PAYSON, Ariz. — After a latest Arizona State follow, coach Kenny Dillingham offered a short rundown of his favourite pictures. He first talked about his wedding ceremony photograph. Which, after all. The No. 1 draft choose of pictures for any married man. The second concerned the start of Dillingham’s son, Kent. Once more. No brainer.
The third photograph Dillingham listed was of final season’s Arizona State soccer crew (atop this story). It had nothing to do with the Large 12 title or Faculty Soccer Playoff. As an alternative, it came about right here, at Camp Tontozona, a mountainous retreat the place the Solar Devils have practiced for a brief preseason stretch for a lot of the previous six many years.
On the final day of Arizona State’s go to, not lengthy after ending a crew scrimmage in entrance of some thousand followers, the Solar Devils assembled on the sector. The pines appeared to the touch the blue sky behind them. Then-star operating again Cam Skattebo struck a pose in entrance.
“It’s simply, it’s so old fashioned,” Dillingham mentioned of the photograph this week after Arizona State completed its first of 4 practices right here. “Half these youngsters haven’t been within the woods. Half of them haven’t climbed a mountain. We’re at a camp that … I imply, in all probability must be condemned. That’s a joke, clearly. However the services haven’t been actually touched in a very long time, which is superior.
“After which that photograph — it’s particular, it’s distinctive, it’s old fashioned, it’s household, it’s every part proper with faculty soccer.”
Program legend Frank Kush began the Tontozona custom within the late Fifties. The intent was to journey north and get out of the desert warmth for some time. Grind by way of two-a-days, bond among the many pines, sleep in cabins, keep away from something toxic, and, after all, survive.
This system has made upgrades over time. Transportable showers have been introduced in. A makeshift weight room. Synthetic turf changed a grass discipline that was a swamp anytime it rained.
However principally, Camp Tontozona is a spot frozen in time.
The one factor that has modified this summer season is the crew.
“Yeah, final 12 months we didn’t know we had been going to return out and do what we did,” senior sort out Max Iheanachor mentioned.
Because the Solar Devils posed for final 12 months’s crew photograph, they had been a group of misfits. Or at the very least that’s how everybody noticed them. A crew picked to complete final within the Large 12. A crew anticipated to problem for a lower-level bowl sport and little else. Then Arizona State pulled off probably the most shocking run at school historical past, ending 11-3 and shedding to Texas in an exciting CFP quarterfinal contest. This season, the Solar Devils are No. 11 within the US LBM Coaches preseason ballot, their highest preseason rating since 1998. Their party-crashing days are behind them.
This week offered an ideal alternative to replicate. The place the Solar Devils had been twelve months in the past and the place they’re now. However it is a dialog for which the affable Dillingham has little use. Like many coaches, he prefers to cut back a season into the smallest elements — a day, a follow, a second. Stack them like Lincoln Logs and see what you’ve obtained at season’s finish. “The groups that try this the most effective win,” he mentioned.
Simply hits completely different out right here. #ForksUp /// #CampTontozona pic.twitter.com/Tjj81LCeYy
— Solar Satan Soccer (@ASUFootball) August 7, 2025
Others allowed themselves a second. The evening earlier than Arizona State’s first Tontozona follow, third-year quarterback Sam Leavitt walked right down to the sector to stretch. It was darkish, not fairly a full moon. “Not a lot gentle air pollution,” mentioned Leavitt, including that the surroundings reminded him of Oregon, the place he performed highschool ball.
A 12 months in the past, Leavitt, a switch from Michigan State, had not even received the beginning quarterback job. Arizona State followers knew his identify however little else. They’d but to acknowledge his expertise and perceive his drive. Then the season began, and Leavitt grew every week. By season’s finish, he was thought-about one of many extra promising quarterbacks within the sport. In three weeks towards Northern Arizona, he’ll take the sector as a Heisman Trophy candidate.
“Positively completely different,” Leavitt mentioned.
Arizona State misplaced Skattebo, a first-team All-American who went to the New York Giants within the fourth spherical of the NFL Draft, however most everybody else is again. Receiver Jordyn Tyson, who missed final season’s Large 12 title sport and the CFP with a collarbone damage, must be among the many nation’s prime playmakers. Junior Kyson Brown and Military switch Kanye Udoh are in line to interchange Skattebo. 4 starters on the offensive line return. Practically your entire protection does, too, 11 of Arizona State’s prime 13 tacklers, together with defensive sort out C.J. Fite and security Xavion Alford, each preseason All-Large 12 picks.
This can be a crew constructed to contend, however the Solar Devils are usually not alone. Final season, seven Large 12 groups completed inside a sport of one another on the prime of the convention. 5 will start this season ranked within the coaches’ ballot. Utah, coming off its first shedding season in additional than a decade, probably will bounce again.
Head coach Kenny Dillingham begins his third season with excessive expectations. The Solar Devils are No. 11 within the preseason coaches’ ballot. (Austin McAfee / Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos)
Arizona State has a good schedule with seven house video games, however the street contests towards Mississippi State, Baylor, Utah, Iowa State and Colorado received’t be simple. Final season, the Solar Devils discovered methods to win, and at occasions they may have been fortunate. They had been 5-0 in video games determined by seven factors or much less. They rallied from behind to beat Texas State, Kansas and UCF, peaking late within the season when video games mattered most.
“That’s the character of this league, simply profitable these tight video games,” Dillingham mentioned.
How does a crew achieve this? It stays poised, Dillingham mentioned. How does a crew stay poised? It builds belief. Dillingham says he believes that within the largest moments, the closest crew wins. And that’s the aim of Tontozona.
“The catalyst to having the success we had (final season) in a whole lot of methods was the flexibility to attach with one another out right here,” offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo mentioned. “Spending time with one another taking part in video games and being sore and never sleeping properly and being soiled and taking hikes and bleeding from falling down on rocks and sharing one another’s tales. I believe there’s an enormous piece of the material and the DNA and the tradition and crew and the household and the enterprise that goes again to the basics to attending to know one another and constructing belief.”
It’s a distinct type of grind.
“The challenges of those services are arduous, (however) it’s a distinct arduous,” Dillingham mentioned. “We’ve a 340-pounder sleeping on a single mattress on a one-spring mattress up prime falling down at evening as a result of he has to go to the toilet. And waking everyone up, stumbling over the particular person on the bottom, after which they scream and 40 folks get up. Whether or not that occurred or not, I don’t know. I simply made that story up. Nevertheless it sounds actual, proper?”
Leavitt mentioned this place has a distinct vibe, particularly underneath the celebs. The identical could be mentioned about these Solar Devils. Final season’s crew began gradual and improved, constructing almost each week. This season’s crew has a distinct stage of maturity and confidence. At a spot the place almost every part stays the identical, the place the rustling heard within the close by woods may very well be a javelina or bear, nothing stands out extra.
(Prime photograph of final 12 months’s Solar Devils at Camp Tontozona: Courtesy of Solar Satan Soccer)
