An interview with Salpointe coach Eric Rogers on Saturday at the Ed Doherty Award ceremony at Scottsdale included comments about these topics:
— His senior linebacker Davian Miranda-Carrasco earning the Ed Doherty Award Impact Award given to a player who is highly involved in the community.
— The Lancers’ successful 11-3 season reaching the 5A state championship game under the senior leadership of Miranda-Carrasco (a linebacker), quarterback Treyson Bourguet, running back Anthony Wilhite, cornerback Antonio Martinez, linebacker Joey Sumlin, and safeties Cruz Rushing and Cody Raetzman.
— His son Jake, who led the Tucson Jaguars 13U team to the AYF national tournament earlier this month, becoming a freshman with the Lancers next season.
— The AIA proposing for Salpointe to move from the 5A to the 6A level next season in football.
“I think it’s a tremendous honor, to be honest with you, for them to recognize us as one of the top schools in the state and wanting us to play at the 6A level,” Rogers said. “That’s a tribute to our kids. That’s a tribute to our program, the coaching staff and all the kids that have come before us because it’s not just a body of work for this last year. It’s a body of work over several years and for all those kids should take honor and respect and love the fact that we’ve had some really really good football teams.
“I mean, we’re gonna have a lot of work to do. No doubt about it. I don’t control that so I don’t worry about it. We’ll play whatever schedule they put ahead of us.”
Salpointe has the opportunity to appeal the AIA’s decision and try to stay in 5A.
Programs have until Wed., Jan. 5 (2 p.m.) to appeal. The AIA Executive Board will announce all decisions on Jan. 18.
The deadline for region placements by the conferences is Jan. 25 and the deadline to appeal region placements is Feb. 8. Region decisions will be made on Feb. 22 and football scheduling runs from Feb. 23 to March 11. Schedules will be posted on Mar. 17.
“I’ve got to sit down with the school; it really won’t be necessarily up to me, per se,” Rogers said of a potential appeal. “They might ask me my opinion. For the most part, we’ll sit down as a school and we’ll decide what’s best and what we need to do for the school’s sake. At the end the day, it’s about the school, so whatever they feel is best, I’ll be all for it.”
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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. He became an educator five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District
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