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Over the next week or so, we will be introducing our readers to all the local sports anchors responsible for making Friday Nights come alive in your living room.
Today: Brad Allis
Brad Allis has been covering local sports from youth through college for well over a decade now. He is the Dean of high school sports coverage in Southern Arizona. He was the face of the Tucson Citizen high school coverage and was easily identifiable at games. His presence at high school games (and not just the playoffs) has been a model we tried to duplicate at the old TucsonCitizen.com site and now at AllSportsTucson.com.
His extensive work can be seen at tucsonlocalmedia.com
In his own words:
I moved to Tucson nearly 40 years ago and attended Wrightstown, Gridley and Sahuaro before five years at the UofA. After “playing” freshman football at Sahuaro, the rest of the players kept growing and I did not. My junior year I began writing for the school newspaper, but I assumed my path was going to be writing and drawing comic books.
While drawing a cartoon at the Daily Wildcat, I left a picture of Charles Barkley on the dry erase board of my dad’s office one day while waiting for meal money. It was seen by the publisher of the old Cat Tracks Magazine and I started doing Illustrations for them and that morphed into a part time writing gig.
Eventually I began working full time for Cat Tracks and still ran a spin-off website. I began covering high school sports as a stringer for the Tucson Citizen, while coaching freshman and JV football for a few years at Cholla, and eventually full time for the Marana Weekly News nearly a decade ago.
Last year the Marana News was purchased by the Explorer and I expanded my coverage to the entire Northwest. There is nothing better than the lights coming on Friday night, though it makes me regret not trying to be a 5-1 offensive lineman (hey, I sprouted to 5-6 in college) on a team with future Wildcats Mike Ciasca, Joe Lohmeir and a few walk-ons from my 1991 graduating class.
As much as I love high school football, I have begun to love all prep sports, though I have to admit I have grown to really enjoy softball and wrestling and I won my first journalism award profiling a cross country runner. My goal with prep sports is to shine a positive light on the kids in this town who work so hard, whether they are the college-bound stars or the last kid on the bench who works so hard for the good of the team and the love of the game.”
PAUL CICALA
DAMIEN ALAMEDA
JASON BARR
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Andy Morales was recognized by the AIA as the top high school reporter in 2014 and has been a youth, high school and college coach for over 30 years. His own children have won multiple state high school championships and were named to all-state teams. Competing in hockey, basketball, baseball and track & field in high school, his unique perspective can only be found here, on AZPreps365.com and on the pages of the Vail Voice and the Tanque Verde Voice. Contact Andy Morales at AMoralesMyTucson@yahoo.com
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