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Brian Ward delivered water to Sun Devil Stadium before he became Arizona State DC

Dec 11, 2024, 10:38 AM

ASU defensive coordinator Brian Ward walks on the field before Arizona State's win against BYU on N...

ASU defensive coordinator Brian Ward walks on the field before Arizona State's win against BYU on Nov. 23, 2024, in Tempe, Arizona.(Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports)

(Jeremy Schnell/Arizona Sports)

Arizona State defensive coordinator Brian Ward’s family moved to the Phoenix area in middle school.

Like his current ASU boss, Kenny Dillingham, the jobs Ward held before becoming a high-profile football coach gave him a pretty good perspective about his current gig. The DC’s resume includes a brief boxing career and delivery jobs for The Arizona Republic and Arrowhead Water.

And if the path back to Tempe is not a full circle, then it’s a herky-jerky line that at least begins and ends at the same place: Mountain America Stadium’s north end zone.

“I used to deliver water for Arrowhead Water my first two years out of college,” Ward told Arizona Sports’ Bickley & Marotta. “I had a water route. I had Ahwatukee and I had the Tempe area. I remember like it was yesterday, me driving my truck up to the north end zone. It used to be an open end zone. There really wasn’t anything going on down low … just deliveries.

“I remember delivering about 50 bottles of water just right about under where my office is (today on the second floor). That was in 1998. That was just when I started coaching at Glendale Community College and … really just got into coaching. I remember just thinking to myself how cool it’d be to be at Arizona State and be a football coach here. I mean, 26 years later here I am and literally every day I come to work and I got to pinch myself.”

Brian Ward has some good stories about odd jobs before joining Arizona State

There is some time to reflect on his path back here because of the breather in the schedule for the Big 12 champion Sun Devils.

With the Peach Bowl in front of ASU, Ward is not yet done with his second season under another Valley-raised kid in Dillingham. That connection to the city makes it easier to appreciate his current post.

Ward has already received two extensions — one last November and one this past month — since he was pulled from Washington State to ASU before the 2023 season.

After playing at McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas, in 1997, Ward became DC there and returned to Glendale Community College in 1998, holding the water delivery job at the same time.

He jumped positions at smaller schools, returned to McPherson as head coach from 2007-09, then got his foot in the door as a defensive assistant at the FBS level. Ward made the leap at Bowling Green as interim head coach in 2015 and then ran defenses at Syracuse (2016-19), Nevada (2020-21) and WSU (2022).

With all due respect to his grind up the coaching ranks, his odd jobs are worthy talking points.

Before moving to Arizona, Ward’s father trained boxers in his basement, and the younger Ward remembers seeing the toll the sport took on those clients. But out of college, Ward joined a local Arizona gym to make a few extra bucks in fights.

After four months of training, he won his first fight at Graham Central Station on Indian School Road and 33rd Avenue — even though his opponent was 15 pounds heavier and out of Ward’s weight class.

He set up a second fight. Ward, who was seeking a master’s degree, just bought a house and had plans to keep coaching football, remembers asking his regular sparring partner what he wanted to do with his career.

“He goes, ‘Well, in a couple years, I’m going to fight (legendary boxer) Roy Jones. I’m going to beat Roy Jones and after that’s done, I’ll have a couple title defenses. I’m going to move back to Philadelphia, buy an apartment and live the rest of my life.’ I looked at him and he was dead serious,” Ward remembers.

“That taught me something. That dude was willing to burn the boats — like he had no other plans. My whole life flashed before me. … This is not a sport you play with.”

Ward didn’t show up to another boxing training session.

He has aother story about not showing up to one of his first jobs in the Valley.

Ward didn’t enjoy his job as a newspaper delivery boy and one morning opted out by tossing all of his Arizona Republics into a trash can.

“I think I was 12 or 13 years old at that time. I didn’t know up from down or sideways from frontwards or backwards,” Ward said. “It was a learning experience about what responsibility was. I will tell you, I just remember the look my dad gave me when my paper route manager came through and saw all those ads and papers in the garbage can, the recycle bin. Even to this day, I mean, I let my dad down.”

That’s one way to stop any bad press from reaching the masses.

He’s doing that pretty well in his current role nowadays. It’s easy when the Sun Devils keep winning.

“Being back here in Arizona has just been a blessing,” Ward said.

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Brian Ward delivered water to Sun Devil Stadium before he became Arizona State DC