North High introduces Bernie Busken as football coach

Since leaving Chandler Basha in the spring, Bernie Busken got his knee and shoulder worked on, looked into an athletic director's job in Oklahoma, considered an assistant coaching college position in California, and did a lot of yard work.

"My yard looks like it ought to be in a magazine," Busken said.

Busken will have a lot of grooming to do at Phoenix North after accepting the head football coaching position. The Phoenix Union High School District's governing board still has to sign off on it.

But Busken, who was 31-16 in four years at Basha, met with about 30 players Monday morning, asking them each to bring back two teammates on Tuesday.

"What we talked about is to try hard, do their best, whether at home with their mom and dad, in the weight room, in the classroom," Busken said. "They're saying, 'We're way behind. What can we do?'

"Well, you have to work hard. We have to get in here."

North made the biggest coaching splash of the summer, bringing in a three-time state championship coach with two weeks before the start of its first official practice for the 2014 season. Busken won 40 games in a row and three state championships during an 82-9 tenure at Mountain View that ended before the 2002 season.

He was a head coach at Western New Mexico University, before returning to the Valley to lead Basha more than four years ago.

Busken said he was open to listening to North Athletic Director Ray Pinto about the football coaching job, which was vacated during the spring when Bob Chappelle stepped down.

"I graduated from an inner-city high school (in Oklahoma City)," Busken said. "I took a head coaching job there for a year. It really means a lot to have somebody there for these kids. Prior to Mountain View, my thing was taking programs that were down and out and building them back up. You have a different set of expectations, a different kind of parent support. Often times, in these program, nobody has cared. It's kind of how I started. I've always been open to anything."

North didn't have June 7-on-7 passing games. Busken believes some of the June passing stuff is overrated.

North won two games last year – both against winless teams. North has had one winning season since Stuart Goldstein left in 2005. It went 6-5 in 2008 under Gary Cook.

North won a total of four games the past two seasons.

"I expect them to do their best -- that's it," Busken said.

Busken led Basha to the Division I state playoffs each of his four seasons.

He left Basha both as a coach and a teacher to take care of personal stuff, undergoing both knee and shoulder surgeries.

"I loved Basha, and I loved the kids," Busken said. "But I was worn out. I was spread too thin. I was doing too much, and I wasn't delegating enough. My shoulder was hurting. My knee was hurting. You're hearing, this kid is transferring, that kid is transferring."

Busken, who will have a teaching position at North, mainly being in charge of the weight room, said he has changed his coaching approach.

"I started praising really loud and correcting really soft," he said. "The kids nowadays respond to that. A lot of things have changed in 38 years, but they still want to have success, they still want to work hard, they still want to have discipline, even though they gripe about it."

Busken sees only possibilities at North, which went 20-4 a combined 2004 and 2005 under Goldstein, but has had only one winning season since then.

There is an IB program at the school. There is a small booster club, which Busken hopes to grow after meeting Tuesday night with parents.

Two of North's first three games are against defending Division I champion Phoenix Mountain Pointe and 2011 state champion Phoenix Desert Vista.

Busken will gradually build his staff. He said he has commitment from his former Mountain View High player Jon Sheaffer, who played baseball in the New York Yankees organization.

Busken has other coaches in mind, but he is waiting for them to commit. He is hoping retired coaches in the city would like to come out to help him rebuild North.

Busken, who led struggling programs in Oklahoma and New Mexico before he came to Mountain View in the 1990s, knows he is dealing with a different dynamic in the inner city. He said he will likely have practices before school to accommodate players who have to work after school.

"I want them to have a great experience," Busken said. "I told them, to me a champion is a kid who gives all he has. If you give all you have, if you don't make mistakes, you're going to be close. I'm excited but at the same time it's going to be tough."