Sahuarita football enters the season poised for a playoff appearance with a tougher non-region schedule, a restructured region and several key returning players following last season’s region title —its first since 2013.
The title marked an incredible turnaround for the program that went 3-26 in the previous three years before first-year head coach Jake Allen arrived.
Allen earned region coach of the year honors, but the strength of schedule weighed heavily on keeping the Mustangs from the postseason.
Sahuarita finished the season ranked No. 25 in the 4A seedings and missed out on the 16-team state playoff bracket despite a 7-3 season and an undefeated record in 4A Gila.
For some perspective, Phoenix-Deer Valley went 9-1 and still finished three spots out of the 4A 16-team state playoff bracket.
Allen enters his second season at the helm poised for a playoff appearance with a much tougher non-region schedule, a restructured region and several key returning players.
“We wanted to learn from that, so that we’re in the driver’s seat, and if we don’t make the playoffs, it’s because of us, and not because we didn’t get a strong enough opponent on a formula that didn’t get us in.”
Heading into last season, Allen made T-shirts and hats that simply read “Grit.” The word sums up the culture Allen instilled with the team, and the mantra isn’t being replaced anytime soon.
“It’s grit, grit with a side of grits. And that’s, that’s all we focus on. It’s not an acronym. We haven’t come up with a new saying. I think it’s going to be grit until we die around here,” Allen said. “The boys have bought into it. The campus is bought into grit. It’s an easy word to understand, and it’s a really versatile word when it’s the center of your culture.”
Sahuarita’s non-region schedule includes a renewed in-town rivalry game in its season-opener at Walden Grove on Aug. 28. It will be the first time the two varsity football programs have played each other since Walden Grove’s 56-7 victory in 2022.
After an on-field skirmish in 2015, the rivalry was paused for six seasons before a brief return. It was put on hold again when Walden Grove moved from the 4A Gila region to 4A Kino after the 2022 season.
Allen and Walden Grove head coach Corey Noble worked behind the scenes to bring the rivalry back, hoping it will be a yearly tradition.
“It’s hard to put into words, because there’s so many variables at play. Neither team knows what the other one’s going to bring to the table because there’s no film. You don’t know. There’s so many question marks, and the only thing that’s not a question mark is how intense the rivalry is,” Allen said.
Allen believes the football rivalry has the potential to match the intensity of the two schools’ wrestling programs, which are perennially state-title contenders. Sahuarita has won the last four Division III titles, while Walden Grove claimed one in 2019.
“We believe that Sahuarita football is of that caliber,” Allen said. “If we do our job to match the standard Walden Grove has set, we want to allow iron to sharpen iron every year… We want to have a rivalry game with them where the entire town comes out, and we get to showcase what this community does in regards to football.”
The Mustangs’ schedule also includes an away game against defending state champion Mica Mountain on Sept. 26.
“We can’t say we want our name on the map in southern Arizona or the state if we’re not willing to play teams like Mica Mountain,” Allen said. “So, we’re going to embrace the challenge.”
The Mustangs’ region has also changed, with Pueblo High School added and Douglas and Amphitheater departing. The Oct. 24 road game against Pueblo holds extra meaning for Allen, who coached there for four seasons before taking the Sahuarita job, bringing several coaches with him.
“They’ll be a good program, and hopefully there’ll be some region ramifications on the line when we play them late in the year,” Allen said. “Those are the kind of moments that you kind of live for that get your heart beat up a little bit.”
Big names
The success of the Mustangs’ season may hinge on their offensive line, which returns five starters — Ahmad Remigio, Logan Jessie, Mikey Lopez, Brandon Carroll and first team all-region player Isaiah Castillo. Allen says the group is one of the best he has coached.
“Our offensive line will be the heartbeat of our team, and they’re one of the more special O-line groups I’ve been around in my career,” Allen said.
Junior quarterback Rasheed Martin is another key returner. Martin, a sophomore captain last season, anchored the offense during the team’s six-game winning streak to close the year after returning from an early season injury.
Martin earned second-team all-region recognition for his efforts.
Allen said he and his staff spent the offseason holding Martin to a higher standard by having him study the offense and opposing defenses.
“Now he understands the offense like the back of his hand,” Allen explained. “I told him the other day, ‘You got the keys to the car; you’re driving it, not me,’ and we trust him. We’re letting him make a lot of decisions on the field.”
Martin says he’s ready for the challenge, seeing his growth as a continuous process.
“I feel like it’s just a constant growth and a constant, you know, progression of getting better,” Martin said.
Senior running back and hybrid safety-linebacker Will Thwaits, a second-team all-region player in his junior season, is expected to be a major impact player on both sides of the ball this season after putting on significant size and increasing his speed and confidence.
“He’s going to be a problem,” Allen said of Thwaits.
A four-year starter, Thwaits was part of the 0-10 team his freshman year.
“You go from no hope to all hope,” he said. “Now that we’ve made it, it’s definitely just been from the biggest low you can go to the high. I’ve been very grateful that I’ve been able to get some success out of this.”
Another returning player to look out for is Sergio Burgos Jr., who earned first-team all-region accolades at linebacker last season as a sophomore.
Junior running back Trent Hubble moved from linebacker to safety in the offseason, and is expected by Allen to have a big impact this season.
Hubble, who played youth football with several Walden Grove players, is looking forward to the rivalry game this season.
“It’s very exciting, because those guys are my brothers right there. But second that game starts, you know, it’s all competition,” he said,
The Mustangs also return one of the state’s best kickers in senior Raphael Villa Arzate.
Arzate is ranked No. 9 in the Arizona Republic’s top-10 list of the best high school kickers and punters in the state. He is also among the top 100 kickers in the country, according to Kohl’s Professional Camps’ 2026 National Kicker Ratings, and earned first-team all-region honors last season.
“It just feels amazing representing Sahuarita like this, and just putting in all that work about finally pays off,” Arzate said of the offseason recognition.
Allen noted that having a kicker of Arzate’s caliber is invaluable.
“It means the world in high school football to have a kicker like that, because we can control a lot of field position and offensive possessions, making sure that we get points,” Allen said.
While Allen acknowledges that last season’s success set a new standard, he remains focused on the future.
“We have no wins under our belt for this year, and we are just completely focused on the future. That gave us a stepping stone,” he said. “I told the seniors last year, ‘You built the foundation.’ Now we need to build the house.”
Sahuarita plays at Walden Grove on Aug. 28 at 7 p.m.
2025 Schedule
August 28: at Walden Grove Red Wolves
September 5: vs. Desert Sunrise Golden Hawks
September 12: at Nogales Apaches
September 19: vs. Sahuaro Cougars
September 26: at Mica Mountain Thunderbolts
October 3: vs. Rio Rico Hawks
October 10: vs. Rincon/University Rangers
October 17: at Empire Ravens October 24: at Pueblo Warriors
October 31: vs. Cholla Chargers
All games are scheduled to kick off at 7:00 pm.
FOLLOW @KEVINMURFEE ON TWITTER! ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com writer Kevin Murphy was born and raised in Tucson, and has followed Arizona Wildcats athletics since childhood. Murphy is a journalist product manager with the Green Valley News & the Sahuarita Sun. He has a bachelor’s degree from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU.
