being chosen the defensive lineman MVP, was overheard talking to Hamilton players about not being recruited by colleges during the competition. He said he was congratulating him because he didn't see him at the end of the competition when he was awarded the top honor.

"The kid is doing well, he got the D-line MVP, but he's down in the dumps, because he's beating these kids who have D-I scholarships, or even opportunities to other places and he doesn't have anything," Zdebski said. "So they got into a little dialogue. Tim is trying to pump him up. He was showing what Deuce Davis (The Republic's Defensive Player of the Year and Arizona signee) was able to do. He didn't have any early D-I scholarship offers.

"It's not worth it go out there and try to recruit kids. That would be one of the silliest things to do."

Later Saturday night, Chipley tweeted that he is for kids moving onto seek a better opportunity but that's not what is happening in this case.

"This is an attempt to lure and persuade," Chipley said in the tweet. "Defending against that shouldn't be part of my job description. I ride for my community."

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: Cesar Chavez AD fed up with football 'recruiting' in Twitter blast