High School Showcase: Chavez HC Derek Graves
Chavez HC Derek Graves joins the High School Showcase to discuss the Titans’ turnaround, three straight league titles and their playoff matchup with Del Oro.
Watch: High School Showcase: Chavez High HC Derek Graves | 10 mins
High school football season is in full swing, bringing Friday night games to schools all throughout the Sacramento region. With plenty of potential future NFL and collegiate talent, there’s plenty to watch locally.
Sactown Sports is expanding its coverage of the local high school football scene with the ‘Sactown Sports High School Showcase’, a weekly feature highlighting top teams, players, and matchups from around the area, brought to you by IBEW Local 340: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Each week, Sactown Sports’ The Drive Guys, with Whitey Gleason and Allen Stiles, will be joined by a reporter, coach, or another voice connected to the local football scene to get the latest insight.
Sactown Sports High School Showcase
For the latest edition of the High School Showcase, The Drive Guys were joined by Chavez High head football coach Derek Graves ahead of the Titans’ Division II playoff matchup with Del Oro.
Graves has overseen a major turnaround at his alma mater. Chavez finished 0-10 the season before he took over and has since won three consecutive league titles. For Graves, that change started by getting players to believe there was something worth building.
“Giving the young men something to look forward to, believing in them and having a vision and getting them to buy in,” Graves said. That belief has helped build a program identity that can adapt to the personnel in any given season.
Graves described their offense as one that can spread teams out with five receivers, shift into double-tight formations, and attack defenses in a variety of ways. But while the scheme can change, the culture behind it remains the constant.
Given his experience as a player, he knows firsthand how quickly belief can change a football program. He was part of Chavez’s first graduating class and recalled the Titans losing 82-0 to Franklin in a game early in the program.
There’s no better example of their growth than when Chavez got another opportunity against Franklin the following season and came away with a 35-28 win.
“We knew what was at stake and we knew we were gonna win,” Graves said.
His priorities include academics, physical development and, most importantly, being good enough to earn an opportunity before even discussing the potential of collegiate NIL.
Graves also addressed comments he has made on social media about the attention given to different programs throughout the area.
At the center of everything Chavez has built is a program-wide acronym: L.I.F.E.R.S. It stands for Little Things, Intensity, Family, Education/Effort, Response, and Success.
The message is meant to extend beyond Friday night, with Graves emphasizing that the habits high school players develop through football can carry into the rest of their lives.
That culture has helped take Chavez from a winless season to three consecutive league championships, one of the better recent turnaround stories in Northern California sports.
Now, the Titans will try to carry it into the postseason with one of their biggest tests yet against top-seeded Del Oro.
Listen to and watch Sactown Sports’ The Drive Guys with Kevin “Whitey” Gleason and Allen Stiles, airing weekdays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. PT on Sactown Sports.
More Editions of the Sactown Sports High School Showcase
- High School Showcase: Grant HC Carl Reed
- High School Showcase: McClatchy HC Quantrell Jackson Sr.
- High School Showcase: Roseville Starts Title Defense 2-0
- High School Showcase: De La Salle HC Justin Alumbaugh
- High School Showcase: T.J. Ewing Previews Monterey Trail
- High School Showcase: Joe Davidson Previews 2026 Season
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Disclosure: This article was transcribed from our original audio content and edited for readability with the assistance of generative AI. The article has been reviewed by our editorial team prior to publication. Please watch or listen to the clip above for the full segment.
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