Varsity Xtra

Behind the Saguaro football participation increase

Kyle Odegard — Mon, 21 May 2012 22:35:46 +0000

Former Saguaro football coach John Sanders always bemoaned the lack of depth his teams had, but truthfully, much of it was his own doing.

Yes, the school is small compared to the rest of the state’s elite programs, but Sanders was always crystal clear in his wish for the Sabercat players to be football-only . The specialization paid dividends on the field, as dedication in the weight room and during the summer helped Saguaro’s players continually improve. On the flip side, the school’s other athletes, those whose best sport was basketball or baseball, for instance, did not generally play football, leaving the team very thin on numbers.

New coach Jason Mohns is transforming that thinking. He has been actively recruiting kids from other sports to play football and talking to basketball coach Bob LaRue and baseball coach Ryan Dyer about sharing athletes.

Approximately 95 kids came out at the start of spring football, about 30 more than last year.

“We can’t afford to have kids that are just football kids, or just basketball kids, or just baseball kids,” Mohns said. “We’d spread ourselves too thin and we wouldn’t be good at anything. As a football program, when you’ve won like we’ve won, it’s easier to tell the kids that they’re just playing football, that they’re not playing anything else. But when you do that, you limit your depth. Our first units can play with anybody, but the depth isn’t there because we’ve alienated some kids because we’ve told them they’re football kids or they’re not. I have a good relationship with coach Dyer, coach LaRue, (track) coach (John) Prather. We’ve really been working together, and I think that’s part of the reason we’ve seen a spike in the numbers.”

Playing Devil’s Advocate, I asked about the risk of the football players playing the other sports too frequently. Saguaro’s recent success has largely been due to the team’s offseason dedication, and if that suffered, would the successful blueprint shift?

“You know what ends up happening?” Mohns said. “Those (highly rated) kids end up (specializing) themselves. Christian Kirk, who already has two D-I offers as a freshman, he’s probably going to continue just focusing on football. There are some kids on the baseball team that are D-I guys, and they are going to play year-round baseball. I think the main point for us is, there’s not going to be a kid on our team that doesn’t play another sport because of me. If he wants to play another sport, we’re going to be supportive of it. Not every kid is a D-I kid, and we want the kids that are good athletes to be a part of as many sports as they want to.”

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Mesa all-city softball team

Mark Heller — Mon, 21 May 2012 21:12:18 +0000

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: TJ Beeson, Jr., Red Mountain

Second Team

Pitcher: Marian Ruf, So., Red Mountain

Catcher: Melissa Milligan, Sr., Mesa

Infielders: Marisa Mayes, Sr., Red Mountain; Anna Makil, Sr., Westwood; Destiny Poulette, Jr., Skyline; Jordan Barajas, Jr., Dobson; Erin Manuel, Sr., Mountain View

Outfielders: Emily Mattson, Jr., Westwood; Alisha Shomaker, Fr., Mesa; Amy Tarnowski, Sr., Mountain View; Kristen Braley, Fr., Skyline

Utility: Bri Gonzales, Sr., Red Mountain

Flex/DP: Tabitha Hannon, Fr., Dobson

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Highlights from the ABCA All-Star games

Kyle Odegard — Sun, 20 May 2012 05:21:41 +0000

The Arizona Basketball Coaches Association held its annual All-Star games event on Saturday at Mesa Community College. It showcased many of the state’s top players, the majority of whom will be moving on to play college basketball. Here are some notes from the games:

* Dewayne Russell rimmed out a potential game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer, and Eric Jacobsen’s free throw in sudden death overtime lifted the black Senior D1/D2 boys team to an 82-81 victory over the white team. Fairfax senior and Pepperdine commitment Stacy Davis led all scorers with 25 points for white, while Bryce Gosar added 17, Tim Derksen 16 and Russell 12. Mountain View star Camyn Boone led black with 21 points, while Cesar Solis added 18 and Jacobsen had 10.

* Calaen Robinson only had seven points, but I was impressed with his play. For Corona del Sol this year, the Tribune’s Player of the Year was the primary scorer and took a lot of shots. In this game, he was content playing pesky defense and passing the ball. That’s the way he will see minutes next year for Arizona State, and Robinson showed he doesn’t need to shoot to be effective.

* The top shooter in the 3-point contest – boy or girl – was Valley Christian girls guard Tana Kemmer. She hit 12-of-15 3-pointers in the first round and made all three money balls for 15 total points and went on to win the girls competition. Dobson’s Kodi Justice won the boys event, but no boys shooter scored more than 10 points in a round.

* Basha teammates Torren Jones and Jaron Hopkins faced off in the finals of the dunk contest, with Hopkins capturing the title on a between-the-legs, windmill dunk which got him a perfect score from the judges. Jones tried jumping over four players who sat in folding chairs in the paint, but he couldn’t finish the dunk. Three girls entered the contest. Chandler guard Simone Westbrook jumped off a teammate’s back to put hers down. Chandler’s Jazmyn Bartee couldn’t successfully dunk a ball. Marana’s Jamee Swan converted hers successfully without help.

* Hopkins and Jones thrived in the open-court style of the All-Star game. Hopkins had a game-high 28 in the underclassmen contest, and Jones added 21 for the black team in a 93-89 victory. Corona del Sol point guard Casey Benson also excelled for the black team, scoring 14 points and setting up teammates for open looks. Mountain Pointe’s Khari Holloway led the white team with 15 points, while Pablo Rivas (14), Paul Watson (12), Drew Bender (10) and Jake Toolson (10) also scored in double figures. Mountain View big man Payton Dastrup was also impressive, as he continues to improve.

* While some players had conflicts, most of the best players from the state take part in this All-Star game, which makes it fun to watch. The players generally play loose for most of the game, but if it’s close late, you can see their frame of mind change and the competitiveness gets the best of them. “At the end you want to win,” Justice said.

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A.J. has two options in football hire

Mark Heller — Thu, 17 May 2012 23:44:23 +0000

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 total of nine days with his entire family.
This epiphany came late, and while MacDonald has no reason to apologize or regret that, the school — one that’s struggled to compete the past couple seasons the way it did in the previous decade — is in a bind.
While the current staff ran spring practices and conditioning, the school had to scramble to post the job, form a committee for interviews and find candidates it wanted. Remember, almost all coaching vacancies were filled in winter or early spring, including assistant positions at schools. The pile with which to pick from was small. Not to mention available teaching jobs for a coach or any staff this fall remains a mystery.
There are two ways to go here: Perhaps the school found someone it really likes, who wants to be a head coach in the far East Valley, at a smaller-sized school which (fair or not) might be viewed as a stepping stone given some success. This would be more volatile and perhaps more of an overhaul in style and philosophy, but a longer-term solution.
Or, given this late date, the school can go a more “interim” route with a current assistant. Given their familiarity with the kids, appoint one of them as coach for this season, see what happens this fall and re-open the job in December or January to get more applicants.
The answer may come as quickly as Friday.

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A.J. football coaching search update

Mark Heller — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:30:32 +0000

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. Related posts: Basha coaching search update Each Wednesday and Friday, we’re going to have a short... Mesquite boys hoops coaching search update The defection of John Burns to Basha has left ... Related posts:

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Arrubla named Gatorade boys soccer POY

Mark Heller — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:59:17 +0000

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 headed to Metro State University in Colorado on a soccer scholarship this fall.

Arrubla is now a candidate for the national player of the year in boys soccer to be determined later this month. Previous Arizona boys soccer POY include Riggs Lennon (Brophy), George Malki (Pinnacle), Nick Ayers and Terni Molinari (Brophy) and Kyle Ciliento (Pinnacle).

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Hoops all-star games happening this weekend

Kyle Odegard — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:41:17 +0000

The Arizona Basketball Coaches Association is putting on its annual high school basketball all-star game showcase on Saturday at Mesa Community College. The event began in 2005 at Skyline and drew about 300 people, said Dustin Cooper, the event organizer and Mesquite’s new coach. Last year, approximately 4,000 people took in the action throughout the day.

“It’s really gained momentum,” he said.

The schedule looks like this:

11 p.m. – Division III/IV senior girls
12:30 p.m. – Underclassmen girls
2 p.m. – Division I/II senior girls
3:30 p.m. – Dunk contest and 3-point shooting competition
4:45 p.m. – Underclassmen boys
6:15 p.m. – Division III/IV senior boys
7:45 p.m. – Division I/II senior boys

Here are the East Valley players expected to participate:

Underclassmen boys
Black team – Drew Bender, Pinnacle; Paul Watson, Paradise Valley; Khari Holloway, Mountain Pointe; Payton Dastrup, Mountain View; Dorian Pickens, Pinnacle; Diego Magana, Desert Mountain; Jake Toolson, Highland.
White team – Casey Benson, Corona del Sol; Jaron Hopkins, Basha; Maurice Kirby, Basha; Kodi Justice, Dobson; Sam Jones, Gilbert Christian; Torren Jones, Basha; Jordan Howard, Perry; Bryan Siefker, Corona del Sol; Roberto Reyes, Gilbert Christian.

Underclassmen girls
Black team – Julia Barcello, Seton; Tana Kemmer, Valley Christian; Anne Marie Holter, Seton; Didi Moloi, Campo Verde; Katherine Hamilton, Dobson; Kylie Herd, Arcadia; Erica Vasquez, Red Mountain.
White team – Jazmyne Bartee, Chandler; Aliyah Dickson, Hamilton; Kyndall Adams, Hamilton.

Senior boys DI/DII
Black team – Camyn Boone, Mountain View; Calaen Robinson, Corona del Sol; Avery Moss, Corona del Sol; Kyle Tomlinson, Dobson; Eric Jacobsen, Hamilton; Justin Park, Red Mountain; Kevin Torres, Red Mountain.
White team – Larry Lewis, Arcadia; Cody McDavis, Pinnacle; Eric Lewis, Horizon. (This team also has Amphi’s Tim Derksen, Fairfax’s Stacy Davis and Peoria’s Dewayne Russell).

Senior girls DI/DII
Black team – Gabrielle Evans, Arcadia; Gianna Grumbein, Arcadia; Megan Gillespie, Arcadia; Shea Brown, Red Mountain; Mariah Willadsen, Red Mountain.
White team – Simone Westbrook, Chandler; Lauren Evans, Hamilton; Cassidee Ranger, Hamilton; Arnecia Hawkins, Mountain View; Cortnee Walton, St. Mary’s; Shilpa Tummala, St. Mary’s.

Senior boys DIII/DIV
White team – Connor Patterson, Gilbert Christian; Logan Fougnies, Gilbert Christian; Cody Ostertag, Scottsdale Christian.

Senior girls DIII/DIV
Black team – Logan Phillippe, Valley Christian.

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Baseball state championship rewind

Kyle Odegard — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:06:27 +0000

It was quite the doozy on Tuesday night, as a two-run, walk-off homer by Dylan Cozens led Chaparral to a 5-3 win over Brophy in the Division I state baseball championship game at Camelback Ranch.

There is video of the home run here, about halfway down the page.

Here are some notes that didn’t make the game story:

* The Chaparral pitching was really impressive. Tyger Talley, Nick Diamond and Dillon Bigcrane combined for this line: 7 innings, 6 hits, 3 ER, 15 strikeouts, 4 BB. Yes, that’s 15 strikeouts in seven innings. Bigcrane was great in relief, striking out seven in 2 2/3 innings. This was against one of the state’s best lineups, too.

* Brophy sophomore Ryan Castellani has big-time power. I saw him hit two balls out in Spring Training stadiums during the postseason and he finished the championship game 2-for-3 with a home run and a triple. Without him, the Broncos offense would have been almost completely neutralized by the Chaparral pitching. He’s going to be one of the state’s best players the next two seasons.

* Dylan Cozens was asked after the game about his decision between football and baseball. He said he’d still like to do both, but of course that depends on the money he is offered by whichever Major League Baseball team drafts him. Cozens has a scholarship to play football and baseball at Arizona, but if he gets a big signing bonus, it would not be surprising to see him turn professional. Cozens plays right field in high school, but at 6-foot-5, I can’t see him playing the outfield at the next level. It would make sense to move him to first base, but scouts will need to be convinced he can hit well enough to draft him high at such a premium offensive position. It will definitely be an interesting decision for Cozens. Last year, Hamilton two-sport star Malcolm Holland chose to turn professional with the Los Angeles Dodgers rather than play football for Boise State. Cozens probably has more upside in both sports, so it’s a crucial choice.

* Nick Diamond’s single to right field preceding Cozens’ at-bat can’t be overlooked. He was down in the count but battled back to 2-2 before getting the big hit. With one on and one out, Brophy’s hands were tied and had to pitch to Cozens, because you can’t walk him there and put the winning run at second base. If Diamond got out, Cozens probably gets pitched very carefully and the inning looks completely different.

Overall, a very well-played championship game, and the best team won the title, so that’s always a good thing.

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Dustin Cooper takes over as Mesquite boys hoops coach

Kyle Odegard — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:04:09 +0000

Dustin Cooper has a lot on his plate right now.

He’s recovering from surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament. He’s orchestrating Saturday’s Arizona Basketball Coaches Association All-Star games. Oh, and he’s also preparing to run a program for the first time.

A busy week became even more hectic when Cooper was officially named the new boys basketball coach at Mesquite on Tuesday night following approval from the Gilbert District Governing Board. Cooper said the last several days have been ‘a whirlwind’, but he’s certainly not complaining.

“I’m excited,” he said. “I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity.”

Cooper has been an assistant at Skyline since 2005, and this is his first head coaching gig. Mesquite finished 14-12 last season but missed the Division I postseason. John Burns left this offseason to take over the program at Basha.

Cooper lives in Gilbert, and while this is his first head coaching job, he said it’s not a stepping-stone gig.

“I’ll stay as long as they’ll have me,” he said.

Cooper will meet with the Mesquite players on Thursday morning for the first time. He said he will preach defense and fundamentals to the group with an emphasis on getting out in transition offensively.

The Wildcats lose six of their nine varsity players, including the top-four scorers. Cooper said the transitional phase is not a bad thing.

“It’s a great opportunity for me to put in place my own program and tweak it the way I see fit,” he said.

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Division I baseball All-Section award winners

Kyle Odegard — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:02:46 +0000

Here are the East Valley baseball players who have been recognized by their respective sections in Division I. The voting for Players and Coaches of the Year in each section is still ongoing.

Division I, Section I
Second Team
St. Mary’s: Juan Carlos Sasso, 1B

Division I, Section II
First Team
Mesquite: Jake Howard, C; Garrett Jeffries, OF; John Ferrendelli, OF; Seth Fretheim, UT.
Hamilton: Cody Bellinger, 1B; Patrick Murphy, P; Mitch Nay, 3B.
Gilbert: Josh Moore, OF; Dustin Peterson, DH.
Desert Ridge: Keaton Cenatiempo, P.
Red Mountain: Aaron Smith, 2B.
Highland: Cody Moffett, P.
Basha: Jamie Westbrook, SS.

Second Team
Perry: Collin Braithwaite, C.
Basha: Anthony Conforti, 1B.
Highland: Jordan Peterson, OF.
Skyline: Brian Melendez, OF.
Gilbert: Dustin Peterson, UT, Justin McAllister, P.
Red Mountain: Jordan Zimmerman, DH; Tarran Beasley, P.
Mesquite: Spencer Applebach, P.
Corona del Sol: Kyle Jorgensen, 3B; Jeff Carter, 2B.
Desert Ridge: Riley Unroe, SS.

Division I, Section III
First Team
Brophy: David Graybill, 1B; Chris Beall, OF; Nick Jewett, DH; Jake Steffens, P.
Pinnacle: Bryce Colceri, OF; Eric Melbostad, P; M.J. Hubbs, 2B.
Desert Vista: Hunter Rodriguez, UT.
Mountain View: Willie Ethington, P.
Desert Mountain: David Greer, 3B.
Mountain Pointe: Scott Kingery, SS.

Second Team
Horizon: Michael McNamara, C.
Pinnacle: Brock Hartley, 1B; J.R. Harrington, P.
Brophy: Jeff Clasen, OF.
Chaparral: Austin Singer, OF; Nick Diamond, DH; Tyger Talley, P.
Mountain Pointe: Sam Kingery, 2B.
Desert Vista: Tyler Adams, 3B.

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