Luke Lendler is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication student assigned to cover Tempe High School for AZPreps365.com.

Pull any person aside and ask them what environments most parallel coaching high school football offensive linemen, and one may be met with a wide range of responses. A sixth-grade classroom, though, is likely not one of them. 

Yet, in the eyes of Tempe High School offensive line coach, run-game coordinator and sixth-grade teacher Donnie Meador, the similarities between the two run deep.

“At the end of the day, they're all still kids,” Meador said. “They all need to be loved. Sometimes it's tough love, sometimes it's being a mentor. Basically, you are whatever that kid needs for that day. Either for my sixth graders or for [my high schoolers]. They might just need a friend, an uncle, somebody. It's all the same at the end of the day.”

Meador does not appear with the gruff or rough edge fitting of the stereotypical offensive line coach. Instead, the longest-tenured member of head coach Sean Freeman’s Tempe staff is quick to a smile and a laugh, while maintaining discipline and upholding a standard with his unit.

A member of the Buffaloes’ staff since 2018, Meador bore witness to the darkest years in the program’s recent history, a 1-24 stretch from 2020 to 2022. 

Yet, with much of the former staff departing the program upon Freeman’s 2022 hiring, the new head coach wanted Meador to stick around. Not only was Meador’s attitude a pillar of the culture Freeman was aiming to build, Tempe had rushed for over 1,000 yards in three of Meador’s four years in charge up to that point.

“Donnie is one of the best offensive line coaches I've ever had,” Freeman said. “How he is able to prepare his line on just what we're doing is amazing. He harps on it every day in film study. It’s why he's on the staff.”

Against Independence in 2025, Meador’s ground attack was instrumental to the Buffaloes tying the season-high for wins in the Freeman era, rumbling for 126 yards as a team while averaging 5.5 yards per carry, all behind the offensive line that Meador coaches every day in practice.

“You can see the impact he has on this team,” recruiting coordinator Phil Braxton said. “Guys want to play hard for him every week.”

A witness to a plethora of offensive line groups in his coaching career, Meador has garnered a particular appreciation for Tempe’s veteran-heavy unit this season after playing a key role in its development over the previous seasons.

“They have a sense of being, a sense of self,” Meador said. “Now they have an identity. That's like the biggest thing with this group of guys. They have identity and they want to be the top guys. They want to be like, ‘Yeah, we're the offensive line that did this.’”

Just as Meador grinds his way through every season, his middle schoolers are along for the ride, too.

“I sometimes use a coaching voice [in the classroom],” Meador said. “Or, I'll use some type of play philosophy, and these little kids will start to get it a little bit. Every week, [my sixth-graders] are like, ‘Coach, we got a game Friday, right? Coach, you guys gonna win?’ Then they look for the scores and stuff, so when I come back, ‘Coach, we saw you guys won.’ It's fun, they always want to hear all the football stories now about the high school kids.”