Mere hours after getting his first Division I scholarship offer, Cody McDavis thought his high school career was over.
Emotions ran the gamut for the Pinnacle senior power forward on Jan. 27 when he received an offer from UC-Davis in the afternoon, then suffered an ankle injury that night against Sandra Day O’Connor.
The initial worry was a dislocated or broken ankle, which would have cut McDavis’ season short.
“I thought my season was over, no doubt,” McDavis said. “There wasn’t even a question about it.”
However, good news came when he reached …

Former Mesquite defensive coordinator Leland Rodgers was hired as the Gilbert football coach recently, and he brought along all of the defensive staff from the Wildcats.
That and other attrition left Mesquite coach Matt Gracey with only one assistant coach remaining, but he filled the void by hiring former Gilbert defensive coordinator Stacy Garner to the same position at Mesquite. Garner brought defensive line coaches Rick Dunn and Steve Lane, linebackers coach Charlie Keenhold and defensive backs coach Danny Gile with him from the Tigers.
The cross-town foes faced off last season, …

The power points results from the first round of the basketball sectionals are in, and as expected, a flaw in the formula has reared its head.
The Chaparral boys basketball team lost to Desert Vista in the first round of the Division I, Section III tournament, but still passed idle teams Cienega and Perry.
Horizon girls basketball lost in the first round of its sectional tournament and jumped up two spots to No. 24 in the Division I standings.
Thunderbird and Desert Edge were neck-and-neck in Division II boys basketball, but Thunderbird lost …

Brian Bolitho, the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s director of business media, responded to the Tribune’s claims that there could be a flaw in the power points system with a guest blog post on ArizonaSports.com Wednesday.
Although the AIA has failed to acknowledge an error and refused to meet with local engineer John Carrieres about the problem, Bolitho said that ‘to say the AIA is ‘ignoring’ an error is incorrect.’
He goes on to say that ‘the current system does not present an error as the formula is working as created by the committee …

Former Saguaro football coach John Sanders has been hired as the coordinator of football operations at Arizona State.
The move was anticipated for several weeks and was finally made official on Wednesday.
Sanders went 62-7 and won four state championships in five years as coach of Saguaro. He has been replaced by offensive coordinator Jason Mohns.
Former Saguaro star Kyle Cladwell has been hired to coach the defensive line and be the the Sabercats’ strength and conditioning coach, according to his Twitter page.

The day before the Chaparral boys basketball team concluded the regular season, coach Damin Lopez didn’t think his team had a prayer of qualifying for the state tournament.
But a well-known face from a local competitor told him differently.
Chaparral defeated Tolleson, 81-73, on Feb. 2, and Lopez went to dinner with his father, David, and brother, Eli, after the game. David Lopez is the former coach of St. Mary’s and is now assisting Eli at Mountain Ridge.
Damin originally thought a Jan. 24 loss to Desert Mountain ended his team’s postseason hopes, …

Mountain View boys basketball coach Gary Ernst is one win away from passing Tucson Sahuaro coach Dick McConnell for the most wins in Arizona history.
Both coaches have 774 wins.
The Toros will play Desert Mountain in the first round of the Division I, Section III tournament on Wednesday at Desert Mountain. Mountain View is the No. 2 seed and the favorite to win that game.
Ernst has the majority of his wins at Mountain View, where he took over in 1985. Ernst led the Toros to the 5A Division I state championship …

The boys basketball sectional tournaments begin Wednesday for the higher divisions, and some great matchups are on the horizon. Here is how I think the East Valley-centric Division I and II sectionals will shake out (with apologies to the lower divisions, which I didn’t see enough to make an educated guess).
Division I, Section II (at Mesquite)
First round: No. 1 Corona del Sol over No. 8 Dobson; No. 5 Gilbert over No. 4 Buena; No. 6 Red Mountain over No. 3 Ironwood Ridge; No. 2 Basha over No. 7 Hamilton.
Corona shouldn’t …