At least 16 Southern Arizona high school football coaches have signed a petition to move the 2020 fall season to the spring of 2021, a collaborative effort they say is “safer and smarter.”
And here’s why it’ll work: it won’t be an imposition on spring sports because there are almost no two-sport and three-sport athletes any more. Additionally, the players won’t have to practice in the unforgiving August and September heat.
Why didn’t anyone think of this earlier?
It’s a commendable idea backed by the biggest names in Southern Arizona prep football: Mountain View’s Matt Johnson, Cienega’s Pat Nugent, CDO’s Dusty Peace, Sahuaro’s Scott McKee, Tucson High’s Justin Argraves, you name it.
Not only should the Arizona Interscholastics Association adopt the move to spring football in 2021, it should strongly consider doing so permanently.
Without a relevant number of multi-sport athletes to force a choice between, say, baseball and football, the sport could be played in the near-perfect weather of March, April and May. Two-a-day drills could be held during spring break.
Hey, it’s not 1985 any more. Who says a high school football game in Arizona should be played — ugh — on Aug. 20, a discomfort to the players, parents, fans, administrators, band, cheerleaders and referees.
This would not have worked 15 or 20 years ago because the evolution of high school sports had not yet moved into the specialization era, in which high the great majority of school athletes have chosen to play just one sport. Club sports have become a year-round enterprise, eliminating the romance of the 20th century’s three-sport athletes.
Here’s how it has changed: In 1997, Tucson High Parade All-American lineman Ralph Zarate, a 5-star recruit who signed with Arizona State, was a double-double power forward for the Badger basketball team. Beyond that, he was a pitcher for the Oscar Romero’s powerhouse Badger baseball team.
Cienega head coach Pat Nugent, center, is one of several local high school coaches who would like to see the 2020 football season pushed back.
Had the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 1997, Zarate would’ve surely had to drop basketball — he averaged 15 points and 14 rebounds per game — a decision that would’ve impacted many other top Tucson athletes of the day.
In 2000, Sahuaro quarterback Reggie Robertson, who led the Cougars to the state championship game and became a part-time starter for the Cal Bears, was also an irreplaceable point guard for Dick McConnell’s state championship basketball team. What’s more, Robertson pitched for the Cougar baseball team as a sophomore and junior.
There are virtually no more Zarates and Robertsons in Tucson prep sports.
Given the new model of high school athletics — the new century of specialization — why not fit football into the schedule where it would be more welcoming for all involved?
What’s history got to do with it anymore? Nothing.
The age of specialization was in full force by 2004. You can make a strong case that Tucson’s high school girls sports Class of 2004 was the most talented in our city’s history. The nine leading female prep athletes of 2004 were the first strong indication that the days of multi-sport athletes were over.
Nine Tucsonans accepted scholarships from Power 5 conference schools in 2004, and only two were multi-sports athletes. It was a glimpse of the future of prep athletics. Here’s the list:
• Salpointe Catholic‘s Sara Brown went to Michigan State. She strictly played golf.
• CDO’s Callista Balko went to Arizona. She was a softball specialist.
• Mountain View’s Lacey Nymeyer went to Arizona. She was a swimmer, period.
• Salpointe’s Sybil Dosty went to Tennessee. She was only a basketball player.
• Catalina Foothills’ Jackie Vazquez went to Kansas. She stuck to softball.
• Marana’s Adrienne Acton went to Arizona. She was a softball-only athlete.
• Salponte’s Cyndi Duran went to Kansas as strictly a softball player.
The two multi-sport athletes were:
• Palo Verde’s Jessica Arnold signed to play basketball for Arizona, but was a rarity who was a volleyball all-star and an elite track athlete who was a state champ in the 4x100 relay.
The Cleveland Indians visited Tucson for spring training each year from 1947 to 1993.
• And Flowing Wells’ Desiree Williams, perhaps the top female prep athlete in Tucson the last 20 years, was an all-city level basketball and volleyball player for the Caballeros. Williams was the last of a diminishing breed; she said her favorite athlete was Bo Jackson, one of the most celebrated two-sport athletes in American history.
Williams went on to become an All-American shortstop at Texas.
It has been more than a decade since Tucson produced an elite-level three-sport athlete. Cienega’s Seth Mejias-Brean’s senior year at Cienega, 2008-09, compares to that of Sahuaro’s Rodney Peete of the early 1980s.
Mejias-Brean was a star quarterback who signed a scholarship to play at San Diego State, and then became a first-team all-region basketball and baseball player, who went on to help Arizona win the 2012 College World Series.
Participating in three sports did not diminish Mejias-Brean’s future. He reached the major leagues last season, a San Diego Padres third baseman.
Now? There are virtually no Mejias-Brean’s to make football’s move to spring a collision of wills.
In 2009, Palo Verde halfback Adam Hall was named a Parade All-American halfback. But rather than shut down his high school athletic experience, Hall averaged 14 points for the Titans’ basketball team and even raised the bar in the track season, running the second fastest 200-meter time in school history, long-jumping 21-feet and triple-jumping 46 feet.
Before injuries devastated his UA and potentially NFL career, Hall was one of the last three-sport athletes of note in Tucson prep sports, a fading link to the days when high school football had to be played in the fall because an overlap of seasons might’ve prohibited iconic Tucson multi-sport athletes like THS’s Frank Castro, Catalina Foothills’ Julie Brase and Amphitheater’s Jon Volpe from playing baseball, tennis and wresting respectively.
You say that moving prep football to the spring will diminish a prospect’s chances to get a scholarship? Mush. If you’re good enough, college recruiters will find out, whether it’s Ohio State or North Dakota State. They’ll wait. You’ll have the stage to yourself.
And besides, for every 1,000 high school football players in Tucson each year, about 20 of them sign to play college football.
High school football may work best in the fall in Wisconsin and Washington, but in the year 2020, Tucson could pioneer a smarter and safer way for high school football in March, April and May.
