This is the 16th installment of “Old Pueblo Abuelo,” a Sunday night thought on positive things happening in the Old Pueblo from a sometimes cranky and often times humorous grandfather actually born in Tucson and writing from my desk in Tucson.…
The high school championship season is upon us, and most media eyes will be on football, but there’s so much more. Golf for instance.
Salpointe senior Mackenzie McRee walked off the 18th hole at the Omni Tucson National Sonoran Course last Tuesday for the last time in her high school career and she walked off as a champion. McRee won a state championship as a freshman in 2018 and she did it again as a senior. Had she been a standout running back you would have seen her name in print somewhere. Heck, the coverage would have been way overblown even if she was a 2-star QB with two state titles.
Ironwood Ridge girls golf coach, Doug Kautz, led the Nighthawks to their third straight state championship while going an incredible 45-0 this year. Had he done that in basketball……
Then, on Thursday of last week, Ironwood Ridge sophomore Brasen Briones picked up his state championship at the Omni Tucson National, turning back golfers with commitments to Division I programs in the process. Imagine if he was a pitcher on a baseball team?
More “Old Pueblo Abuelo” can be found here.
This is the world we live in. Actually, some of you live in that world, I do my best to honor all the high school kids, regardless of gender or sport and this coming week will be packed with plenty for everyone – even the football only crowd.
The Division I golf championships are this week, the girls volleyball postseason starts on Tuesday night, the fall soccer playoffs start on Tuesday at St. Augustine, the various cross country levels of competition are racing on Wednesday at Buena High School to decide which runners will advance to state and the various state swim meets will begin on Friday. Heck, St. David is competing in the 8-man football semifinals on Saturday.
As for higher levels of football, Benson and Willcox made the 2A playoffs and Pusch Ridge and Sabino made the 3A playoffs. Look for those games on Friday night.
There’s plenty to see and plenty of athletes to cheer for this week. Here is the playoff schedule, these athletes wear the same colors as their Friday Night classmates.
LINK: FALL PLAYOFF SCHEDULE
FOLLOW @ANDYMORALES8 ON TWITTER
Andy Morales was recognized by the AIA as the top high school reporter in 2014, he was awarded the Ray McNally Award in 2017, a 2019 AZ Education News award winner and he has been a youth, high school and college coach for over 30 years. He was the first in Arizona to write about high school beach volleyball and high school girls wrestling. 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 and on AZPreps365.com. Andy is the Southern Arizona voting member of the Ed Doherty Award, recognizing the top football player in Arizona, and he was named a Local Hero by the Tucson Weekly for 2016. Andy was named an Honorary Flowing Wells Caballero in 2019, became a member of the Sunnyside Los Mezquites Cross Country Hall of Fame in 2021 and he was a member of the Amphi COVID-19 Blue Ribbon Committee and he earned a Distinguished Service Award from Amphitheater. Contact Andy Morales at amoralesmytucson@yahoo.com
Recommended for you
