With signing day essentially complete, what does that mean? By all accounts Alabama had a top rated class and has a good chance at winning at another national title in the next few years. What about the other schools? The transfer portal has been in effect for a few years now and with the pandemic a good amount of players will be returning for yet another season which may have affected how many high schoolers were signed. Nothing is guaranteed but does a top ten class these days equate to a top ten finish in 3 years, 4 years, not at all? ASU had a class ranked near the the top 20 5-6 years ago but they are seemingly sun bowl bound every other year. The same I'm sure can be said about other schools but it would great to hear folks thoughts on signing days, the transfer portal, the pandemic and what they may translate into.

via @JasonPSkoda

Shameless plug for my Ironwood basketball story https://arizonavarsity.rivals.com/news/senior-captain-duo-leading-ironwood-basketball

But who are some of the top duos in the AIA?
In the girls' game I think Marisa Davis-Jones and Jennah Isai of Valley Vista are far above any duo in the state, but the boys' league has several teams with solid duos.

MP - Kimbrough/Williams/Washington - pick any 2
Sunnyslope - Eli Saunders and Oakland Fort
Ironwood - Black and White
4A you could pick any 2 from St. Mary's or Camacho/Perry from Peoria

I'm sure I'm missing an obvious one, but who do you think?

My favorite segment is back!!! Alec and I evaluated and broke down films from 10 local 2022 players here.
Let us know what you think.

via @Eric.Newman

I'll post links to each of @Gridiron Arizona's class of 2021 Recruiting Updates in the following thread

Tue Jan 19th Horizon at Desert Mountain (Fr-V)
Wed Jan 20th Valley Vista vs Chandler (V only) at St. Mary's 5:00pm
Wed Jan 20th Sunnyslope at St. Mary's (V only) 7:30pm
Fri Jan 22nd Chandler at Perry (Fr-V)

Tue Jan 26th Cactus at Notre Dame Prep (Fr-V)

Tue Feb 2nd Queen Creek at CDS (Fr-V)
Thur Feb 4th Casteel at Higley (Fr-V)
Fri Feb 5th Centennial at Sunrise Mountain (Fr-V)

Tue Feb 9th Liberty at Chaparral (FR)
Tue Feb 9th McClintock at Arcadia (JV-V)
Wed Feb 10th Shadow Mountain at Mesquite (Fr-V)
Fri Feb 12th Gilbert at ironwood (Fr-V)

Mon Feb 15th Valley Vista at Desert Vista (Fr-V)
Wed Feb 17th Estrella Foothills at ALA-Queen Creek (Fr-V)
Thu Feb 18th Paradise Honors at St Mary's (Fr-V)
Fri Feb 19th Brophy at Mountain Pointe (Fr-V)

Tue Feb 23rd Mountain Pointe at Pinnacle (Fr-V)
Fri Feb 26th Apollo at Williams Field (Fr-V)

Tues March 2nd Sandra Day O'Connor at Chaparral (Fr-V)

Interested in your thoughts on this early:

Because most schools are limiting attendance to only home players' parents, does this make even more of a home court advantage? Without even the opposing team's parents there, there is literally nobody rooting on the visiting team other than itself and the JV kids on the bench.

This is where we'll post all of @Gridiron Arizona's weekly articles

First up: Chaparral has no regrets about making the open division playoff

Link: https://arizonavarsity.rivals.com/news/making-the-open

via @AJMorganWrites

via @Eric.Newman

Football is down to seven games remaining in the season.
NFL predictions -
Green Bay 31, LA Rams 17
Baltimore 34, Buffalo 31
KC 45, Cleveland 27
New Orleans 24, Tampa Bay 21
Who do you have making the conference championship games?????




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via @Brett Quintyne

The last two days, ASU and UofA squared off in golf for a Ryder Cup-style challenge at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes. Was an awesome event and was really close throughout. UofA led for most of it and really up until the final 3 holes when ASU’s new Spaniard, David Puig Corrius made a great comeback to win his match and seal the one point win for the Devils. This was really cool and hopefully something the two teams can add to the schedule for years to come!

PHHacility director John Ortega offered to let PXU basketball teams play on his courts free of charge as a makeshift club league if the district does not have a winter sports season. No reporting on whether the teams will do so or not.

But, do you think it's a good idea, and should the clubs take advantage of it?

via @Eric.Newman

Brad is going to be doing a series of things for us, not limited to consulting, mentoring, and producing the occasional piece of content. Here's his Word of the Week- I'll post each video as it comes on this thread

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via @jaredcohen_

via @Eric.Newman

I did a story on ranking the state's best wrestlers.
It has created a lot of conversation on various wrestling pages
Here is the link

https://arizonavarsity.rivals.com/n...rankings-the-top-wrestlers-in-arizona-history

There were some omissions as I probably should have reached out to some additional coaches in the northern and southern part of the state for some additional takes.

Safford's Ryak Finch, Dawon Andrews and Chandler's Dalton Brady were some of the names mentioned that should have had some represented.

What do you think????

I heard there is a 10:00 am meeting today about the basketball season.

I did a column on what it meant to the senior athletes if they didn't get a season.
As the days after progressed, it became clear the wrestling community was not going to allow. Wrestling has some club teams but it is not as popular as soccer and basketball.
So the wrestling coaches are finding ways to compete anyway. Now there is word there might be re-vote on Tuesday.

https://arizonavarsity.rivals.com/news/pain-of-pandemic-replaces-memorable-sports-memories

What do you think????

If this post should be merged with the previous one with Eric's post maybe it makes sense. Although that one seems to be geared more to the potential club gain because of the winter sports postponement. My question is yes people are obviously upset that there will be no HS basketball or Soccer. What would it take for people to accept that fact? Meaning would hundreds of people who were at a given game have to pass away? Would a well known head coach have to die? Honestly I'm asking does the show always have to go on or does something catostrophic have to happen for people to say maybe we should hold off for a bit?

This will open the flood gates for the club teams. Feel terrible for the players and coaches. Arizona already has a MAJOR club scene for basketball and soccer, with this further more damage and deprioritize (made up word) Winter High School sports programs!?