Gaby D'Ariggo, left, and Sara Walker helped Catalina Foothills beat Sahuaro in the 4A Kino Regional championship game last week, helping the Falcons to a 22-0 mark.

Greg Bryan / Arizona Daily Star

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Charlie Kendrick has not amassed a 68-2-1 record at Catalina Foothills High School by relaxing.

So when his colleagues were enjoying a summer break last year, Kendrick, coach of the Falcons' 2005 girls state championship soccer team, was taking tips from the best.

Kendrick read "Training Soccer Champions" by Anson Dorrance, the legendary University of North Carolina women's coach.

Kendrick bought into the practice strategy Dorrance describes in the book, and the results have been staggering.

The Falcons will begin their run to a second consecutive state title on Wednesday boasting a 22-0 record, the Kino Region title and a No. 1 overall seed in the 4A-I bracket.

"Coaches are always looking for a way to motivate their teams, and this is something we're experimenting with," he said. "I've taken something from a lot of coaches."

Those who know Kendrick are not surprised with his drive to improve.

His teams have lost just two games — a first-round state playoff match and a heartbreaker to Salpointe Catholic — since he took over before the start of the 2003-04 season.

The Falcons went 22-0 in his first year before losing in the playoffs and finished the 2004-05 season with a 24-1-1 record and a 4A state championship.

This year's team, scary as it seems, could be better, thanks to Kendrick's practice system.

Kendrick starts most practices with a training session that includes a 12-minute run, a series of sprints called "suicides" and a handful of 120-yard dashes.

"We'd do that before practice," sophomore LeeAnn Felder said. "It's good to get it out of the way in the beginning."

Practice is not much easier.

Kendrick, like Dorrance, grades players on each drill and tracks their success with a scoring system in each scrimmage. At the end of each practice, he tallies the numbers and rates his players, 1 through 24.

The players receive a copy of their daily scores at the start of the following day's practice and receive weekly updates on where they stand on the season.

"That way, the kids know exactly where they stand," Kendrick said.

"It can be very easy to lose motivation to train the right way. We figure if we can create a competitive environment in training, we'll get better in games.

"We try to make practice as realistic as the game every single day."

Even scrimmages can get cutthroat, Felder said, with each player wanting to score points — literally — with the coaching staff. Kendrick said the constant jockeying for position among players has helped his team become the deepest in Southern Arizona.

The Falcons have rarely started the same 11 players all season.

"I tell the kids, 'I can look in every one of your faces and think of one time this season when you've changed a game or made an impact,'" Kendrick said. "The lineup changes every day."

In the end, though, the players find the competition fun. Sometimes, it's a welcome challenge after easy wins.

"I think it's tougher to play our own teammates than other people in games," Felder said.

"We know each other so well, want to beat each other more. We have fun, too. I think it's fun to be really into games and be emotional in practice."

That is exactly the way Kendrick wants them to play — by the book.

"I don't know if we expected to be as dominant as we were," Kendrick said. "But we set a goal to win a state championship and to be undefeated.

"I think this team has worked as hard as any team I've had."

Super sevens

● Rankings for boys, girls basketball / C3