2012 All-Mesa Team
Mesa City Player of Year:  Siera Philips (Red Mountain)
Mesa City Coach of the Year:  Rich Hamilton  (Red Mountain)
 
First Team
Pitchers:  Val Kaff, Jr., Mountain View;  Bre Macha, So., Red Mountain;  Sierra Whitmer, Sr., Mesa
Catchers:  Jordan Beck, So., Red Mountain;  Sidney Ryan, Jr., Mountain View
Infielders:  Aubrey Whitmer, Sr., Mesa;  Haley Culley, Sr., Red Mountain;  Aly Ramsaier, Sr., Mountain View;  Ashley Hill, So., Red Mountain; Kelli Wickerman, Sr., Mountain View
Outfielders:  Payton Kornfeind, Sr., Red Mountain; Lorlei-Marie Huber, Sr., Mesa; Bianca Gonzalez, So., Skyline;  Alyssa Thibodeau, So., Dobson
Utility:  Mercedes Montoya, Sr., Westwood
Flex/DP:  …

Which direction will Apache Junction go?
The school is on the verge of hiring a football coach, obviously a huge deal for a school, and in this case, compounded exponentially because Justin MacDonald’s resignation occurred in early May.
His reasoning — family — is impossible to scoff at. He may have only been “the guy” for one season, but as he noted in his resignation letter, he’d missed the first year of his third child’s life, and the combination of coaching and his wife’s job as a nurse meant he spent a …

A quick update on the Apache Junction football coaching search, which is ongoing as Justin MacDonald resigned earlier this month for family reasons.
A.J. school district spokesman Brian Kilgore said that interviews for the football vacancy happened Tuesday and will continue on Wednesday. Six candidates are being interviewed, all are local candidates.
The hope is to have a finalist decided by Friday this week.

Hamilton forward Danny Arrubla was named this year’s Gatorade Player of the Year for Arizona boys soccer.
Arrubla, who was also the Tribune Player of the Year, led the Huskies to a 24-3 record and the school’s first boys soccer state championship after finishing second in each of the previous two years. He finished the season with 39 goals and 14 assists, including an Arizona high school postseason-record four goals in the Division I state semifinals.
He’s also maintained a ‘B’ average in the classroom and volunteers with the Salvation Army. He’s …

So Basha and Glendale Mountain Ridge are taking a detour of sorts – “the scenic route” – to try and reach the Division I state championship game on Monday night at Arizona State’s Farrington Stadium.
It’s not much of a detour, at least, since both the No. 1-seeded Bears and No. 4-seeded Mountain Lions haven’t spent a lot of time (or had to play many games) in the bottom part of the bracket. Always a big deal when it comes to advancing this far in the double-elimination state tournament.
They meet tonight …

We touched on Wednesday night’s big Div. I softball state tournament semifinal a bit here between Red Mountain and Mountain Ridge, but there’s quite the compelling matchup set to take place on a Rose Mofford field next door at the same time Wednesday night (6:30 p.m.) between No. 1 Basha and No. 6 Horizon.
These two schools met early on during the Desert Mountain tournament in March, a game won by Basha, 8-6. But that was awhile ago, and things (naturally) have changed.
For starters, Horizon freshman Tamara Statman has since emerged …

It’s onward and northward for former Westwood football coach Greg Mendez.
Mendez – who resigned as his alma mater’s coach during the spring after four seasons – is headed to Salem, Oregon, where he’ll be McKay High School’s football coach and teach at the school.
Mendez was 13-32 in his four seasons at Westwood (and was an assistant for five years before that), including a couple playoff appearances. But with a desire for personal change (he and his wife had their second child 10 days ago), he stepped down as Warriors coach. …

One week to go.
In exactly seven days (May 14 at 7:30 p.m.) the Division I (and Division II) softball state champions will be crowned at ASU’s Farrington Stadium (a fine place to hold a couple championship games). For two schools, the dream of playing inside a college stadium for 90 percent of softball players will be realized. For the fortunate few, it could be an appetizer for what they’ll be lucky enough to experience at the college level.
A few different paths will diverge to reach next Monday. One school only …

The heat is on.
Thermometers will creep up into the mid-90s on Saturday, and intensity should uptick as well as the quarterfinals (winner’s bracket) or elimination games begin Saturday morning (9 a.m. for Div. III and IV) and continue through mid-afternoon (Div. II at 11 a.m. and Div. I at 1 p.m.) at Rose Mofford Softball Complex in Phoenix.
It’s nothing new for Div. III and IV. Friday’s second-round matchups for the likes of Valley Christian (vs. Phoenix Country Day) and Tempe Prep (Pusch Ridge Christian) have been win-or-go-home from the start.  …

McClintock football’s first season of the Matt Lewis era wasn’t particularly memorable from a win-loss perspective. The Chargers went 3-7.
So as Lewis continues to change and reconstruct the Chargers — even if the program’s success in the 1980’s and 1990’s may not be fully duplicated again — he was keenly aware of his team’s deficiencies in 2011. Those went beyond simply skill level, athleticism, knowledge and understanding of Lewis’ expectations.
Specifically, he found the Chargers’ tackling to be “terrible.”
So with an eye toward passing this information and instruction on to his …