The Arizona Christian Firestorm football team is the intercollegiate football team of

Arizona Christian University Arizona Christian University is a private Christian university in Glendale, Arizona, United States. History Founded in 1960 as Southwestern Conservative Baptist Bible College, Arizona Christian University's original campus was located at ...

(ACU). The Firestorm are part of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for higher education, colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic schola ...

(NAIA). The Firestorm won the CSFL Championship in their first two seasons competing in the conference. The Firestorm won another two championships in the Sooner Athletic Conference in 2020/21 (split season because of COVID 19) and 2022. The team's motto is "Roll Storm."

History

Inaugural season (2014)

On September 14, 2013, Arizona Christian president

Len Munsil Len Munsil is an American attorney and the president of Arizona Christian University. He was the founding president for the Center for Arizona Policy, serving from 1996 to 2005. He was also the Republican Party's nominee in the 2006 Arizona g ...

announced that the team would begin play in the NAIA the following season. A national search was started for the team's first head coach, and received over 100 applicants. On December 19, 2013, the university announced that Donnie Yantis would be ACU's first head football coach. The team played a non-conference schedule during the season and ended up going 2–7 on the season.

CSFL champion (2015)

After starting 0–3 in non-conference play, the Firestorm won their next six games and capture the

Central States Football League The Central States Football League (CSFL) was a college athletic conference affiliated with the NAIA. Member institutions were located in Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas and Arizona and competed only in football. The conference was established in 200 ...

(CSFL) championship. The team surprised many, especially after starting so slow in non-conference play. The team finished the season ranked No. 22 in the nation, just missing out on the playoffs.

The Jeff Bowen era (2016–present)

After the 2015 season, Yantis took a job with

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is one of the largest ...

. Assistant head coach

Jeff Bowen Jeff Bowen (born August 30, 1971) is an American composer, lyricist and actor. He is best known as one of the authors and stars of the Broadway musical ''title of show, itle of show'. Bowen also wrote the music and lyrics to the musical, ' ...

was promoted to head coach of the program. The 2016 season showed similar results to the 2015 campaign, with the team finishing undefeated in conference play and 7–3 overall and winning their second consecutive CSFL championship. The team again finished the season ranked No. 22 in the nation. Punter Derek Brush became the first NAIA All-American in the program's history. In November 2016, the CSFL coaches named Gerrit Groenewold the Offensive Player of Year, Johnathon Parks as Newcomer of the Year, Brush as Special Teams Player of the Year, Bowen as Head Coach of the Year. Arizona Christian was one of the few schools to play a double season in the 2020-21 academic year, playing a non-conference schedule in fall 2020 and a conference schedule in spring 2021, after its conference postponed their season to spring due to the pandemic. Kicker Manny Higuera would earn national attention for his kicking work with the Firestorm and would later go professional as a member of the

Washington Wolfpack The Washington Wolfpack are a professional indoor football team based in Everett in the U.S. state of Washington. They were announced as one of the inaugural teams for the revived Arena Football League (AFL), beginning play in 2024. They are n ...

of Arena Football One.

Head coaching history

The Arizona Christian has had two head coaches.

Seasons

References

External links

* {{Frontier Conference football navbox American football teams established in 2014 2014 establishments in Arizona