Gavin Shippen has been hired as the Sedona Red Rock High School boys’ varsity soccer head coach following the retirement of Sam Blom, who led the program for the last six years, including to second place in the state finals in 2022. The Scorpions took the field for their first official practice of the season with Shippen on the afternoon of Aug. 6.

“I was there during [Shippen’s] first interview,” Blom said. “He’s very excited about his new assignment and journey being the head coach. The timing was like perfect. He just happened to be moving to this area when, at the same time, we were looking for a coach to replace my position. He’s very passionate. He does — he just thinks this is a dream job … he can’t wait to get started.”

“Soccer doesn’t stop here [at school],” Shippen said of his coaching philosophy.

“Whether you go to college to play or not, many people play for years and years of their lives, whether it’s for money, or for good physical and mental health. Soccer has helped me stay healthy my whole life.”

Shippen graduated from Salpointe Catholic High School in Tucson in 2009, where he played soccer, a family tradition. His grandfather Edward Shippen started Yuma United, the town’s first soccer club, and his father Samuel and uncle Warren were both competitive players in their youth under Edward’s coaching during the 1970s and 1980s. 

Shippen’s route to Sedona was through New York City, where he met his fiance Delphine Jeong, a dentist in the Village of Oak Creek, at a convention in the spring of 2016.

“We stayed in touch and actually the first place that we hung out after meeting each other for the first time was in Sedona in February of 2020,” Shippen said. “[Jeong] is from Canada. She actually moved to Arizona with me about a year ago, and we were living in Phoenix. I’ve lived in Tucson, but I’ve always looked up to the higher elevation places like Sedona and Flagstaff, and knew that they were special places, and it was just always on my list. At the beginning of the year we decided to make the move.”

Shippen said his dislike of the Phoenix heat and desire for a tighter-knit community were the impetus for the move. He asked the high school if there were any soccer coaching positions open and was offered the head coach’s job on Jan. 26.

“I’m such a soccer guy, it’s in my blood,” Shippen said. “My motive was so I could find a soccer community to be able to participate and play in. And turns out that Coach Blom was retiring. It’s been one of my dreams to coach boys’ high school soccer. The reason being is I love the camaraderie of high school soccer. With club soccer, everyone’s from a different part of town. You only play together during practice times and games, whereas with high school, they’re in school together every day … there’s just a different level of camaraderie that high school soccer brings.”

Shippen received a bachelor’s degree in business and botany from the University of Arizona in 2014 and later worked for the Bureau of Land Management along the San Pedro River in southern Arizona through 2016 while also working on several business marketing websites, including OleMundo.com.

“We’re specializing in international soccer coverage, doing journalism and photography,” Shippen explained. “This summer, we actually covered the  Copa América, which was one of the bigger soccer tournaments in South America and North America. And I interviewed coach Gregg Berhalter and many USA soccer players, such as Timothy Weah, Josh Sargent, Antonee Robinson and many other big-time American players. In addition, we were interviewing players from Argentina, Costa Rica and many other countries.”

Shippen said his strategy for the season would be to focus on ball control, passing and possession.

“The teams that are in first place nine times out of 10 are the teams that are leading the league in possession,” Shippen said. “We get so wrapped up in seeing goals but we don’t really concentrate on what it took to get that goal. I’m sure, in all sports, the more you have the ball, the better your odds are of winning … that’s how you dominate.”

As for challenges for the season, Shippen named having only six players out of a roster of about 20 students after a large class graduated in the spring, fostering academic achievement in the classroom and working through a language barrier with several members of the team.

Blom also doubled as the middle school soccer coach, but the district has not yet decided whether Shippen will do the same.

“The middle school team, I haven’t officially taken the position,”  Shippen said. “However, I’m hoping if I don’t take the position [to] have someone close that will be in connection with me, so that we can keep that bridge between the middle and the high school. One of the things I want to do is have a senior player help out with the middle school guys. I know that they’ll look like superstars to middle schoolers.”

The Scorpions season home opener will take place Tuesday, Sept. 3, at 4 p.m. against Madison Highland, and tickets are free.