Shouldn't be too much movement among many of our rankings other than Sunrise Mountain losing to Horizon. Any other changes?

Here's my list, the same 8 from last week but in a different order:

1) Chandler
2) Basha
3) Saguaro
4) Hamilton
5) Liberty
6) Desert Edge
7) Salpointe
8) Williams Field

I think it’s safe to say that Friday Night was the one of the craziest, if not the craziest night in Arizona high school football history.

You have Mountain Ridge coming back from 21 down against Centennial with their backup running back/tight end leading them at QB, Horizon beating Desert Edge in OT and giving themselves a path to the Open Division in the process, Liberty beating Sunrise 41-38 in a triple overtime thriller that almost felt like a movie at times. And of course Hamilton scoring 18 points in the final 65 seconds to beat Bishop Gorman behind Nicco Marchiol’s iron man moment for the nation.

Or what about Flagstaff coming back from 8 points in 90 seconds to steal a win against Mingus 49-42. Yuma Catholic coming all the way back against ALA-Gilbert North to fall 3 points short at the end. Coconino coming back to beat 5A Cactus Shadows 26-24. Trevor Browne’s late game heroics to take the lead against Cibola, then stopping the Raiders at the Goal Line on 4 straight plays to hold on and win. Seton Catholic knocking off Ben Franklin in a 51-48 shootout as well.

Has the state ever had a Friday Night come this close to the craziness that transpired?

This Friday I'll be at Mountain Ridge getting my first look at Brendan Anderson, who Chilly calls one of his '23 Flamethrowers. The Mountain Lions host Centennial, which has scored just 20 points in two games this season. Will the Coyote offense finally get on track against a MR defense that gave up 74 to Liberty in Week 1? How many will CeHS need to score to keep up with a Ridge offense that is coming off a 75-point performance against Fairfax. In the State 48 this week, Ralph has Centennial #7 and Mountain Ridge #46. Is the gap still that big, or has MR closed it. I'll find out Friday night!

via @JasonPSkoda

from @codytcameron

from @Jacob.Seliga

OK football heads out there!

Are the Cardinals legit or the Titans O line made us look like an elite D lol

Titans way overrated, Cards are actually really good or something in between ?


Just curious to hear your thoughts---my non football buddies are talking among ourselves and have no clue what we are saying

Week 1 is over, but there were a lot of surprising performances that could shake up the Open Division playoff picture. Drop your updated Open Division predictions below.

I’ll start…

1) Chandler
2) Saguaro
3) Basha
4) Hamilton
5) Desert Edge
6) Salpointe
7) Liberty
8) Williams Field

Figured I'd fire this up weekly so we can see where the coverage from TeamAZV will be.

I'm planning to head to Horizon to see the Huskies against defending 5A champion Sunrise Mountain. Have to say I was surprised to see Ralph install the Mustangs as a 10.5-point favorite in this one. I know this game is up as one of the 4 in the Chilly/Cody poll and it's real close to see if it will be one of the top 2 games. So, I might have some media company in this one after being the only one in the state to cover the Buena victory over Goldwater last week.

Did any results from week 1 shock you?

I thought Cactus would win against Mesquite, but I figured the Wildcats would keep it close. But that was an absolute domination from the Cobras over back-to-back champs.

from @Jacob.Seliga

New year new watchlist!! These are the guys that Ive seen that I think that yall should keep an eye on.. You can take this as a ranking if you want, but its more of a hype list.. Follow me on twitter @JustChilly and tune in EVERY Wednesday to #TheFreshmen15 at 9:15P

1. Dezmen Roebuck ATH Marana
2. Jamar Malone QB Higley
3. Kaleb Jones OL/DL Mountain Pointe
4. Dajon Hinton ATH Saguaro
5. Bennet Scheller DT Chandler
6. Kamiron Peete LB Higley
7. Sam Garcia OL Basha
8. Hayden Dougherty WR Casteel
9. Talib Graham DE/TE Hamilton
10. Bear Tenney TE Casteel
11. Weston Hancock OL Red Mountain
12. Xavier Valdevia RB Chandler
13. Garrett Martin DL Saguaro
14. James Davis OL/TE Boulder Creek
15. Kalen Fisher QB Hamilton
16. Cree Thomas ATH Brophy
17. Paul Palmer QB Casteel
18. Thomas Atafua OL/DL Hamilton
19. Logan Powell DL Saguaro
20. Jamal Beal Goines DB Desert Edge
21. Butch Verenski LB/RB ALA QC
22. Luke Haugo QB North
23. A'lysha Rodriguez Casteel
24. Kobie Mcgill ATH Higley
25. Nevin Reed WR/ATH Chavez
26. Isaac Williams DL Marcos
27. Offisong Okon OL/DL Desert Vista
28. Dante Messina OL Oconnor
29. Aiden Browder TE Chandler
30. Bo Hampton K Brophy
31. Raiden Vines-Bright WR Corona Del Sol
32. Caden Eddy RB Millennium
33. Tavita Taase OL/DL Mountain View
34. Brayden Long RB Centennial
35. Nico Boncore WR Cactus
36. Wyatt Horton QB Pinnacle
37. Bryce Herges QB Chaparral
38. Elijah Aragon OL Desert Edge
39. Ben Jones LB/RB Hamilton
40. Roman Goullette ATH Basha

from @codytcameron

Although we are still a week away from 4A-6A games beginning, I'm curious who everyone has in their preseason Open Division rankings. Drop your predictions below and we'll compile them into an article.

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

I'll start...

1) Chandler
2) Saguaro
3) Basha
4) Hamilton
5) Desert Edge
6) Salpointe
7) Liberty
8) Chaparral

I can't really make a pick as I'm covering the game and am on the beat, but NAU plays Sam Houston State (FCS defending champ) on Thursday.

I want to know your picks on the game, and a score prediction!

Zach Alvira for the Trib:


I have a lot of thoughts on this, especially because the AIA fortified their prior contact rules after they were embarrassed in court in the David Eppinger case, in which Perry reported Jacob Conover's dad as having prior contact with Eppinger using a photo of Lloyd Mills, Chandler's freshman coach. Instead of realizing that maybe they shouldn't have been so laser focused on taking Eppinger's season away that they stumbled into accidental racism, and wiping the egg off their face and pledging to do better, they reacted by fortifying the rule so that if the David Eppinger situation were to happen again the exact same way, they wouldn't have even needed the photo.

It's an enormous embarrassment and now Buchanan seems to be caught up in what they did.

That Sabino team is LEGIT, Levi Miranda is a baller.

IMG played an online charter full of 19-20 year olds that played a game TWO DAYS before the IMG game.


Reminds me of the whole Tucson Tech fiasco

I was able to watch parts of four games this weekend. Here's a few takeaways and observations:

San Tan Foothills has what seems to be a legit athlete at the WR/TE position. 6-5, 230 Elijah Fields caught a late TD, and in doing so, caught my eye as someone I'd like to see @codytcameron and @ChillyASU evaluate. STF shot themselves in the foot with penalties and an inability to move the ball through the air, and Bourgade Catholic used toughness to pull that game out. Interested to see if BG can use this momentum to build toward some more positive results.

Scottsdale Christian got off to a very good start against ALA, and so it was surprising when they were dominated on both sides of the ball in the second and third quarters. Boden Davidson scored a TD, got an interception, and then scored a second TD on a reception in which he took a massive shot, but held onto the ball. He looked shook up after taking the hit and didn't flash the same playmaking ability for the rest of the game after that second score. For Arizona Lutheran, I had a chance to see Jacob Holguin in person last year, and it was pretty clear that as far as 2A, he might have been one of the top 20 athletes. This year, he's likely top 5. He dominated when he was in the game, and definitely deserves to have eyes on him for postseason honors if he keeps it up.

Valley Christian is as advertised. @ChillyASU said their kicker, Dominic Zvada, was elite, and he is. I was very impressed with junior QB Hunter Heeringa, and the team as a whole is going to go as far as RB Kaden Majercak will take them. The swarming defense of guys like Justin Regehr and Christian Bell, and opportunistic INTs that were returned for TDs made the difference against defending 3A champion, Snowflake. One of the best plays of the game didn't even count, with WR Austyn Gerard skying over the defender for a TD catch that was wiped out due to a penalty. Snowflake has to feel like they let one slip away. Turnovers, an insane amount of penalties on both offense and defense, and drives that stalled out deep in VC territory are going to be sore spots in film this week. QB Caden Cantrell was under duress quite a bit, but when Snowflake moved to a tempo-based offense, he had several drives where looked like a star. I think the Lobos are probably fine, and I still see them as a threat to repeat in 3A.

I watched exactly two minutes of Show Low at St. Johns. They scored twice and converted both scores to take a 16-0 lead with 9:55 left in the first quarter.

I tried to watch both the Round Valley and Blue Ridge game on NFHSNetwork, but they both had non-working cameras.

We had four different staff members out at the Sabino/Arizona College Prep game. Looking forward to observations from that contest.

I also say that Yuma Catholic's Mario Martinez shattered the 3A single game receiving record on only four receptions. Congratulations to him.

Is listed and you guys know where to find it. Something I'm not a fan of is how it is set up for 2A and 3A. What I mean by that is that these schools are playing ten games in ten weeks. They then roll right into the playoffs for potentially 4 rounds in 4 weeks. These schools generally have smaller rosters then the bigger schools and a lot more two way players. The risk of recovering for injury is higher and general fatigue can kick in later in the season. It is what is, I just feel that a bye week could have been built in somewhere in some capacity. between the end of August and the end of November.

With a few positions opening up, I figured I'd start listing the coaching changes that I have heard of. Feel free to add to the list.


Desert Vista - HC Dan Hinds retires from coaching.

Kellis - HC Opening, don't know many details.

Valley Vista - HC Josh Sekoch resigns.

Mountainside High - Former Pinnacle LB coach Chris Duane is hired as the program's first HC.

Canyon View - HC Opening, don't have the details.

Is unfortunately starting to rear its ugly head again. I welcome any initial thoughts on the upcoming season.

Earlier today @Ralph Amsden put up a post talking about who we had in our potential state championship games from the 2A-Open.

Right now, less then two days from the beginning of the season? Who are your state champions? Do any of you see a team off many people’s radar who may make a run?

A super talented RB that was with one open team will be joining the pack... Watchout!!

Chandler had 2 really close games in the semis and final last year. A single play goes differently and they are taken out by Liberty or Hamilton.

The wolves are stacked again though.

does anyone think they can be taken out this year?