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Andrew Luberda: The County Line, Week Seven

Andrew Luberda

The County Line

We’re at that time of the high school football season when most teams have entered region play, although a few, such as Poston Butte, will play its’ first region contest this week.

As Broncos’ head coach Dain Thompson said about his own team, the same is true for many other teams.

“One of our team goals from the beginning of the season has been to win our (region),” Thompson said. “The road to that goal starts this week.”

While some teams are traveling by road, we walk the line starting now.

A sincere Thank You – I couldn’t be more grateful for the invite last week to appear on Arizona Sports Radio (98.7) AZ Preps Live Show.

Arizona Varsity’s Ralph Amsden and Chilly, along with AZ Sports Radio personality Jordan Byrd, hosted the show in place of regular host Kevin McCabe, who was watching his daughter play softball in Chicago.

It was a terrific opportunity to not only promote CountyLinePreps.com, but also get to talk high school football with the aforementioned trio, in addition to Cody Cameron from National Prep Stars.

All four guys who were on with me are pros and they do it better than most. Hopefully I showed enough potential at the JV level for a future appearance.

Taking Nothing for Granted – No. 5-ranked (3A) Benjamin Franklin is currently riding a six-game winning streak following a season-opening loss to defending state champion American Leadership Academy.

The Chargers dominated San Tan Foothills last week and finally return home against Safford this week after three-straight road games, where they outscored opponents 115 – 24.

The Bulldogs invade Queen Creek this Friday with a record of 3 – 5, which includes losses in four of their last five games, including a lopsided 61 – 7 defeat at Florence two weeks ago.

Don’t expect the Benjamin Franklin to be looking ahead to Florence on Oct. 20, especially after Safford ambushed the Chargers a year ago, 67 – 14.

“Safford is a big home game,” head coach Dave Jefferies told CountyLinePreps.com. “Its record is not indicative of the team you will see out on the field. Coach Alba will have his team ready to play.

“They beat us half-a-hundred to nothing last year and our kids do not want that to happen again,” he added, slightly exaggerating the score. “Trust me, no one will be looking ahead.”

We love volleyball too – As you know the high school girls’ volleyball season runs simultaneously with football, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t paying attention.

Congratulations to Queen Creek class of 2014 graduate Jasmine Hanna, who reached a career milestone a couple of weeks ago.

The Colorado State junior, and 2016 Mountain West All-Conference, outside hitter recorded her 1,000th kill in a Rams uniform.

Player of the Week/Month – Congratulations to San Tan Foothills’ sophomore running back/linebacker Amahri Bailey for being selected as last week’s Little Caesars Player of the Week.

Speaking of volleyball, as September ended last week, we tweeted our Little Caesars Player of the Month poll and the results are in:

Congratulations to Claudia, Queen Creek’s senior outside hitter and a Sacramento State commit.

Follow us on Twitter @CountyLinePreps, where we will announce on Wednesday evening our first Player of the Week for October.

HINT:  This week’s POTW has been a starter on one of the best teams in the state but has been overshadowed a bit, that is until last week. In the Q&A I asked if the lack of attention has been bothersome.

Look for our announcement and the answer later today. 

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I am a husband, a father and a student @ASU. I am a board operator at Skyview Networks and cover HS Sports for the SEV Ledger and http://Copperarea.com

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