On Tucsonβs west side, in view of Tumamoc Hill and βAβ Mountain, a high school football team is flying under the radar. The team boasts the best dual-threat quarterback this side of Jamarye Joiner and the stateβs most prolific receiving corps.
Cholla High School β yes, Cholla β is a force to be reckoned with. The Chargers enter Thursdayβs game against Desert View with a 3-3 record, two more than it finished with in 2016. They fell to Sahuaro in a nail-biter last week.
Cholla is hardly a traditional power. The team has just two winning seasons in the last 10 years. During that same span, they won either zero, one or two games six times.
βI think a lot of people come in here, and there hasnβt been success,β coach Ryan Scherling said. βSo Iβm just trying to create that within the program.β
Jordan Porter, Chollaβs star quarterback, said he receives text messages from opposing players before games that arenβt exactly complimentary.
βThey say that theyβre gonna beat us by 40,β Porter said. βThen we come out that night and show them what weβre made of, the talent we have and how much weβve improved, and then they have nothing but good things to say to us.β
So whatβs changed for Cholla?
Here are three reasons why teams canβt look past the Chargers anymore:
1. They deploy the most productive quarterback in the state.
Porter tallied 1,388 combined passing and rushing yards in eight games as a junior, scoring 16 touchdowns.
In six games this year, Porter is No. 1 in the state and No. 9 nationally with 1,841 passing yards. Porter has also rushed for 1,033 yards and owns 34 touchdowns β one of them coming on a 95-yard kickoff return in last weekβs loss to Sahuaro.
βObviously, with a guy coming in as athletic as he is,β Scherling said, βa play is never dead.β
Added receiver Devin Stubblefield: βWith (Porter), you never know what youβre gonna get. You have to be ready for everything. It makes you better as a player.β
The 5-foot-10-inch, 178-pound Porter has received interest from Northern Arizona. Pima College has offered him a roster spot for next season.
2. They might have the best receiving corps in Southern Arizona.
Itβs not all Porter.
Seniors A.J. Blair and Stubblefield have made a habit out of turning short plays into long touchdowns.
βItβs being here two years, having more experience and knowing the offense,β Blair said.
Blair leads the state in receiving yards (907) and touchdowns (11) while Stubblefield is third in yards (664) with five touchdowns of his own.
βThey catch the ball well, they know how to get open, they know how to find a zone, they know when to sit, they can take a short route and turn it into a 40-yard reception, and thatβs a nice thing,β Scherling said. βThey have that elusiveness to make a guy miss. Very rarely will they catch a ball and the first guy brings them down which, as a receiver, thatβs hard to find.β
3. Scherling has a proven track record.
Although Scherlingβs tenure at Sierra Vista Buena ended back in 2013 with his resignation β he was initially put on administrative leave for alleged inappropriate language before leaving the school β he was able to put the program on the map. Under Scherling, who was hired at 26 years old, the Colts went 14-8 in two seasons and made the playoffs in consecutive years for the first time since the 1970s.
Cholla mightβve been a taller task.
βIβm not gonna lie, at first we had our differences and itβs a new coach,β Porter said. βYouβre coming in with all this stuff and we just werenβt used to the expectations and the work we needed to put in to become a team. This year, weβre starting to get the bigger picture of what we need to do in order to be a playoff team.β
That buy-in has been key, and the biggest reason why Scherling has turned the Chargers from a 1-9 afterthought to a force to be reckoned with. Scherling said the experience has βbeen great.β
βThis has been a huge challenge, but these guys have really bought in,β he said. βCulturally theyβre (Buena and Cholla) two different places. I really appreciate these guys because they really bought into what weβre doing and I knew it would take time just based on a lot of different factors that Cholla presents. These guys stick with β¦ and just trying to remain positive has been the key.β