No. 7 | |||||||||||
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Position: | Quarterback | ||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||
Born: | Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. | November 21, 1966||||||||||
Height: | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||||
Weight: | 210 lb (95 kg) | ||||||||||
Career information | |||||||||||
High school: | Phoenix (AZ) St. Mary's | ||||||||||
College: | Notre Dame | ||||||||||
Career history | |||||||||||
Career Arena statistics | |||||||||||
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Player stats at ArenaFan.com |
Steve Belles (born November 21, 1966) is a former American football quarterback with the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League (AFL). He subsequently became a high school football coach in Arizona, amassing five state championships at Hamilton High School in Chandler.
Belles attended St. Mary's High School in Phoenix, where in 1984 he won a state championship and was named Arizona High School Player of the Year. He played college football at the University of Notre Dame. [1]
After college he played one season with the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League. [2] He was also offensive coordinator of the Rattlers in 1993 and played in Europe for the Ravenna Chiefs in 1991. [1]
Belles has been a head coach at three Arizona high schools: Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale, Mountain Ridge High School in Glendale, and most recently Hamilton High School in Chandler. He was at Desert Mountain from 1995 to 2000 with a 26-25 record. [3] [4] At Mountain Ridge, where he was head coach from 2000 to 2006 with a 47-13 record, [4] his team advanced to the state finals in 2004 against his future team, Hamilton High School, losing 37–7. [5]
Belles became the head football coach at Hamilton in 2006 after John Wrenn left to become Arizona State University's running backs coach. [6] [7] He was instantly successful there with a 13–1 record, Fiesta Region Title, and an Arizona State Championship in his first season. [5] Belles amassed a 131–18 record as coach, including five State Championships at Hamilton, and Arizona's big school state record 53-game win streak. [8] During his tenure, Hamilton was ranked as high as fourth in the nation by the USA Today Super 25. [5] As a head coach, Belles has a 204–56 record.
As a result of a hazing scandal at Hamilton becoming public in 2017, Chandler Unified School District suspended Belles as coach before the start of the football season. [9] [10] He remained at the school as a teacher [11] [12] until September, when he was reassigned to the district offices, [13] and in December the head coach position was advertised with the Arizona Interscholastic Association. [14]
On June 25, 2018, Belles announced he would become an assistant coach at Juan Diego Catholic High School in Draper, Utah responsible for the quarterbacks and defensive back positions. [15]