Back in 2007 Charlie Ragle took over a Chaparral football program that had seen great success under the direction of Ron Esterbrook. Fast forward to 2012 and under Ragle, the Firbirds are coming off three consecutive state championships.
Start of a new era of Chaparral football
Baseball fans have seen some monster home runs out at Phoenix Municipal Park over the years from players in the Oakland Athletics organization like Jason Giambi or from others around the major leagues.
There’s plenty of good football coming in the fall from schools in the West Valley. I decided to visit two such schools, who are just a few miles apart from each other: Peoria and Centennial.
Around spring football thus far one of he things that has been very apparent has been the size and talent that the Hamilton Huskies have in the trenches.
I knew Spring Evaluation period could get hectic, but I didn’t imagine it would get this crazy. As to my count, 34 student-athletes from the 2013 class have been offered by Division I football programs and an amazing eight players from the 2014 class have already been verbally offered.
No team wants to have their season end the way the Liberty Lions season did in 2011, starting off 9-0, only to lose two of their last three games, including a 35-34 heartbreaker to Arcadia in the Division III quarterfinals last November.
For the first time in a long time the Hamilton Husky football team has started their spring practices coming off a loss to end their season.
For those who questioned if the Cardinals would ever address their offensive line in the draft, they did, selecting a tackle and a guard with their fourth and fifth round selections respectively. The Cardinals decided to take tackle Bobby Massie in the fourth. Massie appeared in 37 games at Ole Miss, starting his final 29 games at right tackle, which has to be something that appealed to Arizona.
So…five out of nine Arizona players in the NFL isn’t bad is it? The first Arizona State and Arizona players picked were the ones expected to be, in Brock Osweiler and Nick Foles. The final three chosen were cornerback Omar Bolden, who went to the Broncos in the fourth round, wide receiver Juron Criner, who went to the Raiders in the fifth round as a compensatory selection.
Just when Cardinals fans thought the offensive line would become an afterthought in the draft, it quickly became a focal point, as the team took linemen with their fourth and fifth round picks. The club didn’t stop there. They ended their portion of the draft by selecting another tackle in the seventh round, Nate Potter from Boise State.