Arizona High School Sports - SportZine Magazine

    Persistence is one of the most important life skills, whether on the athletic field or off. Quinton Watson learned that early.
    Watson is the most recent Play It Smart National Student-Athlete of the Month selected by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame (NFF). He's an honor roll student and three-sport star in football, basketball, and track.
    But it took overcoming a serious setback for Watson, who just finished his junior year at Huguenot High School in Richmond, Va., to get where he is today. And he wants other high school athletes to learn from his experiences.
    As a freshman, Watson had better than a 3.0 grade average, was an honorable mention athlete, and a budding football star for Huguenot.  Then he broke his left femur in his sophomore year and was sidelined from sports.   "When I broke my leg, I was really upset, and completely shut down. I didn't know how to deal with the injuries," he says now.
    Watson says Play It Smart, an eductional program developed by NFF and targeted at high school football players from economincally disadvantaged environmens, helped him realize that things don't always work out with sports, and it's important to have a back-up plan. So he began working with his academic coach (provided by Play It Smart) and teachers to improve his time management and study skills, which enabled him to renew his focus and raise his GPA back to a 3.4 this past year. He also got back on the football field and racked up three touchdowns and 230 yards. (continued next page...)

The Arizona Junior Sunbelt Team has returned from its title defense at the 13^th annual Junior Sunbelt Classic in McAlester, Okla., with some success - but not the repeat championship it was looking for. Last year’s Junior Sunbelt team was the first Arizona team since the state joined the tournament in 1997 to win the event.
Team Arizona, which included players from 13 different high schools, finished third after defeating Team Tennessee, 9-7, in the prestigious10-team event that included teams from Oklahoma, Tennessee, Canada, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Missouri, and

Ohio.
   This year’s title went to Team Georgia, which scored 12 runs in the second inning of the championship game against Team Texas, and then went on to a 21-2 route in just five innings of play. The final was played at Eastern Oklahoma State College.
   In addition to Mountain Ridge pitcher, Cody Gray, pictured here (photo by Porky Falcon, McAlester News-Capital) the Arizona roster included: Josh Alexander, p/of, Mountain Pointe HS; Austin Arias, c, Centennial HS; Jaycob Brugman, p/of, Desert Vista HS; Kasey Coffman, 1B/3B, Brophy Prep; Jake Cole, p/1B, Sahuaro HS; Joey Danner, p/1B, Horizon HS; Zach Davies, p/If, Mesquite HS; Taylor Erwin, p/1B, Willow Canyon HS; Dillen Everett, If, Horizon HS; Travis Flores, p/3B, Desert Ridge; Rocky High, p/of, Mesquite HS; Jacob Hunter, p/If, Salpointe HS; Tyler Kamtz, p/of, Gilbert HS; Taylor Lindsey, If/of, Desert Mountain HS; James McDonald, If, Chaparral HS; Jake Peevyhouse, p/of, Pinnacle HS; D.J. Peterson, If, Gilbert HS; Greg Ryan, p/of, Corona del Sol HS; Jose Sierra, c, Tolleson HS.

    Contrary to logical assumptions, football doesn't die out in the heat of an Arizona summer. The Arizona Football Coaches Association All Star games will be played this weekend at Surprise Stadium. Two teams from a combined 2A-3A division will take the field Friday night at 7 pm, and the 4A-5A squads play Saturday night at the same time.
    Fans of high school football will get a chance to see some of the state's best offensive running back and quarterbacks on the same field, including Centennial High School's talented tailback John Hughes, who was instrumental in the school winning this year's 5A-II title; halfback Shad Bride of St. Johns High School; and quarterback Matt Inman from Yuma Catholic High School.
    Bride racked up 105 touchdowns during his career, a state record, while Inman set his own career passing and scoring records this year.

This year, the Team of Physicians for Students (T.O.P.S.) program gave free physicals to 2,328 Arizona high school athletes from 68 different schools. And on July 18 the free physicals will be offered for junior college athletes at Midwestern University in Glendale.

Program representatives estimate that each physical would cost about $1,000 if administered by private physicians. This is the 44^th year for the program and this year there were about 250 medical students and a similar number of physicians participating. All volunteered their time, as did the cardiologists from the Arizona Heart Institute who read the ECGs.

What’s important to note is that roughly 25%of all those tested showed abnormal electrical activity in the heart! More than 100 athletes tested had high blood pressure… and almost 600 had abnormal electrical heart activity. The program is even credited with saving at least one athlete’s life when, several years ago, the physicals uncovered a life-threatening genetic disorder in one participant!

Each year the TOPS program gains in popularity and attendance. This year, many students stood in lines for five hours to receive the free physicals.

For more information about the program: www.aztops.org or 602-336-7840.

    Jared Morrison wrapped up his senior season on the Mountain Pointe boys volleyball team with a hitting percentage of 50 per cent, something few players ever achieve, and then capped off a great team season by being named Boys Volleyball Player of the Year.
    His outstanding play this year also resulted in a second straight 5A-I state title for The Pride.
    Morrison, who is normally an outside hitter, found himself also playing setter this year. He had 161 kills and 38 aces on the season. He was named the team's Most Valuable Player and also earned MVP honors in two tournaments during the course of the season, and then ran the table by being selected Player of the Year for the Div. I Central Region.
    Joining Morrison on the All-Arizona first team: Colin Kennedy, senior, Sahuaro HS; Pat Tunnell, senior, Salpointe Catholic HS; Parker Del Re, senior, Highland HS; Jordan Sunderhaus, senior, Red Mountain HS; and Garrett Voge, senior, Catalina Foothills HS. Second team honors: Kevin Villela, junior, Deer Valley HS; Alex Hamill, senior, Mountain Pointe HS; Jeff Dumbrell, senior, Boulder Creek HS; Kyle Webb, junior, Gilbert HS; Nate Usevitch, senior, Mesquite HS; and Kyle Tatum, senior, Sahuaro HS.
    Honorable mentions... (continued next page)

    A new study is telling athletes at all levels that it's just plain stupid to return to play too quickly after suffering a concussion on the field.
    The study was done by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH. It adds to the growing concern in the sports community about the long-term effects of concussions, and whether schools have adequately-trained personnel on the sidelines to make sound decisions about these injuries.
    An article by Janice Lloyd in USA Today points out the latest research indicates as many as 40.5% of the athletes that suffer concussions return to play too soon, and that concussions account for almost one in 10 of sports injuries. And, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 3.5 million sports-related concussions occur each year in the U.S.
    In fact, one set of statistics claims that 16 per cent of football players said they returned to the field on the same day the concussion occurred. The majority of concussions apparently occur in football and girls soccer.
    One state, Washington, has even enacted a law that regulates when a high school athlete can return to games after sustaining a concussion.  It's call Zackery Lystedt's Law, named after a 16-year-old football player who suffered a brain injury in 2006 after returning to play after suffering a concussion.
    The law, which is the first of its kind in the country, stipulates that a youth athlete who suffers a concussion cannot return to the activity until he/she has written consent from a health provider. (continued next page)

    The small schools put gave fans at this year's Arizona state softball championships a little bit of everything...
    Blue Ridge HS had to beat the same team three times to earn its first-ever state softball title in 3A, while Joseph City HS was putting the 1A crown on for the seventh time in 10 years, and Camp Verde HS had to rally from a two-run deficit to earn its 2A championship.
    The 3A title game matched Blue Ridge and Winslow for the third time this year, and Blue Ridge pulled out a third win, 7-3, behind pitching from Jennifer Yazzie and Mallory Smith. In 2A, Camp Verde knocked off Willcox, 4-2, after falling behind right off the bat when Sam Miller scored two runs with a long double to center field. And 1A play was more dramatic - but didn't hold any surprises - as Joseph City jumped to an early 4-0 lead and went on to defeat Valley Union HS (Elfrida), 10-9, to repeat as state champion.
    Looking back on the key performances... Anya Widmaer's home run for Blue Ridge to tie the game at 3-3 so that teammate Liesl Hall could score the go-ahead run... Camp Verde pitcher Lera Petska who held Willcox scoreless after one inning and then contributed at the plate with an RBI single in the fourth inning... Ashley Slifer's single in the fourth to tie the game at 2-2 by bringing home Kayla Poeppel... another pitcher with an offense, Joseph City's Ivorie Cochran, tripled to get the lead back from Valley Union after they went ahead 9-8... and Otilia Robles and Ariana Zamora accounting for Valley Union's four-run outburst in the fourth inning, Robles with a two-run triple and Zamora with a two-run single.

    A couple of the biggest stories on the high school diamond this weekend...Xavier HS racked up its third straight upset by beating No. 4 Sierra Vista Buena HS to advance to the Pool A finals in the 5A-I state softball tournament, while the Horizon HS boys team scored eight runs to overcome a 5-0 Pinnacle HS lead and win the Pool B contest, 8-7, in Division II play.
    After opening tournament play with a huge upset of No. 1 seed Red Mountain, No. 16 Xavier then knocked off No. 9 seed Mesquite, and now the No. 4 seed. And Horizon HS, although the defending state champion, was seeded No. 3 behind No. 2 Pinnacle HS, which had outscored its first two opponents 19-2.
    In the other baseball games, Corona del Sol HS beat Desert Mountain 9-3 in 5A-I, and Desert Ridge HS rolled past Deer Valley HS , 13-3. On the softball diamond, it was Basha HS over St. Mary's HS, 1-0, and Sunrise Mountain HS also racking up a shutout, 4-0 over Sunnyside HS.
    Reviewing some of the more exciting moments in this round...  Justin Rosales hitting an inside-the-park grand slam for Hamilton, as they tried to rally from a 10-4 deficit... Horizon's Nick Stein tying the game with Pinnacle at 7-7, and then Dillon Engelhart notching the winning run on a single to right in the final inning; Brandon Snyder came to the mound for the bottom of the seventh to wrap up the 8-7 win for Horizon... Tyler Wilson coming in as designated hitter for Highland HS to park a home run and tie the game... Xavier's Emma Bogart's RBI double to tie their game with Sierra Vista Buena HS... a one-hitter by Deer Valley's Lauren Haeger, who finished the game with 15 strike-outs to hold Centennial HS scoreless... and Centennial's own Morgan Montemayor, pitching a four-hit gem of her own... and an all-around effort by Deer Valley's Clair Zampini, who beat out an infield hit and then stole second base to be able to eventually score the final run in the upset over No. 2 Centennial.

    Marcus Lattimore (photo left), a powerful 207 lb. running back from Byrnes High School in Duncan, SC, was named the No. 1 player in the 2010 class as Sporting News Today released it's Top 100 list of recruits.
    The list of players was selected based on discussions with 300 players in the 2010 class. In addition to the usual talent factor, SN also worked character and maturity into the criteria for inclusion in this inaugural list. Lattimore has not committed to a college yet, but made a visit to Auburn.
    Here's who made the top 20 on the list:
    2) Lache Seastrunk, 5'10" runnng back from Temple HS in Texas 3) Seantrel Henderson, 301 lb. offensive lineman from Cretin-Durham Hall HS in Saint Paul, Minn. 4) Lamarcus Joyner, 5'9" RB from St. Thomas Aquinas HS in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 5) Matt Elam, 205 lb. DB from Dwyer HS in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. 6) Justin McCay, 6'4" WR from Bishop Miege HS in Shawnee Mission, Kan. 7) Jamel Turner, 205 lb. defensive lineman from Ursuline HS in Youngstown, OH 8) Corey Nelson, 200 lb. LB from Skyline HS in Dallas, TX 9) Gabe King, 230 lb. defensive lineman from Page HS in Greensboro, NC 10) DeMarco Cobbs, 6'2" WR from Central HS in Tulsa, OK (continued)

    As Ninento's Wii Fit game approaches the one-year celebration of it's launch, it finds itself the best-selling video game in the country during January and February of this year. More than 6 million units have been sold!
    The enormously popular game seems to be making some positive contributions to helping our young people stay in better physical shape. And, as usually happens, one hot-selling item leads to the birth of others. Gold's Gym Cardio Workout has just premiered as the next-in-line "exergame."
    Kim Painter points out in an article in USA Today that the American Council on Exercise and researchers at the University of Mississippi are conducting studies to find out how much good these games are actually doing for our physical well-being.
    Looking ahead to the future, Stephen Yang, an assistant professor of physical education at State University of New York-Cortland is also quoted in the article as predicting that "the future will bring games that track heart rates and keep exercisers working at a challenging but safe pace.
    The next thing to look for... Yang says it's virtual group workouts, where participants are connected online to a live coach. Everything will be done in the comfort and privacy of the individual's home.
    Before long, the local gym may be going the way of Detroit car dealerships!