For Chase Brewer, his senior season has turned out nothing like he might have expected after a disappointing junior year in which he found it difficult to get opportunities. It has, however, turned out as he hoped. A summer and fall of hard work has paid off in a big way for the lanky, 6-foot-4 right-hander. At last, in the words of Chaparral Coach Jerry Dawson, the levers and long arms are working.
“It’s always been there,” says the coach. “Chase just had to figure out how to put it all together.”
Riddle solved, you might say, and, as a result, most close observers of the Arizona high school baseball scene like the chances for the Firebirds in the state Class 4A playoffs, which begin today and continue through the week. Chaparral, the No. 1 seed at 22-6 and with another Desert Sky Region championship in hand (the 16th in a row for the Firebirds), faces No. 16 Agua Fria at Scottsdale Stadium. Danny Coulombe will be on the mound, and conventional wisdom ways that with USC-bound Coulombe in true form, Chaparral’s chances are nearly a sure thing.
While Coulombe might be the ace, Brewer is the ace in the hole. He has provided the Firebirds with a No. 2 pitcher who can go out against any team and get the job done. He has indeed put it all together, as reflected by a 7-1 record with a 2.06 earned run average and just 38 hits allowed in 48 innings pitched. But the numbers don’t come close to telling the whole story. It’s the inner quality of Brewer’s performance that has made the real difference.
Three times, Brewer has come up against teams ranked at or near the top of the state or national polls and three times he has been in command throughout. He beat Tucson Catalina Foothills, 2-1, on a 5-hitter, he shutout 5A power Mountain Pointe and he held Sandra Day O’Connor scoreless through four innings before Chaparral finally won in extra innings. The Foothills game was particularly impressive. He won with just 72 pitches in seven innings and had three-pitch and four-pitch innings in a remarkable display of efficiency and effectiveness. “I had it going that day,” says Brewer.
“He has been a difference-maker, and we needed that,” says Dawson, who is expected to give Brewer the starting job if Chaparral advances to the second round on Tuesday. Brewer would face the winner of No. 8 Prescott and No. 9 Tucson Sahuaro in what is guaranteed to be a tough game.
Brewer, who has earned a spot on the pitching staff next year at UCLA (where he will join older brother Charles), has sacrificed to get where he is today. He changed his mental approach, he hit the gym hard on a regular basis, he played a challenging schedule in the summer and the fall and he gave up basketball, a sport he loves. “That was really tough,” says Brewer, a hardwood starter for Chaparral as a sophomore and junior. “But I realized that I was never going anywhere in basketball. I’m just not big enough. What I know is that I am a pitcher.”
That realization makes it much easier for Brewer, a competitor through and through, to accept the fact that as a pitcher, he was not going to get at bats for the Firebirds this season. “I love to hit,” he says, “but I am not the greatest hitter. Pitching is what I do and it is where my future is.”
In addition to the hard work, Brewer explains that his improvement is the product of some important advice and instruction he received from Charles, who has emerged as UCLA’s top pitcher after an All-State career at Chaparral. Charles instilled in Chase the understanding that the pitcher is in control and if he hits his spots and gets ahead in the count then hitters often find themselves all but helpless. That knowledge, combined with a changeup that has been turned into a killer pitch and a fastball that can hit 88, has made Brewer a pitcher who if he continues his performance could hold the key to Chaparral’s eighth state championship. After his difficulties of last year, Brewer would not have it any other way. He’ll get his chance after the Firebirds advance today.

Notes: Ryan Scott, Chaparral’s senior catcher, will play baseball next year at the University of Southern Nevada, an opportunity he has earned as a result of a top-level performance through the fall and into this season. Dawson, as usual, is uncertain of Chaparral’s playoff hopes. He is not certain where his club is at mentally, although he acknowledges the physical ability is there to go all the way. He believes that Cactus, Catalina Foothills, Sandra Day O’Connor, Apollo, and Tucson Sabino and Canyon Del Oro all have a legitimate chance. He also expects some surprising first-round results today. If the seeds hold, Chaparral would face No. 4 Cactus in the semifinals and the winner of No. 2 Sabino and No. 3 O’Connor in the championship.

The Chaparral Junior Varsity team won twice this week against Apache Junction to complete a perfect 19-0 season, which according to inside reports is the first undefeated JV season in Chaparral’s distinguished history. Congratulations to Coach Ted Anderson and his players