Once a star on the field, now a leader of the program where his football journey began.
Head Defensive Coordinator Chase Petersen has been at Prosper High School much longer than most. He went from playing football from 2007 to 2009 at PHS, to a lead coaching role in the same program.
“Not much has changed from the coaching philosophy since I played at Prosper,” Petersen said. “We still hold the standard of excellence and always doing the best that you can.”
Petersen has worked his way up from coaching at Reynolds Middle School to being the Head Defensive Coordinator at PHS.
“He was a middle school coach when I first got here,” Head Coach Tyler Moore said. “Coach Pete moved his way up to be a freshman coach on our staff, to head freshman coach, to safeties, now he’s the head of our defense.”
Petersen makes it a point to form strong bonds with his players, whether it be during practices or position dinners that he hosts with his family.
“Coach Pete is always trying to get closer with his players,” Moore said. “It really helps all of them, on and off of the field.”
At Prosper, anything short of your best is unacceptable in the eyes of coaches, there is no difference when it comes to Petersen.
“Coach Pete is always very intentional with how he treats his players and their time,” coach Devereaux said. “He always expects the best from them”
The expectation of excellence hasn’t changed at all since Petersen played for prosper.
“I think Prosper has always been a place that wants its best for its students and its athletes,” Petersen said. “It strives for the best for the Students and athletes.”
“One of the biggest things that has changed since I’ve played is for sure the amount of people,” Petersen said. “My graduating class was 160 to 165 people, and now we have these classes of more than 800 people. So that’s obviously a really big thing.”
Having that many people in one graduating class can be overwhelming, especially when a good amount of them are in the football program.
“Coach Pete is really good about that specific player development,” Moore said. “We have changed our sprint program three or four times over the years that Petersen has been here and a lot of that is a result of the time and research that he’s put into that. He’s really our forefront of how we progress our athletes.”
Petersen tries his best to work with everyone that wants to be better. He spends the majority of his time with his position group, but won’t hesitate to spend time with a player one on one if needed.
“I always want to spend time with anyone who really wants to improve,” Petersen said. “If someone comes to me asking for help then I’m going to do what I can to help them, because that’s what all of my coaches did for me.”
During Petersen’s time as a player at PHS, the football team made it all the way to state, and ended up winning.
“Well, there’s a lot of really good memories as a player, for sure,” Petersen said. “But I mean, anytime you win a state championship or anything like that, it’s really hard to beat that. I kind of have two moments in particular. During the semifinal game, the game that decides if we go to state or not, it goes to, it goes to double overtime. We won it with a two point conversion so it was really kind of like a Friday Night Lights type deal. So, you know, it’s really kind of the pinnacle. And our running back, who I’m probably closest with on the team to this day, he kind of tackles me after the game, he gives me a big hug and just starts yelling, we’re going to state!”
A win like that is something that most players will never forget, and to be able to share that moment with teammates that you’ve gotten so close with is really something special.
“My favorite thing as a coach is one hundred percent watching someone work and work for something and finally seeing them get it,” Petersen said. “I can really see it on their face when they know that they’ve finally achieved that one something, and that’s forever going to be my favorite part of coaching, because you get to see the progress, you get to see all of the hard work that these kids have put in. That’s what makes coaching worth it.”
