Relive all the action from last Friday night’s games with 50 photos of Dobson at Mountain Pointe, Westwood at Red Mountain and Desert Ridge at Mesquite in the East Valley Tribune photo galleries.
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Give the high school governing bodies – both the National Federation of State High School Associations and the Arizona Interscholastic Association – credit for trying to curb concussions.
A new, free program is available to coaches, parents and school officials. It’s educational and legislative information about concussions, including effects and symptoms. The NFHS says more than 140,000 occur each year among high school athletes nationally.
The AIA is partnering with the Arizona Sports Concussion Center, but stricter, written enforcement at the national and local levels need to be the obvious next step.
Kids …

Mesquite tight end R.J. Rickert was a main reason why the Wildcats rallied to beat Desert Ridge on Friday. He caught two touchdown passes in the contest, including the game-winner with 24 seconds left. He caught up with us after the game to speak about a time when a possible catch didn’t end up so well.
Class you dread the most: Science.
Most embarrassing moment in sports: Sophomore year I had everyone burned deep, and I caught the ball, tripped, threw the ball in the air and it got picked. That was …

Many thanks to reader Claire Lieberman for sharing this link with us. If this doesn’t get you ready for Friday night football, nothing will. Gave me goosebumps… Great stuff.

We are hours away from another high school football season kicking off, so here are my predictions on how 5A and 4A will shake out at the end of the year:
5A-I: Hamilton finishes another season undefeated, giving the Huskies an ever bigger presence on the national stage as pundits put them in the conversation as the country’s best team. The Huskies beat Mountain Pointe in the title game. The Pride earned the No. 2 seed in the tournament by losing only one game in the regular season — the season …

One of the best volleyball matches of the year won’t even count.
At 5 p.m. tonight (Wednesday) at Phoenix Sunnyslope, Xavier, the winner of the last three 5A-I titles and four of the last five, takes on Sunnyslope, which is coming off back-to-back 4A-I championships.
“Sunnyslope is loaded again and it’s just a scrimmage, but their fans will be really fired up,” Xavier coach Tim McHale said.
McHale is fired up too, because he once again has a squad that is expected to win. This team, however, will do it in a little …

Changes have been made and will continue to be made, but Red Mountain coach Ron Wisniewski knows he’s walking into a pretty good situation. Having the No. 2 school in the state for enrollment helps, as does the framework and tradition that had been established by former coach Jim Jones the previous 20 years.
The early dates this season will be mix-and-match. With several kids lost to graduation, quarterback and running back will be two of the more interesting sights to see.
So far, those spots continue to be a tussle. The …

Kamio Espindola is a four-year starter on the Red Mountain girls golf team. She began as the No. 5 her freshman year but moved up to No. 2 as a sophomore, then No. 1 her junior year and will be atop the lineup as a senior. But before then she took a few minutes to talk of hitting trees, an unusual final meal and her fondness for a legendary actress from a couple generations ago,
Class you dread the most: Pre-Calculus. It’s really hard and I’m very thankful my coach used …

It’s sad that Jerry Dawson needed to retire as Chaparral baseball coach before his time.
That’s because his time isn’t like most of us. At age 67 he was no less energized to go to “work” every day, but the self-standards were so high, they eventually caused him to leave.
For 37 years he was the heart and soul of high school baseball in the East Valley.
He demanded more from himself and his players, but in a positive way, given that many of his kids played other sports during the year and …

I talked to Vanae Carson, Jahii’s mom, for awhile today about her son’s decision to choose Arizona State. Here are a few of the more noteworthy topics that came up:
- Originally, she didn’t want him to stay in town for college. So after he de-committed from Oregon State, Arizona was the early favorite in her eyes. Gradually, though, ASU coach Herb Sendek made in-roads, and in the end she really liked what he had to say. She said that the ASU coaches had just the right touch in recruiting Jahii, …