Quick Hits From Week 1-Coop Retires, Hamilton Isn’t “Back”, Two 0-2 Surprises

Arizona Sports News online

The big story Friday night was Channel 12 longtime sports director Bruce Cooper dropping his retirement announcement on the company website. He gave his one year notice. Bruce is one of my favorite people for many, many reasons beyond his ability to cover sports. “Friday Night Fever” is the high school football show of record in the Valley. We’ve got a year to break down his announcement…

Bill Riddle is one of the iconic people in the high school/college football  community. He and his beautiful bride Janie, have been staples in the community with Valle Luna restaurant and the Valley of the Sun Chapter of the National Football Foundation for many, many years. Recently, Bill had a health scare, he could use your thoughts and prayers. Get better Bill!…

It’s a little early to proclaim any team “back” when the calendar hasn’t turned to September.  While Hamilton is 2-0, I can guarantee you that the coaching staff of the Huskies isn’t about to say the program is back at the top of the mountain after just two games in August.  Friday nights win over Highland was a true character test. A great game right down to the final play. What I am hearing at Hamilton is they are getting their numbers back up throughout the program and that the freshman class is very deep and extremely talented. But as far as being “back”, for a program like Hamilton that would mean playing and winning state titles. People forget just how powerful the Husky program once was…

Ran into a couple of high school administrators this week who couldn’t have said more complimentary words about Basha football coach Chris McDonald. The Bears are 2-0…

Who had Wiliams Field and Higley 0-2 out of the shoot?…

Horizon is 2-0 and has outscored their two opponetts 107-24. How about making plans to get to Pinnacle next Friday to see this backyard brawl…

Casteel lost by a touchdown at Centennial and manhandled Apollo Friday night. The Colts are a much more balanced team offensively than during the days of playing in 3A. Being diverse offensively in big boy football is a “must” no room for being one-dimensional and just rolling up stats and points against Payson or Kingman.  Colts hosting Verrado next Friday is an intriguing matchup…

More than a few high school football observers believe the Coyotes are in for a long night this Friday against national power Mater Dei. I’m in the camp that doesn’t count out Richard Taylor…

In March, Eric Sorenson and I were driving to Las Vegas to cover the Pac-12 and WAC Basketball tourneys.  As we came over the Hoover Dam bypass into the city, I called Jason Jewell to see how the Brophy coaching opening was going. Jason had confided to me in February that he was interviewing for the job. “I want the job, I know I can do the job”, he said to us over speakerphone as we were pulling into the South Point Hotel. Brophy, under Jason Jewell, is now 2-0…

Chandler still doesn’t have it’s full complement of players healthy or eligible yet. Scary. They toyed with Queen Creek from my understanding…

I was surprised by the Pinnacle score over Mountain Pointe…

Campo Verde  has outscored opponents 105-32 through the first two games of the season. Max Ragsdale putting points on the board…

Got a note on a player or team you think I should know about, drop a note brad@sports360az.com