Jerry Dawson enters his 13th season in 2023 as the pitching coach for the Roughriders staff after serving as the head baseball coach at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona, for 37 years. At the time of his retirement, Dawson owned the most high school career baseball victories in the state of Arizona with 774. His teams enjoyed tremendous success over the years, qualifying for post season play 34 of the 36 years of the varsity program’s existence.
In 2019, the pitching staff saw one of its pitchers, Matt Novis, garner All-Conference honors. Six of Coach Dawson’s 2020 sophomore pitchers moved on to NCAA D1 programs. The Riders’ staff has enjoyed much success over the years to include Houston Astros pitcher and 2017 World Series Champion, Kenny Giles. Giles was taken in the 7th round of the 2011 MLB draft and rose quickly through the minor leagues to make his major league debut in 2014 and is currently playing for the Mariners. Through Dawson’s tutelage, Giles ended the 2011 season as one of the nation’s premier Junior College arms and boasted a 100 mph fastball, 1.20 era and averaged 2 strikeouts per inning. Also notable are former Roughrider hurlers’ Chance Adams (Kansas City Royals - MLB debut in 2018) and Jojo Romero (Philadelphia Phillies – MLB debut in 2020) who continue to succeed at the professional level.
Pitchers taken in the MLB draft under Dawson, include Jojo Romero (4th round, Phillies), Chance Adams (5th round, Yankees), Chandler Eden (17th round, Blue Jays), Matt Southard (28th round, Phillies), Avery Weems (6th round, White Sox), Andrew Walters (FA Sign, Astros) and Andrew Gross, (35th round, Marlins). He has also been a part of sending 30+ pitchers to the Division-I level through his 13 years at YC.
During his time at Chaparral, the baseball program elevated itself into the upper echelon of Arizona high school baseball and was recognized nationally, claiming 8 state championships – four of those teams became nationally-ranked. Coach Dawson was the only Head Coach in the history of the program, prior to his retirement, which produced over 160 graduates who continued their baseball careers at the college or professional levels, to include seven current or former Major Leaguers. Most notable are Paul Konerko (Chicago White Sox), Brian Bannister (Kansas City Royals) and Ike Davis (Oakland Athletics). During his tenure at Chaparral, he coached teams that won or tied for 24 Region Championships and finished state runner-up on four occasions, in addition to the eight state
championships.
Coach Dawson was named the National High School Coach of the Year on 5 occasions and has been elected to six Halls of Fame's, to include the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame in 2014; at the time of his induction was the only high school coach in any sport ever to be so honored. Dawson taught Physical Education at Chaparral for 30+ years, served as the Physical Education Department Chairman for 25+ years and school’s Athletic Director for 20+ years before retiring from teaching in 2004.
Dawson served as an assistant coach on the USA Baseball Junior National team staff in 2004, which competed in the World Games in Taipei. He also served as the Head Coach of the Junior National team in 2005 when it competed in the Pan Am games in Mexico, winning the silver medal.
Jerry has a B. A. in Education from Missouri State University and a M. A. in Education from Arizona State University. He served as a Military Police Officer in the United States Army including a tour of duty on the Republic of Vietnam.
