High school football: No longer the new kids, Mica Mountain has grown up into state contender

No longer the newest team in Southern Arizona, Mica Mountain has grown up.

Now the Thunderbolts sights are set on winning their first state championship.

Mica Mountain opened in 2020; this season, Desert Christian launched its football program, making MM the second youngest high school football program in Southern Arizona.

After making its first playoff run last year, Mica Mountain has the goal to win it all in 2024.

“We were a young team last year, starting a bunch of juniors, so the seniors on the team are ready to lead the way,” MM senior quarterback Jayden Thoreson said. “State championship’s the goal. We want to hang a banner at Mica Mountain and that’s what we’re gonna do.”

The Thunderbolts first started playing varsity games in 2021, going 3-3 that year.

Then, in 2022, MM went 6-4 in the program’s first full varsity season — the Thunderbolts winning their final five games and claimingthe 4A Kino Region championship. Mica Mountain went 5-0 in the region and capped the season with a 26-7 over eventual state semifinalist Canyon del Oro.

Last season, Mica Mountain went 11-2 while reaching the state semifinals, only losing to eventual state champion CDO.

“Losing the state semifinal puts hunger in these kids’ mouth a little bit, so they know what the goal is for this group,” MM head coach Pat Nugent said. “They want to make to make it to the state final and win a state championship, which is hard to do, but we’re gonna continue to fight.”

Although MM lost some talent to graduation, the Thunderbolts return nine All-Region selections, like senior tight end/defensive end Jimmy Leon.

“We’re still young, we’re still learning, but we’re gonna get there,” said Leon, who added that he received a scholarship offer on Sunday from NAU. “We’re a great team, great offense, great quarterback, great wide receivers, great line — we’re great all around and we’re gonna be good.”

Leon was first team All-4A as a defensive lineman last year while 2024 is Thoreson’s fourth year on varsity.

“We had a great senior class coming back. Because our program is so new, they played as sophomores; they’re two, three year players, so they’re used to playing the game,” Nugent said. “Jayden Thoreson has been on the field for three, four years basically, so Jimmy’s a great player.

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“We’ve got great players that have great experience,” he added. “So when you’ve got 13 starters back on our football team that went to the state semifinals we’re in pretty good shape.”

The Bolts did, however, lose senior running back/safety Conner Hangartner for the rest of the year after an injury in the season opener. Hangartner scored 11 touchdowns while rushing for 779 yards last year.

“That’s a tough loss for us,” Nugent said, “but we’re gonna keep pounding away.”

Other than those two losses to CDO last season, Mica Mountain (3-0) has won 19 straight other games, dating back to 2022. Thoreson and Leon, however, said they’re not thinking about that sort of streak.

“We have short memories as a team,” Leon said. “We just think about the next game — the next week — and forget about the past.

“The past is in the pastm but what we can do is focus on the future and we determine our fate.”

MM opened the season with a 17-8 win over San Tan Valley Poston Butte, 42-0 triumph over Gilbert Mesquite and by beat defending 3A state champion Sabino 35-0.

Nugent said the Thunderbolts try to be perfect.

“We have a lot of expectations with our program right now. We get angry when we’re not winning big and not doing the things we expect to do offensively and defensively,” Nugent said.

In 2020 Brett Darling started the MM program and then became an assistant after Nugent came over from Cienega. Nugent has also led Flowing Wells, Canyon del Oro and Pima College.

Nugent led Cienega to back-to-back 5A state semifinal appearances. When he was head coach at CDO, he had the Dorados climbing toward an eventual state championship; CDO did win one not long after he left the school to coach at Pima.

Leon said they want to win the title for Nugent and their other coaches.

“It would be great for him. He’s put everything he has into this brand new program,” Leon said. “He took a risk on us, we took a risk on him so I think our winning the state championship would be great for him and other coaching staff as well.”

Photos: Mica Mountain remains undefeated in a 35-0 win at Sabino, high school football