As Cienega High School routed Salpointe Catholic 51-14 Friday night, I got my first extended look at Cienega junior quarterback Jamarye Joiner, who has committed to play at Arizona beginning in 2018.
Three words: Oh. My. Goodness.
Joiner isn’t a top-level passer yet — he is 31 for 61 for 695 yards in Cienega’s 6-0 start — but he is everything else. You can picture him as a shutdown cornerback, or an option QB. He is about 6 feet 2 inches and closer to 200 pounds than 180. He is a game-changer, averaging 9 yards per carry.
By my count, since World War II, only seven scholarship quarterbacks from Tucson schools have become starters at FBS colleges: Tucson’s Fred W. Enke at Arizona; Tucson’s Pat Flood at Navy; Amphi’s Jim Krohn at Arizona; Mountain View’s James MacPherson at Wake Forest; Sahuaro’s Reggie Robertson at Cal; Salpointe’s Tyler Graunke at Hawaii and Sahuaro’s Rodney Peete at USC.
Cienega coach Pat Nugent couldn’t have timed it better, going from his post as Pima College’s head coach to Cienega. How many times, especially in Tucson, do you inherit a QB like Joiner?
But it’s not like Nugent isn’t due; he left the head coaching job at CDO just as Ka’Deem Carey and that group led the 14-0 Dorados to the 2009 state championship. Cienega still has one major test — Oct. 21 against 5-1 Ironwood Ridge — before it can start thinking about the state playoffs.
But if Joiner is your QB, you’ve got a chance against anybody.
