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.

Spring Break and big-time tournaments highlighted most of the past two weeks. That’s especially true for those who played in the Desert Mountain tournament, with Mountain View beating Paradise Valley for the championship.  Practically everyone there Saturday felt their team was significantly better having gone through that week’s worth of competition.
Now, however, the party is over. With most schools dealing with three- and four-games per week this week and through the month of April, it’s back to power point contests in-full.
Here we go (all records are power point games only …

Here is the schedule for the seventh annual Highland Triple Play Classic baseball tournament, which runs from March 12-15:
Monday, March 12:
Dobson at Perry, 9 a.m
Highland at Mesa, 9 a.m.
Williams Field at Dobson, 12 p.m.
Cesar Chavez at Mesa, 12 p.m.
Apache Junction at Cesar Chavez, 3 p.m.
Williams Field at Perry, 3 p.m.
Highland at Apache Junction, 6 p.m.
Tuesday, March 13:
John Paul II at Dobson, 9 a.m.
Mesa at Apache Junction, 9 a.m.
John Paul II at Williams Field, 12 p.m.
Cesar Chavez at Highland, 6 p.m.
Wednesday, March 14:
Four pool play games at higher seed depending on …

A day (or two) late again, but while soccer is in its final few days, girls basketball regular season is in its final week before the new Sectional tournaments (the top 8 teams from each sectional play in its respective tournament, which counts toward power points) at the beginning of February.
It’s a light schedule in terms of big attractions for this week’s games, but next week will more than make up for it.
(All records are power point games only through Tuesday night):
Xavier at Westwood (Wednesday):  The Gators (9-5) are currently …

Player of the Year: Gracie Goulder (Cactus Shadows)
Coach of the Year: Danica Gianni (Cactus Shadows)
First Team
Amanda Baldwin (Queen Creek)
Taylor Clark (Poston Butte)
Raianna Dobbs (Queen Creek)
Sami Hansen (Saguaro)
Paige Hess (Campo Verde)
Dynasty Lauvai (McClintock)
Camille McIver (Cactus Shadows)
Kelsey Montgomery (Queen Creek)
Elise Oldham (Saguaro)
Lindsey Skinner (Apache Junction)
Second Team
Alex Curtis (Saguaro)
Annie Davis (Saguaro)
Taylor Decker (Cactus Shadows)
Ryland Estrada (Queen Creek)
Kennedy Garcia (Campo Verde)
Ashley Gonzales (Apache Junction)
Elyssa Hartsock (Cactus Shadows)
Kristin Hillier (Cactus Shadows)
Kendi Nordstrom (McClintock)
Jenna Nimitz (Saguaro)
Autumn Rhodes (Apache Junction)
Jade Yost (Apache Junction)
Megan Scarpulla (Cactus Shadows)
Lexi Valenzuela (Queen Creek)

Rich Milligan demoted himself.
It’s another twist on what’s become a twisted world of high school football, as the Apache Junction football coach moved himself down three notches from varsity to the freshman level in late March.
But this is one of the few good demotions.
Milligan, who has led Apache Junction since 2007 and been at the school since 1985, knew his job was safe at the top. But the stress of trying to find a freshman coach finally got the better of him, and gave him an idea.
So he resigned, then …

Chandler had three individual champions, led by Dalton Brady, the outstanding wrestler in the lower weight classes, and came away with the team championship at the Payson Invitational on Saturday in Payson.
The Wolves edged Highland, which had four individual champions, scoring 399 points to the Hawks’ 381.5. Camp Verde was the third-place team (307) and Williams Field was fourth (254) in the 21-team event.
Brady cruised to the 112-pound title, pinning Rudy Peterson of Durango (Colo.) in 3:42 to take the title. Chandler’s Daniel Savage won the 160-pound division and Jose …

Apache Junction’s Nick Saathoff will take his talents to the Ivy League to play for Harvard next fall. The senior slugger will sign his letter-of-intent Friday at the high school with his coaches and parents alongside.
Saathoff was a first-team all-Desert Sky Region player last season as a junior. He batted .390 with five home runs and 21 runs batted in.
He also recently worked with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in their scout team.

State volleyball tournament play begins on Tuesday and after the final night of regular season games, the brackets in 5A-I, 5A-II, 4A-I, 4A-II and 2A are set. The brackets for 3A and 1A should be ready by sometime on Friday.
Here are the pairings, with each team’s seed in parentheses:
5A-I
First round matches
All matches Tuesday at 7 p.m. unless noted
(16) Red Mountain at (1) Xavier
(9) North at (8) Salpointe
(12) Desert Ridge at (5) Mountain Ridge
(13) Kofa at (4) Desert Vista
(14) Maryvale at (3) Hamilton
(11) Corona del Sol at (6) Basha
(10) Mountain Pointe …