Finished my first road trip to Coolidge in 18 months of service at the Tribune, and I survived, which is never a given with me.The city had been without electricity for the past two days, which not only wreaked havoc on the city and football team’s preparations for Blue Ridge (and yes, rest assured those 3A rankings are going to change next week), but life itself.Some kids were able to seek refuge with friends who had generators, others had to go to Florence or Casa Grande and stay with friends. …

I couldn’t help but be reminded of Deion Sanders when watching Hamilton quarterback/wide reciver Gerell Robinson Thursday night. The athleticism, the versatility… but also the way he held the ball. Instead of tucking and cradling it, Robinson would hold it away from his body while running. It bit him once, when his own leg hit the ball and forced a fumble. At that point it was a 10-point game and gave Brophy the ball in Huskies territory.Brophy running back Ray Polk fumbled a few minutes later and Hamilton eventually put …

If there’s a more animated football coach in the East Valley than Hamilton defensive coordinator Manny Palomarez, the coaching ranks must be rife with blood-pressure conscious pill poppers.Alternately pounding the glass when an official made a bad call (as if they could hear him) and cheering his boys when they did something well, Palomarez was better theater than Thursday’s sloppy early-season game between Hamilton and Brophy, if you happened to have a nearby seat in the press box where he was caged.Just when I started to worry about Manny’s long-term …