A new high school football season is upon us, and marking that occasion again is the Coaches for Charity Kickoff Classic this week with the featured opener Flowing Wells at Canyon Del Oro on Thursday night.
Coaches for Charity started its celebration of the opening week — and its fundraising effort — with Saturday’s luncheon at the Sabbar Shrine. Seven teams and their coaching staffs were on hand. Phoenix Maryvale, which plays at Tucson on Friday, could not make the event after its bus broke down near Casa Grande.
The mood was festive in the banquet room other than talented CDO running back Stevie Rocker not able to make an appearance because of a recent ankle injury suffered against Walden Grove in a scrimmage.
Stevie Rocker | Class of 2021 Running Back | Canyon Del Oro High School, AZ from Next Level Films on Vimeo.
Rocker, a junior, who rushed for 1,163 yards and 12 touchdowns, was hurt near the end of a run when he was pulled by his jersey and landed awkwardly.
CDO coach Dustin Peace said an MRI taken of Rocker’s ankle Saturday will reveal the extent of the injury. He said he anticipates that Rocker will miss a few weeks.
“That’s when you find out what type of team you have,” Peace said. “Can we respond? Do we have a team or do we have a couple of stars? Our staff has been through that before. We had another little kid named Ka’Deem Carey.
“He was injured his senior year and we played in the state championship and he couldn’t finish certain runs that he normally would walk in with. We still had a great team and we played several games without him. (Rocker’s injury) will give us that early test, so when Stevie does come back, and we’ve accomplished what we’ve accomplished — with his help too in a different role — we’ll just take that next step.”
Despite the absence of Rocker, Peace kept a positive outlook in front of his team and the crowd at the Sabbar Shrine banquet room. The following are videos of the coaches of the teams involved with the opening week of games as part of the Coaches for Charity Kickoff Classic.
Phoenix Maryvale at Tucson High
Friday at 7 p.m.
Tucson High School coach Justin Argraves
Rio Rico at Pusch Ridge
Friday at 7 p.m.
Rio Rico coach Kevin Kuhm
Pusch Ridge coach Jerry Harris
Buena at Catalina Foothills
Friday at 7 p.m.
Catalina Foothills coach Darius Kelly
Buena coach Joe Thomas
Flowing Wells at CDO
Thursday at 7 p.m.
Flowing Wells coach Scott Cortese
CDO coach Dustin Peace
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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