My two cents: Resources give Phoenix schools advantage
Two weeks ago, I sat in the gymnasium at Sunnyside High School, watching as Rob Harrison and assistant Dwight Rees prepared the Blue Devils for the postseason.
“We’ve got neighborhood kids,” said Harrison. “This is true high school basketball.”
The Blue Devils, 25-6, were eliminated in the state quarterfinals last week by upscale Shadow Mountain High School, a team overseen and operated by Mike Bibby — yes, THAT Mike Bibby — which is a high-profile, high-pressure program.
It’s 180 degrees different from Sunnyside, and also Cholla, which finished 25-2 after losing in the state quarterfinals.
“Our kids can’t afford to go to clinics and camps in the summer,” said Cholla coach Masai Dean. “They’re more like real high school students. They do other things. It’s not 24/7 for them.”
An eleventh-hour fundraising campaign at Cholla helped the Chargers raise enough money to rent a 55-seat, tourist-level bus for players, support staff and coaches to take to Phoenix for last week’s quarterfinals. That’s the game at its most genuine level.
At the highest line of prep basketball in Arizona, the Tucson teams don’t have the resources of Phoenix superpowers like Gilbert Christian and Shadow Mountain.
In various divisions, Tucson teams have only won three bigger-school boys state basketball championships dating to 2001. It might take 25 years to get three more.
