I’m going to put the Panthers’ loss last night in perspective. I have to. Everyone’s going to look at the 61-6 loss to Cactus and think the absolute worst. Coconino lost plenty of lopsided games last year, how can we think 2015 will be any different? I sat in the stands, and I can tell you, this year IS different. Let me explain. I can tell you, these kids hit harder than last year. I can tell you they tackle better. They did a much better job of using their shoulders and wrapping up runners, especially in the first half before exhaustion from the heat (over 100 degrees at kickoff) and chasing around one of the more athletic teams in the state got to them. I can tell you, when they run between the tackles, they can pound out the yardage. Their two feature backs, Weston Smith and Francisco Garcia, are built to burrow through the line and get 4-7 yards on first down. I can tell you, special teams are consistent. Decent punting, nice kickoff returns, no bobbles. I can tell you, they take care of the football. The last few years I’ve noticed a lot of fumbles; no fumbles tonight. Cristo Tabares threw two interceptions, but one of them was on a bomb on the final play of the first half, which I’ll discard. The offense, therefore, only had one real turnover.
I can tell you, the kids are better conditioned. Most of what I saw in terms of injuries last night seemed to be heat exhaustion and cramps. It’s not like the last couple of years, where it seemed like every game, key players were knocked out for the rest of the night, or taken to the hospital. That’s a testament to Coach Wes Kirk and his conditioning program everyone’s been raving about. I’m not saying there weren’t a few kids banged up, but by and large, the Panthers made it through the night unscathed. These are things that mark improvement over last year. Every fan in the stands with me, every parent, said basically the same thing. This team is better than last year. Then why the score? Well, they played the Cactus Cobras, one of the top teams in the state, in any division. MaxPreps had them ranked #6 in their preseason poll, ArizonaVarsity.com (the poll I take part in) ranked them #4 (I put them at #2), #7 on the Arizona Republic. They’re in perpetual contender mode. They have one of the top returning quarterbacks in the state in Preston Guerra. As a junior, he passed for 2,339 yards, 27 TDs versus 10 interceptions, and a rating of 111.5. He had another great night against the Panthers, from the Tweets I was reading from the Cactus fans he threw four touchdowns. He’s going to make most secondaries, even good ones, look like chumps. That’s not excuse making, those are facts. So you may ask, okay, Mr. Flagcoco, why so lopsided? I don’t know how it is around the country, but in Arizona, even good teams get their asses kicked by the elites. Let’s take Bradshaw Mountain as a prime example. They won the section the last two years, they’re the current juggernaut in Northern Arizona, right? Remember all the games they were scoring 60 points? They went 7-4 last year; they swept their six sectional opponents and went 1-4 the rest of the way. Those four losses were to: Apollo, 27-6 Saguaro, 63-7 Queen Creek, 49-14 Desert Edge, 63-6 (playoffs) Bradshaw was the #13 seed in last year’s playoffs. Look how they fared against the uppermost echelon in D-III. 2013 was the same way. Won the division, got crushed by the big boys: Saguaro, 69-21 Prescott, 49-7 Queen Creek, 46-26 Peoria, 50-23 (playoffs) I’m not making the claim that, using this logic, Coconino can start thinking about sectional titles. My point is, even good teams lose big. The only thing that would have made last night a complete negative is if the team gave up. It would have been easy to look up at the scoreboard and pack it in for the night. They didn’t. They played hard until the final gun. There’s still a lot of season to go, a lot of work to do. I’m not going to sit here and tell you the Panthers have arrived at contender status, they’re not there yet. No one likes to lose. The only way this doesn’t become commonplace is if the Panthers learn from their mistakes and build on their positives. There’s a few things they did right. Let’s see how they do against Youngker and Lee Williams before we write the season off prematurely. If they’re going into sectional play, and they’re 5-1 or 4-2, they’ll have learned from the Cactus game, and at the end of the season, they’ll be able to hold their heads high and say that loss against one of the best teams in the state gave them the kick in the butt they needed. That’s my hope, at least.
Last week, the saga concerning the AIA in the Arizona Daily Sun was, Are they really going to move Coconino football down to Division IV, and how is realignment going to affect the best high school rivalry in Arizona? After that is apparently proving to be much ado about nothing, the new question posed by the AIA’s realignment proposal seems to be, Flag High and Coconino may still be in D-III together, but why did they blow up the rest of the division? Joshua Clouse gave me a head-up on the AIA’s most recent realignment plan. Schools have until Monday, February 2nd to appeal, but their four-year proposal is available in PDF form on their website. For those who fall into either the TL;DR camp or the I’m-not-downloading-anything crowd, let me give you the gist. Division III will expand from 48 teams last year to 51. No big whoop. The four teams that made the D-III semifinals last year will no longer be in D-III. Saguaro and Williams Field met in the championship game; in 2015 they’ll both be in D-II. Queen Creek will be in D-1, and Tempe will inexplicably play in D-IV. That means, eight of the last nine champions (loosely translating divisions) are gone from D-III (Saguaro won seven titles since 2006, Queen Creek one). The four teams combined for a regular season record of 37-3, the three losses coming when they played each other. In fact, most of the sixteen teams making the D-III playoffs last year will be gone, either moving up or down a level. Only Bradshaw Mountain (seeded #13), Buckeye (#15), and Sabino (#16) will be back. Prescott was ranked #16 after the regular season but didn’t qualify; they’re gone as well, moving onto D-II. That means Division III is so wide open, you can drive an 18-wheeler through it. Closer to home, our beloved Section IV (I still hate the sterile names, I so hope the new section will have a real name like Division III North, as I was calling it for a while) is gutted as well. Flag High, Coconino, and Bradshaw will remain in D-III, but Prescott and Mingus will be in D-II, while Mohave and Kingman are headed to D-IV. Pending appeals, it looks like a whole new ballgame in 2015. So who could be in a new Division III North? Cody Bashore’s article yesterday speculated that a new section could comprise of: Coconino Panthers Flagstaff Eagles Bradshaw Mountain Bears Blue Ridge Yellowjackets Winslow Bulldogs Payson Longhorns Snowflake Lobos Show Low Cougars Five of the eight teams come up from D-IV.
And if you think Payson is the straggler in the group, bear in mind they won the 3A state title in 1998 and 2008. Flag High’s last title was in ’84, Coconino’s in ’74. Bradshaw’s never won a title. Running up scores last year doesn’t change that fact. Should this plan stand pat, and should Bashore’s speculation of section placement become a reality, the Panthers and Eagles aren’t going to have it easy at all. It’s really easy to just point at a team and brush them off for having a smaller student body and playing in Division IV last year, but that would be foolish. Assuming this becomes reality, I pick Snowflake as the team to beat. But though the potentially new paradigm is strange in the 21st century, we’ve seen pieces of this in the past. Snowflake and Winslow are old rivals; they were playing Flag High in the old Northern Conference in the 1930’s and against both the Panthers and Eagles in the AA North of the 1970’s. Payson was part of the Grand Canyon Region in 2003 and 2004. Bradshaw is Bradshaw.
The hope in all this is that our Panthers and Eagles are competitive. Were they playing in Division I against Hamilton and Chandler or Division V against Yuma Catholic and Tempe Prep, the Roman numeral after the letter D shouldn’t matter.
While I consider Coconino’s athletic director Eric Freas and Flag High’s Jeannine Brandel friends, and while I thank them for welcoming me into their offices and letting me do my Flagcoco thing with their blessings, they certainly don’t ask me for advice. That’s not Flagcoco’s role. We’re here to celebrate the best high school rivalry in Arizona, not to determine its course. I don’t offer ideas to them on how they should run their athletic departments, and they don’t look to me for pearls of wisdom. As well they shouldn’t. I’m a fan of Flagstaff high school sports, I’m a wannabe historian-slash-statistician, and I really like being part of a community of Flagstaffites, local and dispersed, who enjoy getting together to watch a great game against great rivals. So when I read Cody Bashore’s article yesterday on the possibility of Coconino football being moved to Division IV, it’s not like anyone was emailing me for my opinion on the subject. Freas didn’t call me to pick my brain, and Brandel isn’t going to stop everything to see what I have to say on it. It was a boring day at work, so I had time to thing about this, knowing it’s going to have an effect on this rivalry we so cherish. Freas and Brandel are welcome to read it, just as you are, but while we’ll most likely have a nice exchange of ideas on the subject in Facebook banter, I doubt the ADs are going to chime in. As well they shouldn’t. They have jobs to do, they have to do what’s in the best interests of their students, and what Mr. Flagcoco has to say shouldn’t sway them. If it so happens that Coconino moves to Division IV and Flag High remains in D-III, I will embrace and accept it as the birth of a new era in the rivalry’s history, a new chapter to eagerly be written and read.
And you know something? The old Lumberjack Stadium was packed every year for each of those five games.
1. The teams remain in Flagstaff, and 2. The teams are relevant. The first seems silly to say, but it has to be said, because this is a crosstown—and I’ve gone so far as to call it a sibling—rivalry. These aren’t professional teams who are going to threaten to leave town if they don’t get a stadium deal. With cuts in education budgets, however, there is always the worry of athletic programs suffering, and we’ve seen the effects of that, having the feeder system (the middle school and freshman teams cut from time to time) weakened. Heck, wasn’t it just five years ago that Flagstaff had three high schools? Wasn’t Coconino on the chopping block as well as Sinagua? So it’s not a complete given that the schools will go on forever as they are now. So long as they do, however, there will always be a natural rivalry. As for relevance, neither team has made the playoffs in close to a decade. Both teams have gone through tough times, each suffering a winless season in that span. People get on Facebook all the time and remind me of the cruel reality that no one cares about you if you don’t win. It’s when at least one of these teams can talk about postseason hopes that the Skydome starts to fill. It’s when there are players with talent and aspirations for scholarships and a few plays under their belts that make us say Wow that people start looking closer. There’s always going to be a fan base, and Flagcoco has tapped into it, but the harsh truth is, that base isn’t going to grow beyond the level of students, staff, parents, and a few die-hard alumni if the teams are always 2-7 going into the finale.
A move to D-IV is a move back to Coconino’s roots. They thrived in the old AA North, and many of the teams they competed with, including Snowflake and Winslow, will be there in the new format. A move to D-IV is a move away from the Phoenix bias. Anyone who has tried to support a team outside the Phoenix-Tucson axis knows what I’m talking about. It’s always there. The major media in this state simply does not care about anything not happening outside the metro areas. To the Arizona Republic, there is no football played north of Anthem, they apparently consider it a vacuum of nothingness between Black Canyon City and the Utah border. Flagstaff teams have never gotten a fair shake with Phoenix, and that’s a fact that stretches back decades. Perhaps a couple of years without direct competition with Phoenix powerhouses will do Coconino some good. To add insult to this injury, the Phoenix teams will always have an unfair advantage. Open enrollment means kids can transfer as they wish, and so long as they fill out the proper paperwork, the AIA to this point has proven itself blind to the fact that the talented kids end up at the few schools that seem to always be in contention for championships, that seem to always be at the top of the standings, and that seem to be portals for big college scholarships. You can name them along with me. Hamilton. Chaparral. Saguaro. There’s nothing we outside the metro areas can do about it. Being in Division IV, however, means not having to deal with it as much.
Personally, I don’t care which division our teams play in, I’m going to root for them, and Flagcoco will continue to do its thing. I want to watch the programs develop and succeed, we all do. I’ll follow the Panthers and the Eagles, no matter what. Playing in different divisions will change the dynamic a bit, but we’ve seen changes before, and the rivalry goes on. We’ve watched them play in the AA North, AAA Skyline, and several incarnations of the Grand Canyon Region, and it’s still here. We had Sinagua for nineteen years, and though reporters using the Daily Sun as a stepping stone tried to pronounce the rivalry dead under the logic that three’s a crowd, it’s still going. Whether this realignment is for a single block of two years or permanent, there’s no reason why we can’t fill the Dome to watch the combatants go at it next year and every year. Competing directly for division and state titles certainly sweetens the pot, but it’s still Flag High vs. Coconino. I’ll still be giving the New Cromer Awards out, and the winning team will still hoist the City Championship Trophy at the end of the game.
As well it shouldn’t.
Thank you all so very much for following Flagcoco for another year. We did some good stuff together in 2014, you and me. We used Twitter to communicate with the rest of the Arizona high school sports world, and through it we made friends throughout the state and maybe got on a few people’s nerves. We did our first Takeover when we did the Red Out in Tempe; it was a great start for what I hope becomes a growing tradition. The pregame get-together at Granny’s Closet was bigger than the year before. The mother site is approaching 25,000 visits, and if the population of the Flagcoco Family is determined by Likes on Facebook, it currently sits at 1,239, which, if it were an actual town, would be a hair smaller than Fredonia or Tombstone. We sat in the bleachers and watched basketball (boys and girls), baseball, and football together, and if I could ever show up at the right time, wrestling would have been on the list as well. We gave out the second installment of the New Cromer Awards. And we did it all while having fun. Our picture vaults are literally bursting. We’re right at two thousand images dedicated to celebrating the history and legacy of the best high school rivalry in Arizona. 325 of them concern the past twelve months. Here are Flagcoco’s Top Ten images for 2014.
Sometimes history is a complete buzzkill. I know everyone is falling over themselves in congratulating the Chandler Wolves for winning the Division I state championship this year after an emphatic 28-7 beat-down over archrival Hamilton. And they should. This is a great team, led by a great quarterback in Bryce Perkins, with talent to spare on every side of the ball. They beat Hamilton twice this year; prior to 2014, they’d beaten the Huskies just once. The Wolves deserve any and all praise you have to heave at them. Just understand the fact that this is their first legitimate state football title in school history. Yeah, yeah, I know everyone is saying it’s their first since 1949. Anyone who says that is wrong. Completely wrong. I know this because the AIA does not recognize any claim to any football championship prior to 1959. Before that, there were no playoffs and no championship games. Any claim to a championship is “mythical”. You’re welcome to see for yourselves by clicking here, clicking Football Team Champs, and uploading the PDF file.
So there was no true state champion in 1935. Flag High was content to be Northern Conference champions, and that was that. There is a list on Steven Doten’s Arizona High School Index that includes all the “mythical” champions prior to 1959. Indeed, Chandler is on that list, they did win some sort of title in 1949, but they shared it with Winslow. While I don’t know the facts, I can assume it’s the same story: Winslow won the Northern Conference, Chandler won whatever conference they were in, and each school probably will tell you they won the state championship that year, even though no governing body can verify it. That’s the difference between an historian and a fan. Fans will grasp onto anything that makes their side sound that much more awesome. First championship since 1949 sounds more cool than first championship ever, which, in Chandler’s case, is a hundred years. The historian becomes uncomfortable with the distortion and has to speak up. The historian listens to a certain mantra being chanted and looks for the reality behind the hoopla; the fan merely chants and doesn’t really get past the groupthink. I believe it was Voltaire who said, history is the lie we all agree upon. While I know we’re not talking about wars or the destinies of nations, historical accuracy never loses its relevance. It’s just a high school championship, why make such a big deal? So the 1949 championship was “mythical”, so what? It doesn’t change the fact that the Chandler Wolves won it in 2014, so why make so much fuss, Mr. Flagcoco? I’m making so much fuss, Mr. Journalist, because it’s your job to get your facts right. Just going along with the story the folks at Chandler High told you is not doing your job. I know you’re not Woodward or Bernstein, this isn’t Watergate, but you’re still obligated to get the basic details correct. I tweeted Richard Obert, who included the year 1949 in his headline. I told him he was wrong. His response:
I told him it’s not on the AIA website. Heck, he works for AZCentral / The Arizona Republic, even THEY don’t list the ’49 Chandler Wolves as champions. If a journalist can’t even look up information on his own website, how can I not take it upon myself to correct him? I can forgive Ralph Amsden for pushing the 1949 thing. He runs C-Town Rivals, sort of like a Flagcoco in Chandler. I can forgive him for perpetuating the myth, he’s up to his eyeballs in coaches and players and AD’s and principals telling him the legends of their given schools. He has a relationship with all these schools, he’s not going to fact-check them. He’s going to go along with the given narrative, neither knowing nor caring that it’s incorrect. I got on his website and told him he was wrong, but I like the guy, I told him I would research the issue, because it’s one thing for me to make a point and have some pretty solid facts to present; it’s another for me to explore the other side of the argument and find out why the Chandler people believe the myth.
It is the classic tug-of-war between the head and the heart. Reason versus passion. The passionate among us want the story we all heard to be true; the reasonable among us sift through the story to find the kernel of truth. The heart wants to make a link with those Wolves of yesteryear, and indeed, Chandler High invited surviving members of that 1949 team and honored them at a pep rally last week. The head, however, realizes the intent, while well-meaning, is in error and needs to be corrected. In no way am I trying to dummy down the accomplishments of the 2014 Chandler Wolves. I’m just trying to put the event in its correct context. They won the first state football championship in their school’s history. That fact, in and of itself, should bring every alum to his feet with a tear in his eye. There’s no need to alter it, it’s a thrill without embellishment. Party on, Wolves. You earned it. Just know you don’t have to use the phrase “first in 65 years.” “First ever” has a nice ring to it, too. It’s also the historically accurate ring.
I think I need to explain something, if for no other reason, to make sure it’s straight in my own head. I’ve followed the instructions on the Flagstaff Sports Foundation’s website (which is in dire need of an update) for nominating someone for their Hall of Fame. I’ve printed out their forms and filled them out concerning David “Bulldog” Turner, and I mailed them to John Birkett, who, among other distinctions, is the president of the Foundation’s Board of Directors. In about two weeks I’m going to start calling him and others, making sure they got the letter and they’re giving it the consideration it deserves. In the meantime, I started an online petition. I'm asking you to sign it, signifying your agreement with the statement that Turner exemplifies everything the Foundation stands for, and after forty years as a teacher/coach/mentor, he deserves a place in the Hall of Fame.
The other is more personal, and I want to unravel it with you. The short of it is, I want it to be said that WE, the people of Flagstaff, the many of us who were touched by Turner, got him into the Hall. This summer I added a page for the Foundation on Flagcoco.com. It’s a list of all the inductees in the Hall of Fame. It’s something I discovered when I first started the project. I didn’t know Flagstaff had a Hall of Fame, and at the time I didn’t know why certain people were in it and some I thought were no-brainers weren’t. I realized the Foundation and Flagcoco have certain common ground, you can read their mission statement and Flagcoco’s tagline about celebrating the best high school rivalry in Arizona and see there’s certainly overlap. As such, I started making myself accessible to the Foundation, and they seemed very willing to invite me in. Promoting their Hall of Fame ceremony and doing the page was the start. This campaign for Turner’s induction is the next step.
Turner is a prime example of everything the Foundation champions. He deserves to be inducted. But then again, so do many other people. And families and teams, as the Foundation has honored in recent years. The ’75 Flag High boys’ hoops team that won the Class AA state championship is in the Hall, as is the Zanzucchi family as a whole.
The petition puts an exclamation point on this thought. I’m just the guy who set this in motion. Someone else could have gotten off his duff and did the paperwork, it just happened to be me. I want it to be said that WE, all of us who grew up on the East Side and were influenced by Turner on the field and in the classroom, got him into the Hall. I want people to see his name in the Hall and know he got there, not because a few old men discussed the matter in some suite, but because his students and players were moved enough to make the effort to get him there. I want Bulldog to know that this wasn’t done because of his resume, but because of his heart. If this all works out, I hope to go to his induction and hand him a print-out of the petition and say to him, WE did this for you, Coach. All I did, by way of Flagcoco, is present a means to this end.
So please, if you haven’t signed the petition, do so now. Tell everyone you know who grew up in Flagstaff over the last four decades, anyone who went to Killip Elementary, anyone who played youth football in the late ‘70s, for the East Flag T-Birds in the 80’s or the Coconino Panthers from the 90’s up to 2014. The goal is set for 300 signatures, but we’ve received over a third of that amount in less than a week, so let’s blow right past that as soon as we can and drive the total sky-high. This year’s Rivalry Game was Bulldog’s last on the sidelines. The Panthers sent him out in style, giving him a standing ovation during the Senior Night festivities, then beating the Eagles in true Bulldog fashion, with lots of hard-nosed running and tough-as-nails defense. He was honored again during Coconino’s end-of-season banquet. What we’re doing, this is from all of us, from all the years. Let’s make this one count.
The season starts for real this week. The Panthers and the Eagles start the sectional part of their schedules this Friday. Coconino hosts Mohave, Flag High plays in Prescott, and the slate is clean. Everyone in Section IV is 0-0. As far as I’m concerned, the section is wide open. I mean this. I’m not blowing smoke up your backside on this. Section IV is up for grabs this year. Sectional standings and the Division III Top 16 are always updated on Flagcoco’s home page. After Week Three, only one of the seven teams in the section has a winning record. That would be Prescott, and quite honestly, they caught Blue Ridge at the right time; had the legendary Paul Moro not decided to leave for Poston Butte, I’m guessing the Badgers wouldn’t have rolled them in Week One, 55-7. Were it not for that, EVERY team in the section would be sporting losing records. The story for all seven teams is generally the same. For this scheduling block (last year and this year), every team took it on themselves to upgrade their Strengths of Schedule. I think everyone got a good glimpse of Flag High’s dilemma in 2012; with a 6-2 record and ranked #16 going into their Week Nine matchup against Coconino (5-3 at the time), you would have thought their 16-6 win in the Rivalry Game would have solidified their position. Think again. Despite beating a sectional rival with a winning record, they slipped to #17. They whooped up on Page in the finale, but they got little help elsewhere around the state, and they finished one spot out of the playoffs, #17, with an 8-2 record. Every 7-3 team made the playoffs.
That’s why every team in the section has scheduled themselves so brutally for this block. We know about Flag High and Coconino. Let’s look around the rest of the section. Mingus is 0-3. Lost to D-IV powerhouse Snowflake (37-6), D-III powerhouse Cactus (41-14), and D-II powerhouse Paradise Valley (56-7). They ought to fare better when they take on North at home this week, but we know Mingus is tougher than their winless start would indicate. Instead, they’ve lost their three games by a combined score of 134-27. Kingman is 0-4. The only game that’s been competitive has been against D-IV Parker. They lost to Havasu by 33, to Goldwater by 39, and River Valley by 61. That would be the same D-IV River Valley Dust Devils who just did lose to Blue Ridge in last year’s state championship game. What’s up with Mohave? They’re 1-3, their one win coming against D-III Sierra Linda, currently ranked #43 in a 48-team league. Lost two games to D-II foes, lost to River Valley handily.
And then there’s Prescott at 2-1. Destroyed a Moro-less Blue Ridge, then got destroyed with equal potency by Desert Edge, 54-7. They did beat Youngker last week, 56-3, but Youngker is 0-3, ranked 46th in D-III, and have lost their games by a combined score of 97-20. So there are no world-beaters in Section IV. None. The MaxPreps rankings are meaningless, nothing is official until the AIA does their first power rankings on September 30, so seeing Prescott at #11 and Bradshaw at #14 can be taken with a smirk. I believe the Panthers and Eagles have a fighting chance in this section, because every team in the section is struggling, every team sought to up their Strength of Schedule by playing, and every team’s record reflects this. Instead of lamenting on how Coconino and Flag High have fared so far this season, please understand that, despite what you’ve seen so far, it’s par for the course in Section IV. I hope our Panthers and Eagles realize that, despite how the first three weeks have gone, they’re currently tied for first in the section. Everyone is undefeated in Section IV, everyone has a fresh start. Everyone, however, is going to suffer in the power rankings in the long run; sixteen teams make the playoffs, seven will be sectional champions, leaving nine at-large bids, and understanding there will be plenty of juggernauts like Williams Field, Queen Creek, Cactus, and others who will not win their sections and will gobble up those at-large bids, Section IV will be winner-take-all. Coconino and Flag High have a fighting chance in this section. I know it’s hard to just forget the first three games, but the season is just now getting interesting, and they have as good a chance of winning the section as any other team. Here are my thoughts on the first week of the regular season and what’s to come in Week #2.
Let’s do this season preview a little different this time around. Let’s do this bullet-point style. Here are nine things I learned on my trip last week to Flagstaff. 1. I learned 5 & Diner does breakfast better than Galaxy Diner. This is not a shameless plug for my place of business, but I have to say it. I went to Galaxy Diner when I first got into town for a quick plate of something simple. Hash browns, scrambled eggs, sourdough toast. I have to tell you, I wasn’t terribly impressed. Yeah, the décor is nice, and the whole reason I went there is because it was a Sambo’s when I was growing up. Hash browns were old, scrambled eggs were yellow pebbles, the toast was weak, and what would take me about two minutes at my Diner to make took the cooks and wait staff about fifteen. For as much as I would like to start ritualizing my trips up the mountain and go someplace a little less mundane than Denny’s, my search must continue. 2. I learned the injury roles will be reversed for the teams this season. Having survived the tick-borne illness from Camp Colton, the Panthers will be the ones at the starting line in better health. Last year Coconino suffered a true epidemic of injuries, some nagging, others ending seasons, touching most of the starters and just about all of the seniors. This year, it’s the Eagles who are suffering, already calling up players from JV to fill holes. It’s a good thing Flag High starts against Central at the Skydome again this year; not that they would ever overlook an opponent, but the Eagles romped last year, 61-0, and there’s no reason to think the West Siders won’t use this game as a chance to rest up if they get ahead early.
4. I learned mayors make many proclamations during high school sports events. I had a few minutes before I was to meet with Eric Freas at Coconino, so I perused the trophy cases, as I tend to do when I have idle time at my alma mater. I found two proclamation certificates in the cases, one from 1983 officially declaring the Panthers city champions after beating the Eagles, and one from 2001, acknowledging the Panthers’ girls volleyball team as Grand Canyon Region and 4A state champions. This is information I can use. See, I’ve written to Mayor Nabours about establishing the Rivalry Game Day as Eagle and Panther Day (and vice versa, depending on who won), and he likes the idea. We just need to put it all together with a proclamation like this and make it happen. Where does such an idea come from? From a proclamation made in 1974. (See 1974 Game)
6. I learned Cody Bashore is a good guy, but… I know his articles in the Daily Sun last week about the essence of the rivalry has had mixed reviews. I also know Cody has been working hard to write for both the NAU and Flagstaff newspapers over the last year. My hope for Cody is that he sticks around for awhile and gets to know our town before he decides to move on. The rivalry is not about pointing out the subtle differences in demographics between sides of town; it’s about cultural history, understanding how the town grew over the decades, and listening to stories from folks whose families have been here and have made the city what it is. What Flagstaff sports has needed for three decades is another Paul Sweitzer, an old codger of a columnist you can picture chatting with coaches over a cigar and a highball with an interview style that is more of reminiscent dialogue than strict Q&A; pretty much every other sportswriter since him has used Flagstaff as a stepping stone, using this beat to pad his resume before moving on. That’s not saying Cody or any other writer shouldn’t maximize his potential and make the most of his career, but it is saying it doesn’t help the city or its high school athletes, and Flagstaff could sure use a writer who sticks around long enough to know the city.
8. I was reminded that Coconino kids are class acts. Last year, because Flag High was so senior heavy in several sports, I knew more kids playing over there than I did at Coconino, and several of those kids wrote to me on Facebook and we had some great conversations. That’s flipped around, and the Coconino kids are the ones coming up to me this year to talk to me. I’ve had several online conversations, but this year they’re now coming up to me in person. When I was looking through the trophy cases at Coconino, Daniel Langston came up to me to say Hi and we visited for a few minutes. Completely out of the blue. Called me Mister Woods; no one has called me that since I was teaching years ago. In the rain later, when I finally caught up to Bulldog Turner for a quick chat, Jess Kuehl did the same thing and introduced himself (I knew who he was already, but it was nice to watch him fight through the slight case of the shies and do it). None of that should be seen as disparaging Flag High kids, it’s just saying the Coconino kids know me better this time around. The difference this year is, they’re apparently comfortable enough with me to come up and say Hi in person.
The very first person I contacted concerning what would become Flagcoco was Randy Wilson, editor at the Daily Sun. All I wanted was a results list, like the ones I always saw in the back of the Rivalry Game programs, the ones the Sun would publish every few years to catch everyone up on the series’ history. For whatever reason, he said the Sun had no such list, but if I wanted to do research and create my own, I could find microfilm at the Arizona State Library. I thanked him for the terrific advice, but between that first email in December 2011 and today, I’ve been playing text tag with him and every other editor and writer at the Sun. I’ve been writing to them and sending Letters to the Editor for years, mostly without response. I got a hold of Bill Harris last year, but he left the paper before we could work together. Had anyone asked, I would have been thrilled to cover the Rivalry Game for the Sun. For free. The writer who ended up covering the game at the last minute was Cody Bashore. This week h On a personal level, I hope to meet him, because it seems there’s finally someone at the Sun who will write for the high schools on more than a superficial level. He’s quickly learning the nuances between the schools, he’s establishing relationships with the administrations, and he seems to be taking a joy in the rivalry. That’s the kind of writer we’ve needed for a long time, someone willing to dig a little, someone willing to analyze a concern instead of ignoring it. One of the running themes of his articles is why Coconino is perpetually deemed #2 in town. It’s something most folks in Pantherland have come to accept, not that the school or its teams actually are second-best in town, but that the local perception, especially through the local media, is that Flag High will always get better coverage, both in quantity and quality. It’s something Bashore addresses, the notion that the Sun has always had this bias toward Flag High. Having researched as I have, I can tell you that the Panthers haven’t had a truly fair share in coverage since Paul Sweitzer retired. Sweitzer was quick to pick up on the very unique and precious nature of the rivalry, not just because it’s a classic crosstown rivalry, but because it was competitive from Day One. To him, the Panthers were never second-rate. They were the new kids on the block, they were the challenge to the Flag High establishment, and because of this, they was automatic contrast. The schools had true sports identities even before they squared off for the first time on the waterlogged turf of the old Lumberjack Stadium in 1969. And because of that, because they had identities, it wasn’t just a crosstown rivalry. It was a sibling rivalry. It was big brother versus kid brother, and damn if the younger didn’t give the older a heaping helping of comeuppance from time to time. From the 60’s through the 80’s the teams fought for city, division, and state titles with the same verve as two cantankerous boys wrestling in the backyard. That’s the rivalry I remember. A lot has changed since I graduated from Coconino in 1987. One thing that’s apparently changed is the obsession with neighborhoods. Perhaps it’s always been like that, and maybe I just didn’t care so much about such things as a teenager, but there’s good and not-so-good neighborhoods in every city. In my day, before Sinagua came along, the kids from Continental and Foxglenn went to Coconino. People weren’t particularly complaining about one side of town having all the money, or one side of town being more “ghetto” than the other. Each side of town has its more swank neighborhoods, and each side of town has its “projects”. The only thing I see is Coconino being wedged between the hill and Sunnyside, which I thought would be counteracted by all the renovations made over the years. Coconino isn’t a run-down, graffiti-riddled campus, it’s clean and modern, and in terms of sports, its facilities are as good as at any other school in the state. While I consider the neighborhood discussion superficial, it doesn’t matter what I think, because I’m not raising a kid in Flagstaff. Should I be fortunate enough to move the family up the mountain someday, I’d be honored to have Noah attend either school. And honestly, if you want to play this out, the “hood” in Flagstaff is NOTHING compared to here in Phoenix. Sunnyside gangbangers wouldn’t last five minutes on the corner of Central and Southern. People really think Coconino is “ghetto”? Try walking around some of the campuses in Glendale or Maryvale. In my visits to both schools in recent years, I haven’t noticed any real difference in terms of “ghetto”-ness between the two, they’re at the same level in terms of cleanliness and student attitude. For those who really think a Flagstaff school is “ghetto”, it’s only a two-hour drive down here if you want me to show you the real thing. Truly, there is no neighborhood in Flagstaff that worries me. Didn’t as a kid, doesn’t now. Things that didn’t matter in 1987 apparently matter to people in 2014. Growing up, we didn’t care what color you were or what neighborhood you came from. We only cared if your Mom and Dad would let you play ball with us after school and on the weekends. That’s it. Didn’t know kids these days were in a position to sweat everything else. Flagstaff is in a fishbowl. It is its own universe. A kid with a heightened level of athletic talent usually can’t just up and leave. They pick one school or the other. I know it’s not all that simple, you can go to Northland Prep if you have the grades and the money, or your family can pack up and leave the town altogether. But by and large, everyone there is fixed. Complaining about which side of the fishbowl is more “ghetto” seems silly, especially when you step back and notice the bowl is generally pretty clean compared to the bigger ones elsewhere. But that’s what makes Flagstaff and its rivalry special. It is its own fishbowl. It isn’t particularly influenced by outside forces. It is its own universe. Everyone knows everyone else. On given days, it’s brothers wrestling in the backyard. But for the rest of the year, you pick on one of them, you’ll have to answer to the other as well. I’ve used the phrase, “We’re all just kids from Flagstaff”, a lot in recent months. I still see the town with teenage eyes because I was a teenager when I left. Lots of us leave Flagstaff when we graduate and forge our own lives around the country, I’m one of them. But we don’t leave because one side of town is more “ghetto” than the other. We remember the city for what it was, and for me, someone who hasn’t been there for all the changes, it remains what it’s always been. Aside from driving around and saying, hey, I remember there used to be a field where that store now is, what has really changed, except the brothers getting on in years? Maybe the only thing that’s changed is perception. Flagstaff is regularly listed as one of the best cities in America to live in. There are reasons for it, and one of them is because people there—unlike much of the country—value public education. There’s a reason why every elementary school is named after a teacher. There’s a reason why the high schools still look clean after decades of use. It’s because people genuinely care. Ultimately, that’s why the rivalry works, and that’s why Flagcoco has a small but loyal following. People care about the city they live in and the schools their kids go to. It’s not just about paying taxes. It’s about being involved as a community. The value in Bashore’s series for me, as someone who has lived in Phoenix for two decades, is it reveals some of the prevailing attitudes people hold, attitudes that weren’t there when Reagan was president, or maybe they were and I just didn’t care because I was a kid with my own set of dumb worries. What was I worried about in the mid-80’s? Well, my grades could have been better. Was I playing sports well enough to keep my starting positions? Did any of the many girls I developed crushes on like me back? Will Mom and Dad please turn the music down at 2 in the morning? Hope my car starts. I certainly wasn’t worried about passing school bonds or property values or whether one school was more “ghetto” than the other. Truly, even now, these things don’t really matter to me. Flagstaff, however, does not mirror the attitudes of a 45-year-old guy sitting in his mancave 130 miles away, loving his family, hating his job, and trying to get on with life as best as he can. Flagstaff is its own fishbowl, its own band of brothers, and thus its own self. It knows what it is, what it has become, and why it became that way. That’s what Bashore’s articles do for me; they remind me that, though I’ve come back to this great community, it’s not the same dim teenage utopia I remember and would like to still be. It’s similar, but time and circumstance have put creases and wrinkles under its eyes. It’s still a great place to be, and the rivalry is still a great aspect of Flagstaff culture to behold, and you as a 45-year-old guy sitting in your mancave 130 miles away are more than welcome to find your niche within. Just understand, Mr. Flagcoco, that Flagstaff didn’t stop growing and aging just because you left. The city didn’t freeze in time, waiting for your return. You’ve missed so very many important things over the years. Catch up.
However, I’ve come to appreciate high school football and have put the other levels of the sport on the backburner. I like them, and I pay general attention to them, but in terms of investing my time, my money, my energy, I’m more excited about the prep game, and I’m writing this to give you an idea as to why. Why should you be watching high school football? 1. BEST VALUE FOR YOUR SPORTS DOLLAR. In a city like Phoenix, where you have pro and major college
I’m not asking you to agree or disagree with the statement that the guy who does Flagcoco prefers watching high school football to that of big-time college or pro. I’m just offering some food for thought. I’d be delighted if you all came out to the bleachers with me to root for the Eagles and the Panthers. I just wanted you to know a few reasons why you’ll see me there.
I’m convinced, having watched prep sports in the Phoenix area for a few years now, that if the Flagstaff Phoenicians were organized and motivated, we could fill a high school football stadium. This year, I want to find out if they can be organized and motivated to do such a thing, at least once or twice a year. Concerning Arizona high school football, I’ll be honest. Unless your team is always in the playoffs and competing for the state title year in and year out, your bleachers aren’t going to be full. For all the things you can be doing on a Friday night, watching middle-of-the-road prep football may not be on the top of most people’s lists. It’s not like that everywhere in the country, but in Phoenix, it is. It sure wasn’t like that in Flagstaff in the 1970s and 1980s. Anyone who went to a Rivalry Game at that time knows what I mean. There are a lot of reasons for this, and we could discuss them if we were to dissect the issue and analyze it in detail. Part of the problem is, when a student graduates from high school, he moves on with his life to college, the military, the work force, what have you. They don’t stay around their neighborhood their whole lives. They move across town or across the country. They associate with their college alma maters, especially if they went to large universities with football programs always on ESPN, because they’re easier to keep track of, they’re on TV, and most people who know sports can discuss them. If not, they pick an NFL team to root for and leave it at that. But in a way, this actually works to the advantage of the Eagles and Panthers, or at least it could. Where do many Flag High and Coconino graduates end up by the time they’ve got their degrees and launched their careers? That’s right. Phoenix and vicinity. Checking Flagcoco’s Facebook stats quickly, as of June 28, we’re sitting at just under a thousand Likes (990 to be exact). No surprise, 600 of those Likes are from people currently living in Flagstaff. But the next city on that list is Phoenix with 78. Then it’s Scottsdale with 13. Gilbert, 13. Skipping over Tucson, next is Chandler with 11. Tempe, 10. To add up everyone in the Phoenix metropolitan area, we’re sitting at 169 Likes for Flagcoco. And that’s just a sliver of the actual amount of Flagstaff Phoenicians out there to tap into. That’s why I believe, just one or two nights a year, if we were to schedule an event for each school to attend here in the Phoenix area, and we got the word out and made it something Flagstaff Phoenicians would want to go to, we could pack the visitors’ stands at any high school stadium or any gymnasium during basketball season. Why do I believe people who haven’t watched a high school football game since they were teenagers would want to do this? Every person is different, but here are a few reasons: --Because they still have school spirit and haven’t had a chance to exercise it. All they need is an invitation. --Because, if events like this are successful, they may run into someone they haven’t seen in years. If you don’t go to reunions but still want to perhaps get together with an old friend, this might be a cheaper, less formal way to do it. --For the most basic of reasons, because they can. I think the spectacle of taking over a stadium, for just one night a year, might be something of interest. Understanding that, when the Panthers and Eagles play down here, the visitors stands are either sparsely populated by parents who made the trip down the mountain or completely empty, they might enjoy such an attempt to surprise a local team by packing it with Flagstaff folk and seizing their home court advantage from them. --Because the current generation of Eagles and Panthers, just once in a great while, could use a boost. I think it would do the kids a great deal of good, when they come down here to play, to look up in the visitors’ stands, see them packed, and know there’s a lot of people in Phoenix who care about them. It may inspire them to play harder and better.
Tempe also beat Coconino last year at Cromer Stadium, 51-7. Something tells me Gant and the Buffaloes will be looking past the Panthers, which means this will be a great game for us to attend. With a healthy Panther team with a new coach and a new attitude, perhaps if they see the bleachers behind them packed with Coconino red, rooting for them and perhaps even outnumbering the home crowd, they’ll have an occasion to rise to. This is a game, win or lose, that could positively propel the Panthers for the rest of the season. If nothing else, fellow Panthers, Bulldog Turner will be on the sidelines at least one more season. It’s got to be worth six bucks a head to go to Tempe to watch him strut along the sidelines one more time and remember when he was your coach. Maybe it’s just fantasy on my part, but I’m telling you, there are enough Flagstaff folks here in the Valley of the Sun to lead me to believe that, were we to get together and meet at such a venue to root for the Eagles or Panthers, we would take over.
Something to think about when you’re considering what to do on a Friday night.
FROM: Russell Woods, c/o Flagcoco RE: Greetings and 2014 Agenda June 16, 2014 To the board members of the Flagstaff Sports Foundation, Greetings.
From the research came a list, and from the list came a website, Flagcoco.com, and its accompanying Facebook page (as of this writing, it is approaching a thousand Likes). The project has the blessing of both Flagstaff and Coconino High School administrations; Flag High Principal Tony Cullen has been an enthusiastic supporter of the project, while Stacie Zanzucchi and Eric Freas have both lent their support to this from the Coconino side. I talk with them several times a year to discuss ways Flagcoco can be of service to them to celebrate the rivalry. Last year, before the school year, I brought up the idea of reviving the Cromer Awards, which we were able to give to the Outstanding Panther and Eagle of the Rivalry Game before the teams left the field. I plan to have similar discussions with them in August for what we can do this year to make the Rivalry Game special.
Flagcoco.com is primarily a football website, and the central event of the Flagcoco year is the Rivalry Game. I believe, if you treat a game as if it were the Super Bowl, it will be the Super Bowl. When I was growing up, to a large extent, the Rivalry Game was indeed treated this way. The Daily Sun would write articles and interview players and coaches all week before the game. The Skydome seated 14,000, and it was always packed. The bands were playing their hearts out, the cheerleaders were cheering in full force, and all of Flagstaff was involved. I know you can’t turn back time, but you can rediscover something that’s precious and unique. We may never again see the day when the Skydome is filled again for the Rivalry Game, but that doesn’t mean we can’t cherish it for what it was and what it is.
There are other smaller items I will be working on. Flagcoco is a never-ending project, and I enjoy doing research and writing and inventing new little things to do. I’ll continue adding pages to Flagcoco.com and putting up pictures as they come to me, either through the media or through donations. The afternoon of the Rivalry Game, I plan to have a small get-together at Granny’s Closet, we had it there last year and I’m hoping to make it a tradition. Next year I’ll put together another agenda. I approached Danny Neal the other day concerning the Flagstaff Sports Foundation because I feel your organization and Flagcoco share common ground. Under his encouragement, I’m writing this for your benefit. Usually, about this time of year, I’m looking for anything concerning your annual induction ceremony for your Hall of Fame, eagerly awaiting an announcement on who is being inducted. In this way, I’m somewhat familiar with your work. I’m hoping I can get the board to take a look at Flagcoco, see what it’s about, and offer me direction on where to go from here. I also look forward to meeting you all sometime in the near future and possibly working with you on some venture. Mind you, Flagcoco has no budget, but I’ve learned money takes care of itself when you have people motivated to get something accomplished.
I look forward to hearing back from you and potentially working with you. Until then, may God Bless you and those you love. Sincerely Russell Woods c/o Flagcoco Coconino High School, Class of 1987 URL: http://flagcoco.com FACEBOOK: http://facebook.com/flagcoco TWITTER: @flagcoco EMAIL: flagcoco69@gmail.com
One thing you’ll notice right off the bat when you look at the plaques is, there were no winners between 1976 (Danny Cox and Willard Reaves won them that year) and 2013 (Cory Chavez and Austin Herre). That’s because, to the best of my knowledge, the original set were given between ’71 and ’76, and no one has said anything to prove it false. Even Bill Epperson himself, when I met him last week and showed him the plaque that bears his name, didn’t note any errors on my part. There is a desire to speculate as to who would have won the awards in the years in between. There were so many great games and great performances, it’s a shame these awards weren’t around. Of the 45 games in the series, only seven have honored the Outstanding Panther and Eagle. Of course, some performances may seem to be no-brainers. Is there any way Ceaser Polk could have run for 260 yards and six touchdowns in 1991 and NOT won the Flag High half of the award? You know some of the names; David Winsley, Stan Gill, Audie McKee, Corrin Johns, they had such superlative games that the awards would have been handed to them with little question.
1. Outstanding athletic performance throughout the game 2. Making the singular play that determined the outcome 3. Outstanding sportsmanship Usi CARLOS DIAZ (Flag High, 1970): The Panthers were leading 13-0 with about six minutes left in the game when Diaz took over and nearly pulled out a miracle. With his arm and his legs, he led the Eagles to two quick scores to suddenly cut the lead to 13-12. His LOREN HILLS (Coconino, 1978): The Panthers built a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and then held on for dear life to win. Hills contributed with two TD receptions and two interceptions.
PHILLIP MILLER (Coconino, 1983): McKee passed for 354 yards in this game, but 230 of it went to Miller. Over the course of the season, Miller developed into a true deep threat and won All- DAWSON GOFOURTH (Flag High, 1985): It’s hard to vote for anyone other than Winsley when Winsley’s on the field. This time around, the Panthers had Arizona’s all-time leading rusher bottled up, allowing just 96 yards and one score. G
CARLETON JOHNS (Coconino, 1996): The Johns family has had more than its share of great Rivalry Game moments. Tauris scored the winning touchdown for the
KAINE KENNEDY (Flag High, 2011): Luke Daulton had run all over the Eagles’ defense to the tune of 203 yards, but with just a minute left, Coconino had the ball and was nursing a 14-7 lead; the Panthers ultimately committed six turnovers, and the Flag High D bent but didn’t break. As if the finger of Fate touched the Skydome turf, the Panthers fumbled again, the ball ended up in Kennedy’s hands, and he ran like a bat out of hell, finally getting caught at the Coconino 2. The offense converted the play into a touchdown and two- This was by no means a list of the greatest performances in Rivalry history. It’s just ten players I would have voted for, were we doing these awards all along. I invite and encourage you to do the same. Had the Cromer Awards been given out all along, who would you have voted for?
Good evening, Flagstaffites. It’s April, and I’ve got good reason to talk some high school football with you. 2014 will be a little different, we’re not going to have Eddie Campos and George Moate leading our teams. New coaches and new attitudes, that’s what we’re watching for this coming season.
What we haven’t known, however, is who’s taking over at Flag High. After Campos’ sudden departure, rumors filled the void all winter. The primary name in this was Rudy Baca, he had been coaching various sports at FHS for years and was well-liked by the players. From what I understand, he considered the possibility for a short time, but ultimately turned it down; he’s retiring at the end of this year and has family—including grandchildren—in the Prescott area with whom he’d like to spend some time. So who’s it going to be? It’s Rob Rusconi. The first question I asked is the same first question you asked. Who’s Rob Rusconi? I met Rusconi once, just a quick handshake at the ’12 Rivalry Game. He was on Moate’s staff, their defensive coordinator. Why does that sentence matter? It matters on two key levels.
Rusconi graduated from Sinagua in 2003. He played under Campos and was a standout on offense and especially defense. He said this about Campos when he retired from Sinagua: “Coach Campos was a great coach and taught us all a lot about football, which led us to the success we had on the field… He helped us to become better people, a lot more than he did better football players… I wouldn't take back the years that I played for him for anything." Not that it means any of Campos’s coaching philosophies have rubbed off on Rusconi and this is a natural continuation of what Campos installed at Flag High over the last three seasons (four if you include 2010, where he was “co-coaching” with Kevin Kortsen), but hopefully it means Rusconi brings to the job a sense of respect for what Campos put together, a sense of humility for ultimately replacing his former coach and mentor. And two, Rusconi is a defensive guy. I believe he made the All-City team in ’02 as a linebacker or defensive back, someone will correct me if I’m wrong. He coached Moate’s defense in ’12. This is what he does. Not only is it what he is, it’s that which he excels. Let me tell you something about that 2012 Panther defense. In ten games, they gave up just 121 points; in an era where spread offenses dominate and more and more quarterbacks are taking over and leaving the running game behind, the ’12 Panthers lived and died by their D, ending the year with a 6-4 record and talk of the playoffs for most of the season. Take away the nightmare in Winslow, a cold night everyone would like to forget in which the Bulldogs took advantage of every Coconino miscue to the tune of a 42-14 pasting, and they only gave up 79 points in nine games. They were competitive in every game except at Winslow. Four of those were shutouts.
So what did Coconino do?
Yes, that game will always impress me. That’s what Coconino football has traditionally been. Some of the best defense in Arizona. In my opinion, you have to give Rusconi the credit as defensive coordinator for that sort of effort. So what does this mean for Flagstaff football? If the teams immediately begin to reflect the personalities of their coaches, Coconino should be more open offensively, and Flag High should be much more defense-oriented.
I’ve met both Smith and Rusconi briefly, in passing. I respect both men as coaches who get what Flagstaff is about. They’ll get the job done. For Smith, after last year’s 1-9 record, there’s nowhere to go but up, but he’s been working on this since the end of last year, he’s going to have the Panthers ready for battle. As for Rusconi, he’s succeeding his mentor, and he will have the Eagles playing tough defense.
I mean, it’s April, and I’m already talking high school football!
Back to football.
And while I was just as surprised to learn both men resigning their posts a few weeks apart after this year’s Rivalry Game, it wasn’t a shock. They can’t coach forever. Coach Moate had a tough year, and the Panthers’ 1-9 record reflected this. It’s hard to do much when most of your senior leadership is out with injuries, and those who do gut it out are limping as well. Typically, a Moate-coached team would be tough as nails on defense, meaning the offense wouldn’t be overly pressured to score; just keep the ball moving, don’t make a whole lot of mistakes, and the defense will take care of the rest. None of that was possible this year, and we saw the results. Moate will not make excuses, and I’m not going to make any for him. He has my respect, not my pity. So it’s not particularly strange to see Moate step down and hand the reins to Jeremiah Smith. Moate has had a terrific run, he leaves the sidelines as Coconino’s winningest coach, having won 90 regular season games. He’s as affable as ever, and it was an honor to talk with him the last two years. I’m sure this last year just broke his heart, the Panthers were 5-5 and 6-4 the last two years, expectations have been rising, and truly, last year, they looked like a playoff-caliber team at times. This year, it all fell apart, and there’s not much you can do when you’re calling up players from JV to play in place of seniors.
As we start 2014, knowing it will be a year with new faces on the sidelines, my feeling is that Coconino will be a little ahead of Flag High for two reasons. First, because the Panthers had a horrible epidemic of injuries last year, they were reliant on underclassmen, lots of sophomores and juniors played. At this level of football, experience matters, and they have experience. What was a curse last year may be a blessing this year. Conversely, the 2013 Eagles were very senior-heavy, they’re losing an excellent class to graduation that went through the tough times (Varsity went winless when they were freshmen and went 2-8 as sophomores) and better times (8-2 last year and were an inch from the playoffs, and then this year’s 6-4 mark). And second, Jeremiah Smith is a known quantity in Flagstaff, we know he has head coaching experience on the varsity level and beyond. We don’t know about Flag High. All I know about Eagles’ coaching vacancy is that, a few weeks ago, Coach Campos walked into the weight room and told everyone there, students and adults, that he was resigning; he personally felt things at Flag High hadn’t worked out according to his own expectations. Several assistants quit as well. That’s all I can verify, which means there’s a lot of speculation and rumor going around. At this point, no one can confirm who will replace Campos or what triggered the mass-resignation. No rumor deserves too much credence at this point. I will say this on the speculation, though:
I’m disappointed that Flagcoco will be moving on without Moate and Campos. It was inevitable, I knew they both had their fill and were ready to retire. I was just hoping to have them around a little longer. This project benefited greatly from having those two men where they were, and for me, I was much more comfortable in trying things with them at their respective helms. We’re a lot further along than I thought we’d be, and it’s because of them. They were both pillars of stability and respectability, each with their positives and flaws. They’re part of Flagstaff’s history, not just as coaches (although each have left their indelible marks on the city’s high school football legacy), but as teachers and as men. I’ll still go to Flagstaff in August to talk with the coaches during summer practice, and I’ll still be all over the Dome for the Rivalry Game, but it’s never going to be the same. The rivalry, however, goes on. And so will Flagcoco.
2013 was a terrific year for Flagcoco. I have a whole lot of people to thank for this project coming of age much sooner than expected, and I hope I’ve told you all how much I appreciate your donations and messages and handshakes and wellwishes along the way. If I haven’t lately, let me tell you now that I thank you for being part of the Flagcoco Family, and I hope you stay part of it for 2014 and beyond. The best is yet to be. I now have over 1,200 pictures in my files, 160 pertinent to 2013. Here are this year’s ten favorites (NONE from the Daily Sun):
Not only will this be the last Flagcoco mentions about the incident in Prescott fifty years ago that marred the life of Flagstaff’s favorite son, James Dugan, I will most likely be amending the Pre-Rivalry page so it doesn’t have so much of an emphasis on that event. I say that because Steve Stockmar of the Prescott Daily Courier wrote an article which I hope becomes the definitive statement on the drama that kept Prescott and Flagstaff on edge that whole winter and continues to elicit reaction five decades on. Because I feel he did a very professional and fair job, I can now let Flagcoco step back from it a little, and instead of having to tell the entire tale, it can point to Stockmar’s article with a link. Please read the article and give it some feedback. Stockmar’s piece is not only deserving of your attention, it got a little help from your friend at Flagcoco. I get an assist on this for offering pictures, stats, and anecdotes. It’s the first opportunity I’ve had to work with legitimate print media, hopefully the first of many. A couple of thoughts I have on the article and the anniversary before we move on… I will be changing the Pre-Rivalry page because I do plan on contacting Dugan in the near future, and I don’t want him to see my work and read everything I had on the event in question. For fifty years he’s had to live with the consequences of his impulsive actions, and there’s no question it altered the course of his life. He’s very apologetic on the matter. He’s also incredibly exhausted concerning this. He has to be. It’s over and done with, he’s lived a full and varied life, he needs not continue to be answerable to something he did as a teenager. Indeed, I was going to call him, tell him who I was, tell him I come from the Penland family, tell him about Flagcoco, ask him to read the story and to tell me if I got it right. Realizing I wouldn’t be the only person to contact him about this, I backed down. I don’t want Dugan to think I’m just another media hound looking to make a name for himself by writing about his big mistake; I want him to think of me as a guy who heard the stories about his incredible athletic talents, his gregarious personality, his reign as Mister Everything at Flag High in the early 60’s, and who finally made the effort to get to know him for his own value. The same things hold true for Norm Killip. I’ve had Killip’s contact information for months now, but I’ve chosen to contact him after the fact for the same reasons, because he’s always had to be the one talking to writers about the event as well. He was Dugan’s teammate on that Eagles basketball team, so he not only remembers that fateful night, he also remembers the 54 points against Winslow and the 32 rebounds against I think Cortez. He’s a great source, and from what I read in Stockmar’s article and the Arizona Republic article from 2007, he’s always been very affable. While I’m sure he’s okay with it on the whole, I’m sure it does bother him at some point to be thought of by so many as Dugan’s sidekick, his go-between. I don’t want to be just another Flagstaff kid who uses Killip to get to Dugan. Of course, both gentlemen graduated from Flag High in 1964, as did my mother, Rusty Penland, so it’s not like I wouldn’t have anything at all to say to Killip. I just have to make it clear I’m not calling him just to find Dugan.
The Arizona Daily Sun used to champion Dugan as well, and it breaks my heart that Me, I have two grand criticisms. First, while Randy Wilson gave me some grand advice when I hadn’t even come up with the name Flagcoco, to go to the State Library and go through microfilm and do my own research, he hasn’t returned my emails since, which is a shame, because Flagcoco is now at a point where it can assist the Sun, where I can write articles for them with some degree of legitimacy, where the Sun and Flagcoco can work together to promote items like the New Cromer Awards. Bill Harris was the same way before he left, he’d return my email and tell me Flagcoco’s a great idea, let’s work together, but nothing ever came of it. And second, I occasionally read through the Sun’s online publication, and while I understand they’re writing for an average-sized city with only so much going on, they still write a whole lot of fluff pieces. They couldn’t spare a single article, a few hundred words, marking the time concerning Dugan? If nothing else, they couldn’t just publish my Letter to the Editor and be done with it? It’s a truly crying shame that the Prescott writers put in the time and effort to put together a sturdy piece, and the Sun couldn’t lift a finger. While I started this blog saying Stockmar’s piece should be considered the definitive word on the vent, it bothers me that Stockmar works for Prescott, not Flagstaff. Where is Paul Sweitzer when we need him? The event is something that continues to be controversial. It’s amazing how such a thing can be viewed in two completely different ways. Flagstaff will always see Dugan as a kid who lashed out against the goons who were hacking and insulting him all game, and Prescott will always see him as a thug who couldn’t handle playing a very physical contest. There’s nothing apologetic in either side, nothing defensive. At the end of the day, however, no one questions Dugan’s athletic prowess. He deserves all the accolades he’s received over the last decade from local and state powers who give out such honors. He accomplished his feats before the era of videotape, so unless there’s a roll of film in someone’s attic that’s been decaying from age and neglect, the most we’ll get of his talents will be a few great pictures and even greater stories. Dugan lived a full, rich, accomplished life, and continues to do so in New York State. His high school days were just part of that life, the showy part, the part that gets conversations started. As it stands now, Flagcoco makes it sound like hitting Randy Emmett was his singular defining moment. It wasn’t. And it should be edited accordingly. Stockmar’s article should be the last word on the subject, for better or for worse.
It was fifty years ago this week that James Dugan, nearly unanimously recognized as the greatest athletic prospect Flagstaff ever produced, gave into the weakness of being a teenager in a tough position during a tense moment, not just on the basketball court, but across America. On December 20, 1963, just days after he lit up Winslow for 54 points (someone will tell me if that’s still the Flag High record), he and the Eagles were leading the Badgers, 62-59, with five seconds left in the game. The crowd in Prescott was unruly, to put it delicately, as they rained insults on the Eagles and especially Dugan. The Badgers were hacking him relentlessly, and though he complained to the hometown referees, their response was a blasé Don’t sweat it, Jimmy, you’ll get your points. Upon getting his fifth foul, he had had enough. As he walked off the The court was cleared, the final five seconds were played in an empty gym, and the Flagstaff entourage hit Highway 89 with a police escort because Badger fans pelted Tuffy Rice’s bus with rocks; the escort continued all the way up to Ash Fork. Arrests were threatened, apologies were made and accepted, but there’s two sides to what happened after that. Dugan continued to play and rack up monstrous stats (including 32 rebounds in a game), the Eagles kept on winning, and the Prescott School Board, deciding to forfeit all games with Flag High involving Dugan for the rest of the school year, waited patiently for the powers that were in Flagstaff to take some initiative on disciplining their superstar. The Flagstaff board did nothing, awaiting the AIA to complete their investigation. In an unprecedented move, the AIA suspended Dugan for the remainder of the basketball season. The Prescott reply was, thankfully justice was done, but why didn’t Flagstaff take the high road and do something about Dugan before the AIA gave their decision, a full month after the incident? The Flagstaff reply: we didn’t do anything because Dugan was lashing out against insults, racial slurs, obvious hometown refs, and unnecessary hacking. We don’t condone what he did, but we can certainly understand why things happened. Prescott: What racism? This is the first we’ve heard about this. No one ever brought up race as an element in the event until Neil Christensen’s rant in the Daily Sun. Did anyone hear any slurs in the stands? It was a hard-fought game, it always is when the Badgers and Eagles play, Dugan should have said something to the refs about it if he was insulted. Flagstaff: Dugan did speak up, and the refs didn’t seem to care. So we’re going to appeal the AIA’s decision, and we’re not going to retract what we said about the very nasty way Dugan was treated by the people of Prescott. We don’t mean to paint the whole city as racist, we feel bad about Emmett, and Dugan and the Flagstaff School Board have issued apologies, apologies which you all publicly accepted. I know you want Dugan held responsible for his action, and the AIA, against our wishes, has done so, but this is more than just one kid punching out another, and you damn well know it.
Once the NAACP heard about the case and appeal, they got involved in the matter, and the story became national news. Of course, it didn’t reach the level of attention that the burning of black churches and Martin Luther King speeches were getting, but it’s something that was mentioned in Ebony and Jet magazines, and I’m sure it had an effect on Dugan’s recruitment and ultimate decision to go to Ohio State instead of Arizona State. I wrote about the incident elsewhere on Flagcoco.com. You can read about Dugan's senior year and his legacy on the Pre-Rivalry page in the section, "The Legend of the Flagstaff Flyer" There are a few reasons why I’m writing about this, and why I wrote to the Prescott Courier and the Arizona Daily Sun in the hope that they would publish a little something concerning this infamous event upon its fiftieth anniversary. For one, Dugan is still a hero in Flagstaff. I can speak for myself, I’m sure other kids from Flagstaff approximately my age have similar experiences, but my mother would occasionally pull out her Kinlani yearbooks, show me pictures of Dugan, and tell me stories about him. Truth be told, I think she had a true crush on him, just by the way she talked about him it seems so. If you talk to people who lived in Flagstaff at the time, who went to school with him, they’ll all tell you the same, that he was the second coming of Jim Brown, that he was pure chiseled muscle by the time he graduated, that he was the stuff of legend in any sport he played. For another, Flagcoco is about Flagstaff prep sports, and it’s about Flagstaff history. I would not be doing my job as a thoughtful writer if I did not return to this subject when we came to a big anniversary of it. On Flagcoco, we talk about games, but we also talk about events. I’ve posted pictures of Mt. Elden and discussed the fire in the late-1970’s that left its summit bare to this day. I also talk about my family, the Penlands, and many people fondly remember my grandmother, Wanda; there are family stories about how the chief of police, Elmo Maxwell, my grandparents’ neighbors, would sit at their kitchen table with my grandfather, Russell, and bullshit about politics all night, every night, for years on end. I take walks when I go up there, and I take pictures of what is at a certain street corner and reminisce about what was there when I was growing up. Flagcoco is that kind of project, it’s about remembering Flagstaff before it got too big for its own good, before the strip malls started gobbling up the forest, a time when, truly, the biggest event on the annual sports calendar was a high school football game between crosstown rivals. And for a third, I want to get this story right. This is one of those events where no one is innocent. Flagcoco is all about Flagstaff, but it’s also about remembering events like this with the sobriety of hindsight. I’ve done this with other aspects of Flagstaff life. One example: most Flagstaffites will tell you the state championship in 1981 was Flag High’s first in 45 years; that’s a myth, and it is incorrect, because the AIA does not recognize any claim to any state title going back that far. The ’81 championship was Flag High’s first undisputed title. The point is, I don’t have a problem with dissecting the accepted history and rewriting it, so long as I remain faithful to all parties. I want the people of Prescott to read the article and say it’s fair, even if it’s not what they remember or how they want their city portrayed. I want my fellow Flagstaffites to read it and remember Dugan for who he was: an over-the-top gifted athlete who made a mistake. I want people who have no idea what I’m talking about to read the page, put themselves in the minds of people of northern Arizona in December 1963, not just to wear Dugan’s hightops for the night, but to also see themselves as a spectator, a referee, a Badger and an Eagle, to see the event from all sides. I know I’m making it sound like I’m analyzing the Kennedy assassination, which happened just a few weeks prior, but this event was something more than a stands-emptying brawl. It was a sign of the times. It revealed some very ugly things about the racist attitudes in this part of the world. Both cities can take pride in that they were ahead of the national curve when it came to integrating their school systems; Prescott boasts having African-Americans playing on their football teams decades before the event, and Flagstaff patriarch Sturgeon Cromer can be given credit for integrating the city schools two years before Brown v. Board. There’s a difference, however, between institutionalized racism (which was being dismantled at the time) and the traditional, under-the-radar, deep-seeded racism that takes generations to dissipate. Talking to my friends nowadays, the latter is still very much there, and considering the political climate in Arizona concerning immigration, it may never completely die in this state. This coming week, I hope to talk to people in both Flagstaff and Prescott about the event, perhaps even Dugan and Emmett themselves. I have a whole contact list of people from Flagstaff, and I’m hoping to have one for Prescott. Aside from a blurb here and there, you will not find a single authoritative history on the event anywhere but Flagcoco. History is not written by the winners. The cliché is a fallacy. History is written by the ones who take the time to sit down, pen in hand, and write it. Accept it as you wish, make your own informed decisions on matters that interest you. Me, I know I have my own biases, I admit to them, but I hope they don’t color my work to the point to where they’re obvious. I’m sure Dugan has always had to answer questions from knuckleheads like me who want to know what happened that strange night in Prescott fifty years ago. All I can hope for, at the end of the day, is that he reads it and says, that Flagcoco guy at least tried to get it right. The beautiful chaos that was the 2013 football season is over way too soon. I saw a lot of players, both Eagles and Panthers, in tears in the immediate minutes following the game as I roamed the turf of the Skydome, and they came from the same place; for the seniors, it’s over, their high school football careers. They’ve been playing with and against the same set of kids since they were in kindergarten. For them, this season is also over way too soon. Trying to explain just how big a day yesterday was for Flagcoco would be cumbersome for the reader. Flagcoco is my baby, the Rivalry Game is its Christmas, and at the end of the day, I am always a good kind of exhausted. Things that matter to me might seem geeky to others. Instead, let me show gratitude to the many people who made yesterday so special for my baby and me. I’m going to try to get them ALL in, so if you don’t feel like reading this whole blog, just skim through and find a few names of your own choosing. If I missed your name, please do me a favor. Write to me and give me holy hell. Flagcoco is about the city of Thank you…
Tony Cullen Eric Freas Jeannine Brandel Annie & Richard Walters Steve Philpott Tracy & Tracy Kuehl Martin & Stacie Zanzucchi Bill Epperson Mark & Beth Langston Eddie Campos Bob Oberhardt Eric & Tracy Olson George Moate Craig Holland Jannie & Bulldog Turner Jeremiah Smith Ben Schorr Jimmy & Robyn Herre Tee Gott Brady Pond Bubba Ganter Bennie Randall Victor Lobato Sondra Romero Patterson Karl F. Mullings Mark Wilson Catlyn Wilson Brian White Bill Harris Mike Hartman The cab driver who drove me to my Grandma’s old house The 52 fans who voted for the New Cromer Awards The girl sitting at the booth at Denny’s who knew my name because it was plastered all over the Dome during the game And while I hail every Panther and Eagle who strapped on the pads this year, a few got to know Flagcoco and me. I thank them dearly… Travis Walters Cory Chavez Austin Herre Billy Randall Trace Marcus Baca Martinez Cody Philpott Darian Scott I’ll be making mentions about the other sports, and in the years to come, Flagcoco will be developed to feature those sports more fully, boys and girls alike. Flagcoco is a project, it’s only two years old. It’s going to mature. We’re going to do more and more things every year, every season. I’m working on the 2013 Game Page, it ought to be up in a couple of days. I’m going to keep you posted on the Division III playoffs, and then we’ll move on with the rest of the athletic year and slowly set ourselves up for football in 2014. Until then… FLY HIGH, EAGLES! BLEED BLACK, PANTHERS!
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE 2013 PANTHERS AND EAGLES
October 29, 2013
Dear Panthers and Eagles,
Some of you know me already. My name is Russell, I created Flagcoco, and I look forward to watching the Rivalry Game this Friday, to being at the Dome, to presenting the New Cromer Awards to the outstanding players of the game, and if I’m fortunate, to shaking some of your hands. Odds are you’ll figure out who I am, I’ll be the shaven-bald husky individual going from sideline to sideline. The Rivalry Game is the central event for the Flagcoco project. I call it Flagcoco’s Christmas. It’s the day I go to I want to tell you guys a few things. First, I tend to not push myself onto players. You have enough going on in your lives, you don’t need me hounding you on top of everything else. This year, however, many of you have discovered Flagcoco and become part of it by exploring the mother site, giving it a Like on Facebook, posting a few quick notes, and even engaging in chat conversation with me. I deeply appreciate the contact and the effort, and I hope to return the favor by posting pictures of you all as I find them, promoting your recruiting videos when I stumble upon them, and always talking up both teams in a way that is always upbeat. I want you to not just enjoy this project as players today, but as alumni tomorrow, as there are many Panthers and Eagles, going back decades, who keep an eye on the project. Second, I know this wasn’t the season you all had planned. It’s been much tougher this time around. Your schedules were much more difficult; while it would have been easy to play Page and On top of the brutal schedules, both teams have suffered their own sets of injuries. Many of you played through the bruises and sprains for the sake of your teams, and you’ve come out the better for the effort. It’s tough enough to play Third, it’s in this spirit of dignity, class, and fortitude that we’ve put together the New Cromer Awards. You can read about them elsewhere on Flagcoco. What I want you to know about them is, we wouldn’t consider reviving these awards if we thought you weren’t up to the standard for them already. Having a good game is one thing, but we seek to also reward sportsmanship as well. Whoever wins these awards will represent the best their teams and schools have to offer. And fourth, don’t think for a minute the result of the game is a foregone conclusion. I know what people are thinking. Flag High has a slim chance at the playoffs and they’re going to beat down a Panther team so depleted that they’ve been calling up JV players just to fill every position. The Eagles are 5-4, Coconino’s 1-8. This is a no-brainer.
I don’t care which team you play for; if that’s your way of thinking, I’ve got news for you. This rivalry series is FULL of upsets. Not just one or two, but FULL. Just go back two years. Wasn’t this situation in reverse in 2011? Wasn’t it Coconino who was looking to solidify a winning season, Flag High with just one win going into the Rivalry Game, and everyone completely convinced the Panthers would win in a cakewalk? You seniors, you were sophomores that year, you remember. What happened? The Panthers ran the ball up and down the field, but they made a lot of mistakes, turning the ball over six times, keeping the Eagles in the game until the very end, and when lightning struck, they took advantage. Read the 2011 Game page to learn how the Eagles pulled off the miracle.
That wasn’t just one isolated incident. Part of what makes this rivalry so great is the amount of upsets like this. So many times, the underdog has risen up and taken advantage of opportunities when they’ve come. I mentioned the Eagle win in 2011, let me go the other way for a minute. Panthers, make sure you ask Coach Moate about the 1992 game. The previous year, Flag High runningback Ceaser Polk ran amok through the Panther defense to the tune of 260 yards and six touchdowns. It was the greatest performance in the history of the series. That was Polk’s junior year. His senior year, 1992, the Eagles were poised for a regional championship and a serious playoff run when they got to the Rivalry Game. Polk was his usual stellar self, rushing for another 206 yards, but despite it all, the Panthers bent, but didn’t break, and Coconino won, 13-12. There is a cliché for great rivalries like this one: You can throw out the history books. Well, Flagcoco is a history book of sorts, and it will tell you that nothing is guaranteed. The future is not written. Destiny is yours for the taking, and history is yours for the making.
Win or lose, you will be champions. That's what the Coconino Panthers and I’ll see you Friday night.
Sincerely, Russell at Flagcoco
Sectional play starts this week. Unfortunately for our Eagles and Panthers, they have no margin for error. The Eagles are 1-2, having lost a game they should have won last week at Verrado, 33-30. Coconino is 0-3 after losing to
Did I not say to start the season that this year’s schedule would be brutal? Neither team will make excuses for their records, the kids are all playing their tails off, but it’s something to discuss. Coconino started against D-II Havasu, a team they traditionally own, but came up just short this time around; then they ran into buzzsaws against Sectional play will be just as tough, if not tougher. The Panthers travel to Bullhead City to take on the Mohave Thunderbirds (1-2), they’re another team Coconino typically dominates, so hopefully they’ll get a much-needed win on this one. Flag High, however, takes on the always tough Prescott Badgers (2-1), currently ranked #7 in the Maxpreps rankings after beating D-IV powerhouse Blue Ridge in the opener, losing a heartbreaker to the current #1 team in D-III, Desert Edge, in Week #2, and then throttling Youngker last week. I try to go to the games when the Eagles and Panthers make it to the Phoenix area. I got to watch Coconino play at More and more, I’m preferring high school football over college and pro for several reasons. One of the biggest is because these kids aren’t going so hard and fast that they’re overwhelming their physical limits. There’s a few physical specimens on the field at any given moment, a few big kids, a few fast kids, a few who take their football serious and have put in the time in the weight room, but for the most part, they’re just regular kids playing the game, not for multimillion-dollar contracts or endorsement deals, but for the competition, the fun, the school pride, and if they’re lucky, a college somewhere on some level will consider giving a few of them scholarships.
The Eagles and Panthers matter to me, not just in the general, abstract sense, not just as collectives with a historical connection I share with them, but as people. As friends. As athletes and parents of athletes. From principals to players. I look forward to chatting with Tony Cullen when I visit him at Flag High. I love sitting in the stands with Richard and Robyn Herre. I like looking at my Facebook page and seeing all the Eagles and Panthers, past and present, liking what I do. I cheer them on when they do well, and I ache when they have a tough time of it. And I absolutely cringe when I see them on the field, down, injured, and I wonder how their parents handle it, if I would be able to handle it if it were Charlie on the field, down, injured. I will always root for the teams and wish them well, but honestly, win or lose, I just want the kids to have as full a high school experience as they can. That includes athletics, and it includes this rivalry. If they’re having fun, everything else—success within the programs, student and community interest, a full Skydome—will fall into place.
Flagcoco is a fanzine in some ways. It’s usually positive and upbeat, and I hope my enthusiasm for
Once in a while, though, it’s hard to hang my hat on something positive. Last week’s double-demolition—Coconino got crushed at Cromer Stadium by The talk about the Flag High game is, they played hard, they were just as strong and maybe a half a step slower than That’s often the difference between average and good teams, limiting mistakes. I have no doubt that the Eagles of 2013 are stronger than they’ve been in years, they’re faster, and they’re certainly hungrier. But they’re not going to win many games, especially with this year’s tougher schedule, if they continue to sabotage themselves. They probably got away with some of the same mistakes against Central in the opener because Central is at the bottom of the D-III rankings, and for good reason. Coach Campos said in the Daily Sun about the game, “Sometimes a loss early in the season can be a wakeup call and this might be the wakeup call we need.” Now that the Eagles have seen what a playoff-caliber team looks like, and now that they know not every game is going to be a cakewalk as was the Central game, hopefully they’ve woken up, and they’ll prove it against Verrado Friday night.
I knew Coconino would have a tough time with Quite the contrary. Gant carved up the Panthers for 348 yards and four touchdowns. This is the big concern with Coconino this year. Yes, we can talk about their need to put points on the board. But the Panthers will live and die by their defense. It was that way last year, and most great Panther teams over the years exhibited a strangling defense that allowed their offense to develop over the season. They’ll improve on both sides of the ball, and like Flag High, the It’s going to be a challenge, indeed. D-III North is going to be tough. I say it every week, but every week there’s a new reason to say it.
The Prescott Badgers are playing inspired ball these days; after beating Mohave and Kingman are both 1-1. Surprisingly, Mingus is out of the gate with an 0-2 mark. While there’s no shame in losing to #6 Cactus as they did, 34-14, they’ve been exposed, losing in much the same way as they did to Snowflake. Their offense starts slow, and their run defense struggles. They’ve got D-III North is getting more respect than we’d expect, as those who live north of As for Coconino, they now know the speed and strength of a quality team, now they have to go out there and match it. While the offense comes around, the defense HAS to carry the team for now. They’ll stay in the game if they can limit While Flagcoco will always provide scores and analysis, it’s going to always be positive and enthusiastic. This is not about ripping kids for poor performances, I’ll leave that to others. It’s not about asking for a coach’s head. It’s about celebrating the best high school rivalry in
Of course I’m talking about Flag High’s 61-0 pasting of Central last Friday at the Dome. It’s one thing when they were doing that to Page and I’m also talking about Pity the Eagles couldn’t get that same kind of love, they remain at #21. The North’s going to be tougher than the rest of the world expected. That means trouble for the rest of the state, but it also means trouble within the section. There are no lightweights this year, no easy wins. Every game will require our Panthers and Eagles to bring their A-game.
No rest for the weary, however. This week, the Tempe Buffaloes come to town, ranked #7 on Maxpreps and armed with one of the best quarterbacks in the state, junior Emmanuel Gant. The Panthers were in this position last year, a premier QB from the Valley came to Cromer Stadium in Week Two, and the Cats put the wood to him; Ryan Finley and
While it’s only a game into the season, I understand rankings don’t matter much right now, especially when the AIA won’t post their first power rankings until October 3. Wins over top-ten teams, however, mean something as the season progresses. A Flag High win over
Scott Bordow of the Bordow went to Thus, when I made my trek to
It was a great trip. I finally met the Coconino administration, it’s always been important to me to get the principals from both schools, along with their athletic directors and staff, to have an idea of what Flagcoco is about, acknowledge it exists, and get us all on the same page on what we can do together. I had the good fortune of doing this with Flag High last October, but I made the mistake of thinking I could literally waltz into Coconino and ask for Coach Moate, not knowing the coaches didn’t actually work in the building. Hopefully, I made up for it this last time, meeting Stacie Zanzucchi and Eric Freas. They were great with me. My only disappointment was my braindead stuttering when I first sat down with them, I was very tired from my bus ride up the mountain and my usual long morning walk around town. But we got a lot accomplished, some of which I’ll tell you about later in the season. And as always, Tony Cullen and Jeannine Brandel welcomed me at Flag High, and it was great to discuss the things they and I want to get done this season. Chatting with long-time statistician Bob Oberhardt before practice was a pleasure, as always, and sitting down on the bench at the Flag High field and chatting about old Flagstaff with him while the players were warming up and going through their drills was heartwarming, if not a little surreal. The awe of actually being in Flagstaff will eventually calm for me, I’ve now been up there twice in the last year and am planning to be up there for Rivalry Game XLV (this rivalry deserves Roman numerals), but it’s still the feeling of homecoming, and while I know the excitement will fade into cool calmness in time, I’m enjoying seeing the city as if I were an awakening Rip Van Winkle.
So when I ask him about Bordow, he certainly does say the closing of Sinagua means more players on the field, and it’s very important. He’s detailed about how the third school opened under the premise that Flagstaff was going through a large growth spurt in the late-1980’s, everyone thought the good times would never end, and there were plenty of kids to fill the campuses and athletes to field teams. With the economy tanking last decade, city growth slowed, and between that and more kids going to charter and alternative schools, attendance dwindled, and all three schools felt the effect. Closing Sinagua was a very big deal to Flag High and Coconino, and To a point. The Sinagua kids certainly make it easier to fill a roster. It wouldn’t have mattered, though, if The Flagstaff Eagles are a senior-heavy team with a chip on their shoulder. They’re stronger, faster, and more experienced than they were just a year ago. This would have been the case, whether or not Sinagua closed. Then I made the mad dash to Coconino to catch the back half of their Friday practice. I sat with a couple of parents in the stands at Cromer Stadium and shot the breeze with them, and it was great talking to old friends like Richard Walters and Robin Herre. When I made my way down to the field, Coach Moate was his usually affable self, very generous with his time and let me chew the fat with him for a good while. Up to this point in my Flagcoco experience, I’ve been more concerned with talking to principals and head coaches than anything, and in time I hope to work my way through the strata and become better acquainted with the assistants and players. I say that because who should shake my hand but the old venerable Bulldog Turner himself. When that man dies, he will be buried on the sidelines, he simply will never be removed from the football field, forcibly or otherwise. I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that Craig Holland will be on the Coconino sidelines this year. Yes, THAT Craig Holland. After assisting under Rick Smith while Flag High was in championship form in the early-80’s, he took the reins in 1985 and didn’t let them go until after the 2006 season. The last few years has seen Coach Holland at Moate and I talked about statistics and replacing Damian Alarcon as quarterback, but he also pointed over to the other field, where the freshmen were practicing, led by former Flag High varsity head coach Jeremiah Smith. It occurred to me, Moate is doing the same thing But if Of course, these things didn’t make it into Bordow’s article. That’s not to say these things are mutually exclusive. The Panthers have hit the weights as well, and they have some big kids playing line this year. It’s a You can see the standings for Division III, Section IV—or as I will call it from this point until the next realignment, Division III North (merely numbering the sections is just so generic)—on the home page at Flagcoco.com as the season progresses. In this writer’s opinion, That’s Flagcoco’s spin on things as the season starts today. Pretty different from Bordow’s, isn’t it? Let’s never forget, while my heart is on the mountain, I live in
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e’s written a series on the rivalry, about how history and social influences have shaped the competition and animosity between the schools. I’m generally scheduled to meet with him when I go up the mountain this week, my hope where he’s concerned is to finally cement a relationship between Flagcoco and the Sun.
On a personal note, I’m sad to see Moate and Campos move on, but it’s time. They had already been coaching for years by the time they were my coaches in the early 80’s. I was fortunate to start Flagcoco when I did, with two coaches I knew and respected. I wish both men nothing but the best. There are literally thousands of men, from 17 to 50, who grew up in Flagstaff during their days on the sidelines and were influenced by them. I was blessed to call them both Coach as a teenager and as a middle-aged man.
court, he threw the ball angrily at one Badger and hit another, Randy Emmett, not his intended target, hard enough to require corrective surgeries (plural) and to knock him out as he hit the floor. The Prescott crowd, already seething with antipathy, poured out onto the court and wanted Dugan’s head.
