Team Sites
In our efforts to develop WIN-WIN relationships with the high school football community, we will use the concept of sharing. This is where we will list the football web sites for each of the 6A and 5A schools. There is just one stipulation: You, in turn, must have a link to GRIDIRON ARIZONA on YOUR site!
Basha: http://bashabearsfootball.com
Boulder Creek: www.bchsjagsfootball.com
Brophy: www.brophyfootball.org/home.html
Cienega: http://class.vail.k12.az.us/chs-football
Desert Vista: www.dvhsfootball.com
Dobson: http://dobsonmustangs.com
Hamilton: www.hamiltonhuskiesfootball.com
Highland: http://highlandhawksfootball.com
North: www.northmustangsfootball.com
Sunnyslope: www.sunnyslopefootball.com
Arizona HS football archives: www.azfootballarchives.com
Some love to our northern Arizona readers: http://flagcoco.com/index.php
Don't see your team's site on here? Get your school to include GRIDIRON ARIZONA as a link on your site, then send us an e-mail and we'll include you on this list!
REGION STANDINGS
6A:
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Corona del Sol | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Desert Ridge | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Desert Vista | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Highland | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Mountain Pointe | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Queen Creek | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Boulder Creek | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Chaparral | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Liberty | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Mountain Ridge | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| O'Connor | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Pinnacle | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Dobson | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Mesa | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Mesa Mountain View | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Red Mountain | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Skyline | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Westwood | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Alhambra | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Cesar Chavez | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Maryvale | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| North | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Trevor Browne | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Tucson | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Basha | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Brophy | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Chandler | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Hamilton | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Perry | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Cibola | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Kofa | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Copper Canyon | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| La Joya | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Shadow Ridge | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Tolleson | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Valley Vista | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Westview | 0-0 | 0-0 |
5A:
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Agua Fria | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Goldwater | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Independence | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Millennium | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Verrado | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Willow Canyon | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Cactus Shadows | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Desert Mountain | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Horizon | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| McClintock | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| North Canyon | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Notre Dame | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Paradise Valley | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Apollo | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Centennial | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Ironwood | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Kellis | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Sunnyslope | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Sunrise Mountain | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Campo Verde | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Casteel | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Gilbert | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Higley | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Maricopa | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Williams Field | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Cholla | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Desert View | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Empire | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Flowing Wells | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Marana Mountain View | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Rincon | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Buena | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Cienega | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Ironwood Ridge | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Marana | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Nogales | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Sunnyside | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Region | Overall | |
|---|---|---|
| Camelback | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Carl Hayden | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Central | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Fairfax | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Sierra Linda | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| South Mountain | 0-0 | 0-0 |
Welcome to Gridiron Arizona
Heading to the title game for 9th year...who will be there?
WELCOME BLOG: 6/3/17
These are difficult times in the world of sports media. Newspapers are slashing coverage of high school sports. Recruiting services have done likewise to longtime members of their staffs. Some local television stations are almost ignoring sports coverage completely. We won't even get started on ESPN. And after eight years of covering high school football for the top two conferences in Arizona, Gridiron Arizona is.....
Still here and ready to go for a ninth season of covering the games on Friday night, and features year round!
Welcome (or welcome back) to you the coach, you the player, you the parent, and you the fan. Each of you play a role in this great game whether it is as a mentor, role model, supporter, or the one in between the white lines.
So, what do we have over here at Gridiron Arizona?
It all starts with a picture telling the story at the top of the home page. During the season, it will be an action shot from one of the games across the state. Here, it's simply a reminder of the state championship games that take place at the University of Phoenix (for the 6A at least in 2017). I'm looking forward to being in attendance at the home of the Cardinals once again as a champion is crowned. Will Chandler or Williams Field repeat in 2017? There are several contenders that believe it's their time.
But before all of that transpires on Thanksgiving weekend, there's a lot to talk about. Right now, we are in the 7-on-7 and big man challenge "season". Up until the real thing starts, we'll feature some previews on teams and their outlooks.
Once the season gets underway, I trek out to different points across the Valley; from Anthem to Ahwatukee, from Goodyear to Queen Creek; and all points in between. After getting home from the game, I pull the scores in from around the state and fill in the scoreboard, which will be found on the left side of the home page. Also, a full recap of the game I attended (along with box score) appears on the home page. The weekly schedule is posted each Monday night.
The home page also features the weekly power point computations (in the second half of the season). Follow along each week to see what teams finish in the top 16 to qualify for playoff berths. These are normally updated on Tuesday nights starting in late September.
Check out the team-by-team schedules on just two tabs! We were the first place to post them (back in late April). The 83 schools in 6A and 5A are arranged alphabetically on the A-L and M-Z tabs. Scores will be filled in weekly along with an update on the opponents' records. This Welcome page will also be place to look for region standings. Keep in mind that only the top team from each region is guaranteed a playoff spot. Also, that region winner could supplant a top 16 power point team, if they are ranked below the cutoff mark. The strength of the regions can be seen along the right side of this page. In addition, if you think your team has a tough schedule, you can confirm it by seeing if it's one of the 16 toughest schedules in the state. Last year, Hamilton and Highland played the most difficult slates in Arizona (opponent record of 67-33). With this being Year 2 of the two-year block, the schedule will remain the same for 2017 and the Huskies and Hawks will go through the same teams (sites reversed).
Any fan mail is welcome and gets answered! I can also display it on this page. What do you think of things around here?
The Team Sites page currently lists 10 schools that have taken me up on the concept of sharing and posted a link to Gridiron Arizona on their site. In return, I post their site on my page. There used to be more schools in this space, but (ahem) some of you changed your team's web site and dropped the link to Gridiron Arizona. We're always checking them out!
Come this October, the Realignment Tab will be active once again. Enrollments will be documented as of October 1st and initial conference placements will be made. It remains to be seen if the AIA will separate football out and allow teams to petition up or down in that sport only. For the current block, the sole factor was enrollment followed by an appeal if a team wanted to move all of its sports up or down. Expect some shakeups in the regions as well. Will they be major or minor? We'll just have to wait and see.
The most active area of the site is the Recruiting Page. Starting in March, I set up the junior class ('18 grads) that had four-year college offers. That page has grown throughout the spring as colleges checked out players and distributed some offers out. In the offseason, this page is updated daily and during the season it's refreshed once a week. New this year is a December signing period where athletes can elect to officially commit to their school almost a couple months early and end the recruiting process. How many committed athletes will feel comfortable enough to sign rather that wait until the traditional February date? How many colleges will panic in January because they didn't get as many early signees and dish out some more offers? Questions abound.
If it's been a while since you've visited the site, the last four columns are up on the Recent Columns tab. Along the right side of that page is a complete list of the addresses for all 83 6A and 5A schools for you to figure out where those road games are.
The conversation doesn't just end with the web site. Twitter has certainly become one of my favorite sites on the internet. Join the masses that follow along with Gridiron Arizona here. Updates will be given when columns are posted, the weekly schedule is prepared, and when those results are filled in. Other "bonus features" for the twitter followers year-round are the Quote of the Week, stat leaders, some live in-game tweeting on Football Fridays, and of course, the daily FAST FACT with obscure information about all 83 of the 6A and 5A teams.
You'll notice that the sponsor area (finally) has a participant. I enjoyed going to Willow Canyon last month and covering their Lift-A-Thon run by the company Anython. I highly recommend checking it out for those schools doing fundraisers (which is all of you). They don't need to be alone on each page of the site. There are some expenses involved in running the site and traveling around to provide free weekly coverage to all readers. Don't let this site go the way of cutbacks in other forms of high school sports media! If this is an area that you would like to help out with, please drop me an e-mail.
In closing, thanks to all of those whether it be fellow media members, coaches, team boosters, players, or simply longtime followers. It's hard to believe this little web site is going into its ninth season. May your teams strive to attain their goals in the 2017 season...and if that goal entails a trip to the state finals, I just may see you on the field this November!
PHOTO CAPTION: The Arizona Interscholastic Association is a voluntary association of public and private high schools. Its history goes back to 1913. The AIA mission statement strives to create and sustain an ethical culture through activities that encourage maximum student participation by providing schools with an even playing field to ensure fair and equitable competition in interscholastic activities. The 6A football championship will be held at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale (likely the Friday after Thanksgiving). It's possible the 5A could be played in Tucson this year as ASU hosts Arizona on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and the Cardinals will play the first of three successive home games on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Follow me on: Twitter.com/gridironarizona
