2024 High School Football

2024 Southern Arizona high school football schedules: 5A Southern

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NOTE: With the AIA officially releasing the 2024 football schedules recently, AllSportsTucson.com will take a look at the schedules of each region 1A-6A in Southern Arizona in a series of posts. Click on the conference to access the stories in the series.
1A South
2A San Pedro
3A South
4A Gila
4A Kino
5A Sonoran
5A Southern (this post)
6A Central (upcoming)

Marana coach Phillip Steward faces an arduous schedule in 2024 but that’s what he prefers. Three of the home games are highly anticipated against Salpointe, reigning 5A champ Higley and rival Mountain View (Andy Morales/AllSportsTucson.com)

5A SOUTHERN SCHEDULING NOTES:

— The 5A Southern and 5A Sonoran are the only Southern Arizona regions that do not have new coaches leading a program. The 5A Southern has three coaches who are at least in their 13th year as a head coach — Buena’s Joe Thomas (13th year), Desert View’s Robert Bonillas (15th) and Cienega’s Justin Argraves (15th).

— Thomas will earn his 50th career win with a victory. He is 49-66 after starting his career at 0-21 at Buena after going 11-19 in three years at his alma mater Tombstone. So, after being 11-40 in the sixth year of his coaching career, he is 38-26 since. Buena has tough region games on the road against Casa Grande and Marana but close the season with three of its last four games at home. The Colts’ lone game against a team outside of Southern Arizona is at Fairfax in Phoenix to start the season. The Stampede went 0-10 last season.

— Casa Grande, in its third season under coach Mark Luna, hosts 4A juggernaut Mica Mountain before starting its region schedule begins at home against Buena on Oct. 4. The Cougars must play at region foes Marana and Sunnyside but end the season with home games against Desert View and Cienega.

— The AIA schedulers did not give Cienega any favors in 2024. Argraves must get through a schedule with the Bobcats that includes only four home games and three sets of back-to-back road games. Three of Cienega’s five region games are on the road, including the last two with extended trips to Buena and Casa Grande. Cienega hosts 6A team Desert Vista (that went 2-8 last year) in the season opener. The Bobcats opened at Desert Ridge last year but won’t get a return visit.

— Bonillas can reach his 50th win at Desert View with two victories. After playing the first two games in the Phoenix area against Willow Canyon and North, Desert View will play four consecutive home games from Sept. 13 to Oct. 11. The Jaguars play three of their last four games on the road with the lone home game in that stretch against Marana. The season concludes at district rival Sunnyside, which has won the last two meetings and leads the series 16-5.

— One of the most anticipated games in Southern Arizona includes Marana, with fourth-year coach Phillip Steward, facing perennial power Salpointe at home in the season-opener Aug. 30. The Lancers won last year’s game 35-14 at Doherty Stadium after a lightning delay of almost two hours. Marana then plays a tough game at Tucson High followed by a home game with defending 5A state champion Higley on Sept. 13. The Boot rivalry game with Mountain View at home follows with the Tigers looking to avenge last year’s 42-35 loss to the Mountain Lions. Marana nearly won at Higley last year. The Tigers lost 29-24. Four of the last six games for Marana are on the road.

— Sunnyside coach Thomas Romack starts his third season with finally no scheduling concerns involving home games. The Blue Devils did not play a game at home in the 2022 season, Romack’s first year, because of delays installing turf on the field. Last season, Sunnyside played its first three games on the road. This season, Sunnyside gets a reprieve playing its first three games at home and the Blue Devils play three of their region games at home, including against rival Desert View to end the regular season. Sunnyside at Mica Mountain in a non-region game Sept. 20 is one to watch. The Thunderbolts won 35-7 at Sunnyside last year.

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2024 SOUTHERN ARIZONA COACHING CHANGES

SchoolClassFormer coachNew coach
Benson2ADustin CluffChris Rasmussen
Bisbee2AShawn HolleyCarlos Lopez
Canyon del Oro4ADustin PeaceScott McKee
Catalina 2AGreg McKinstry IIIAndy Fetsis
Catalina Foothills4ADaniel SainzGreg McKinstry III
Cholla4AVirgil HendersonPaul Tripp
Desert Christian1A(New program)Jason McKibben
Morenci3ARishard DavisFrankie Gonzalez
Pueblo4AJake AllenSly Lewis
Rincon/University4AKhyree CopelandJohnny Chan
Rio Rico4AJeff ScurranCarlos Duran
Sahuarita4AJake PriceJake Allen
Salpointe6AEric RogersPat Ryden
Willcox2AEric HjalmarsonJeston Lotts
Rasmussen, Lopez, Fetsis, Tripp, McKibben, Gonzalez, Lewis, Chan, Duran and Ryden are in their first stints as head coaches in football.

5A SONORAN

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4K KINO

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4A GILA

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3A SOUTH

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2A SAN PEDRO

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1A CONFERENCE

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FOLLOW @JAVIERJMORALES ON TWITTER!

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 in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.

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