Ethan Ignatovsky is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Brophy Prep for AZPreps365.com

 

It was a cool desert night near the southern edge of Phoenix, Arizona, the chilly winds blasting through the valley, proving that Phoenix might get a taste of fall weather after all. The wind chill could be felt down on the sidelines of Desert Vista High School, where the home Thunder tried to stop their opponents, the Brophy College Preparatory football team. Specifically, they were trying to stop one man, the leader of the opposing Broncos: Case Vanden Bosch. 

Case, the Broncos junior quarterback, started the scoring off on the first drive of the game with a 26-yard touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Devin Fitzgerald, closing out the first half score with a 14-yard keeper for a touchdown. 

With the wind and all other outside factors seemingly not bothering him, the Phoenix native led his team into halftime with a 42-0 lead, brought along in large part due to his two passing and two rushing touchdowns. 

Brophy Prep’s coaching staff decided to keep Case on the bench for most of the second half. He could have been bitter about not being able to build upon his first-half performance, but he was all smiles after what turned out to be a 51-10 victory on October 18. 

“It’s all about the team,” Case said on the field postgame. “I come out and do my job early, I think that was good, it allows my teammates to get in and get reps. If anything happens, we have our teammates getting that experience.”

Head coach Jason Jewell didn’t award Case with the starting job coming out of training camp. Instead, the young QB had to make the most of limited opportunities coming off the bench, put in hard work and simply wait. 

And when the opportunity finally arose for Case to make a major impact, he didn’t miss. 

It was the journey to get there though that showed the kind of person Case was just as much, if not more, than his performance at the premier position afterward. 

Case comes from a football family. His father, Kyle, played college football at the University of Nebraska before embarking on a professional career as a defensive end from 2001 until the completion of the 2012 NFL season. In his career, Kyle was a three-time Pro Bowler and a first-team All-Pro in 2007. 

Despite being in the NFL, Kyle said he never pushed Case, or his twin brother, Bastian, to play football. The twins would dabble in different sports growing up before football took over their lives. 

“They had different interests growing up,” Kyle said. “Case was more soccer, Bastian was more baseball. My biggest thing is I encouraged them to play a lot of sports early on, just to kind of figure out what they liked, what they were going to be good at and just support it.” 

Around the time the twins were in fourth and fifth grade, Kyle recalled that many of the boys’ friends were graduating from flag football into tackle. Although the twins wanted to follow suit, Kyle held off, keeping his kids in flag football for a few more years.

The injuries associated with tackle football, especially brain injuries like chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, as well as Kyle’s thoughts that kids' necks aren’t strong enough to hold up helmets when they’re that young, were two major contributing factors in the decision. 

“I'm worried about them as an adult, whenever their playing career is over, whether it be high school, college or further on. Knowing what I know and seeing what I saw.”

Despite sound logic, by the time seventh grade rolled around, Kyle couldn’t keep them out of tackle football anymore. 

“They were concerned about being behind everybody else, and they were behind for about two weeks, and then it didn't take long." 

Case always played quarterback but Bastian, who is now an outside linebacker on varsity, used to play wide receiver and tight end. 

When they both played on offense, it created more opportunities for them to get closer as Case threw to Bastian who would practice his routes and catching. 

Kyle noted that time helped their relationship as they worked together and not against each other, growing the relationship stronger over the years, even when Bastian switched to defense. 

While Kyle played a defensive position, he wanted his sons to find their own spots on the field and create a legacy of their own, to not be known just as “Kyle Vanden Bosch’s kids.” 

The positions they settled into reflects their personalities in their dad’s eyes.

“Bastian, he'll run through a brick wall and just wants to hit. (Case) goes through his thought processes a lot more. He likes the intellectual part of the game.” 

Bastian might have been the first one to embrace a more physical role on the field, Kyle recently noticed Case embracing a more physical role as he has become bigger, tougher and stronger, which Kyle said is the biggest change in his game since he started playing quarterback. 

For Case, having Kyle as a dad shows through his game at quarterback.

“My dad played D-end in the NFL and he (was) one of the most physical people in the league,” Case said, adding that quarterback can be a position where he stands in the pocket without having a physical aspect like other positions on the field.

"I think I’ve been able to bring physicality to that (position), which allows our offense to expand. They don’t know if I’m going to run the ball running down the middle, run it outside or throw the ball off course, give it to my teammates who can make plays at any time.”

The varsity quarterback position was open as Case entered his training camp his junior season after last year’s starting varsity quarterback Charlie McGinnis, graduated.  

Case came out of training camp without the starting job, starting the season as a backup and didn’t see much action early on in the season as Coach Jewell looked toward fellow junior Rylan Umphrey. 

Kyle recalled in the season opener on the road against Williams Field, Case was brought in on a fourth-and-1 late in the game and converted a long run that gave Brophy Prep a chance to win, which they went on to do 35-28. 

Many people would be under pressure if they were thrust into crucial situations where their future was potentially at stake. 

Case didn’t see the situation the way most people would.

“I didn't see it as pressure, I saw it as an opportunity,” Case said. “I saw it as an opportunity to show what I am and I didn't feel any pressure…All I had to do was perform and that’s what I did.” 

Still, opportunities didn’t come Case’s way often, at least to throw the ball. While he ran the ball a combined 19 times over the next two games, he threw it three times. 

That didn’t deter Case though. He kept pushing and avoided taking the easy way out. Something his father Kyle, the special teams coordinator for Brophy Prep, was very proud of. 

“I had several conversations with him,” Kyle said. “He wasn't playing and I offered him an opportunity to be on special teams, and he said, ‘No, I want to continue to compete, and I want to get better, and I want to earn the job.’ Even when it didn't look like he was going to get much of an opportunity, he just kept working and kept on gaining the trust of the coaches, gaining the trust of his teammates.” 

It was hard for Case to wait, but he knew his time would come. 

“I just realized that if that was where I was supposed to be, that was God’s path for me in that moment, then that’s where I had to be,” Case said. “I just knew that if I keep working and keep my head down and keep grinding, that I’ll eventually get to where I want to be. Everything’s temporary. One play can change the whole season. Anything can happen so I was always staying ready, always working and just knowing that my time would come.”

Eventually, Case got his big break. He had the opportunity to play in the fourth game of the season against Perry High School, and due to his contribution with his arm and with his legs - throwing for 99 yards on eight attempts and rushing for 104 yards on 18 carries - he helped his team win 24-20. 

With regular starting quarterback Rylan Umphrey held out of the next game against Notre Dame Prep due to an injury, Case was thrust into the starting role. 

It was the culmination of a hard process, something his father thinks was one of the hardest things for Case, calling it “his adversity.”

“One of the most valuable tools you can have is the ability to handle and deal with adversity,” Kyle said.  

Bastian has had a good deal of adversity, breaking his collarbone in seventh grade and then having the plate taken out his freshman year. 

“And then last year, he tore his labrum and then he had surgery in the offseason,” Kyle said. “He had a concussion, he had all these adversities, and you play the game of football long enough, you're A, gonna get hurt, and B, you're gonna deal with a lot of adversity.”

At the time, Case was just coming up through youth football, always the quarterback, and never really had to deal with adversity, Kyle said.

“I didn't know how he would respond to it. Not winning the starting job early in the year, sitting on the bench a lot, having to watch his teammates, that was his adversity. I'm proud of how he dealt with it, because I think that's something a lot of teenagers, boys, girls, in general, struggle with today is just dealing with adversity and having the right attitude when faced with it.”

Case’s performance in the September 27 Notre Dame Prep game helped lead the Broncos to a 40-0 victory, throwing for 227 yards and connecting junior wide receiver Devin Fitzgerald for a touchdown while also rushing for 117 yards and two touchdowns. 

Coach Jewell said he liked what he saw in the performance. 

“We already knew that he ran the ball really well,” Jewell said a few days after the game. “I was pretty happy with our productivity on offense through the air. We had some big, explosive plays through the air. I was happy to see that happen because we do have some dynamic receivers that need to get the ball as well.” 

Case’s performance in his next game against Basha earned four touchdowns, but his Broncos fell 35-32. 

What could be considered his true coming out party happened two weeks after Brophy Prep’s bye week. 

That’s the night when Case contributed four touchdowns to his team in just one half of play against Desert Vista. 

Umphrey started being reintroduced into the fold during that game as well, giving Jewell the great problem of two effective quarterbacks. 

Case’s mom, Lindsey Vanden Bosch, watched her son grow up not only as a kid but as a quarterback as well. She believed in Case all the way. 

“I never worried about him or I never doubted him because it’s ingrained in him,” Lindsey said. “He was built to be a leader; he was built to be able to take on pressure. He doesn’t pout. He’s never been a whiner. He’s never been a pouter. He’s always been a problem-solver. His whole life.”

She thought back to when Case was in elementary school. If something was wrong, he would stand back quietly and formulate a solution to the problem. 

She always saw the leader in him. A kid who, off the field, was a class president from kindergarten through junior high school. A kid who is a straight-A student on track to be a speaker at graduation. 

“(Case) a lot of time has been the quietest, but then when you look back, he’s the one who let everyone react and then came in and did it all. He’s always been the silent leader.” 

Being a leader is what Case enjoys the most, and despite it being an area his mom always saw within him, it’s where his brother Bastian has seen him grow the most. 

“I’ve kind of just seen him step into this role of this leader on varsity,” Bastian said, adding that he couldn’t be more proud of him. 

“He’s definitely the leader of the offense, and I like to think of myself as a leader of the defense. Just seeing him grow in life has just been a great thing to watch. I’d say we’re probably the closest people with each other so we talk about everything. Just seeing him grow as a person and become the person he is, it’s a good thing to see.”

 

Case is taking things one step at a time with goals to play in college down the road but he still has things to accomplish at Brophy Prep. 

“It's getting better each practice, taking it practice by practice, and ultimately winning the open,” Case said. “We have so much talent on this team, I think it'd be wasted if we don't go win an open division championship.”

Coach Jewell says Case has the makeup of a college player who has a lot of traits he admires and refers to him as a Tim Tebow-like player since he can do many things on the field. Jewell knows Case wants to play college football and at what level depends on further development. 

“I'm an offensive line coach so I'm not a quarterback coach by trade,” Jewell said. “What I see, and Case and I have talked about it, too, I’d like to see his delivery and decision-making being able to speed that up a little bit. I think that's probably area number one where he could improve.” 

Jewell says he has no doubt that a hard-working Case can improve in those areas. 

It’s also not just all football for Case. 

“Just being a leader everywhere I go,” Case said. “Being smart with my studies, creating great friendships, all that.”

 

Wanting to become a quarterback that Coach Jewell could rely on required a lot of hard work to get there. So far, it’s proven to have worked out both for the team and the player. It was a personal goal for Case to become the starting quarterback, but it was with the team in mind. When he started getting more playing time, he had the team, not himself, on his mind. 

“I just wanted to provide for my team and my coaches,” Case said. “I'm playing for my team, and showing them all that all this work that we've done together pays off and them starting me gave me the opportunity to show that we're the best team in the state and that I can lead this team to an open championship.”

Note: Since this article was written, Brophy Prep failed to qualify for the open. The Broncos are currently fighting for the 6A title where they are the No. 1 seed. Case will have another shot at the open next year in his senior season.