VarsityXtra

I’ve covered the Mesa schools since 1992 and this may be the most balanced the district’s schools have been in all that time. If not for Desert Vista’s remarkable, 22-point fourth-quarter rally (where have you been Thunder) Friday, Mesa’s six schools would be a combined 15-0. But 14-1 still screams.Mountain View and Red Mountain have been the dependables of the district in recent years, with Westwood and Mesa fielding some good teams. Dobson? The Mustangs have continually confounded prep observers with their high enrollment and low achievement. Not any more. In case you missed it: Dobson 39, No. 2 Chandler 0. The Mustangs and their potent running game are for real. Meanwhile, down in 5A-II, Skyline (2-0) is making some noise after finally escaping the purgatory of the East Valley Region where the Coyotes were repeatedly battered by their larger sister schools.Hamilton is still the team to beat in 5A-I - and Dobson gets the next crack Sept. 14 - but there is no question after Friday that the East Valley Region is 5A-I’s best. If you don’t believe me, consider this: The EVR went 2-0 against the supposedly dominant Fiesta Region Friday, with Dobson beating Chandler and Westwood beating Mesquite. Earlier this season, Mountain View beat Highland and Westwood beat Gilbert, making the EVR 4-0 against the Fiesta.Fiesta teams are just 8-5 overall, 5-5 if you take away HamiltonSay it with me. Mesa is back.

To all the high school sports fans out there, does the name Danny Baugher sound familiar?It should. Baugher was a standout football player at Phoenix Mountain Pointe High earlier this decade. He parlayed that success into the punting job at the University of Arizona, and after a record setting performance his senior year seemed destined for the NFL.He was on New England

I meant to give props earlier this week, but kudos to Basha and coach Tim McBurney.The Bears were without nine players last week against Tucson Salpointe because of academics. No kudos given there.In McBurney’s world, life between the lines must go on, and quickly. The biggest worry last week wasn’t whether other kids could fill in for those nine players (two were likely starters), but that Salpointe had already played Phoenix Brophy the week before, while Basha’s first game became a forfeit and was never played.The Bears have a new defense this year, and though some returning players saw action last year, none who were back were consistent starters last year.Sure enough, the Bears allow one field goal, and Salpointe never gets inside Basha’s red zone all night in Tucson.The offense remains iffy. Basha forced four turnovers which gave them short fields, and had a defensive touchdown.But McBurney had serious questions about whether last year’s 5A-I state semifinal team was a peak, and even though those won’t be answered for quite awhile, it’s a promising start to what’s been a forgettable August for the Bears off the field.

Several years removed now from the abolishment of the old 600 form, it is now time for the Arizona Interscholastic Association and its member schools to change the transfer rule to a hard and fast one - you transfer from School A to School B you sit for a year in that sport - period.Open enrollment in this state allows students to pick what school they want to go attend when they are a freshman so they have an opportunity to go freely with no strings attached. There are still too many instances of kids transferring because they or their parents are unhappy with the coach or playing for a team that won’t be as good as the year before thus taking the spotlight off their kid.My take, especially when it comes to kids transferring from one school to another in the same district, is that district doesn’t want the schools involved making a stink over a kid moving from A to B because if it becomes public and there is no good reason or no domicile change than it ends up giving the district a black eye. Too much winking and nodding is going on.Kids are free to attend whatever school they want. Lord knows some parents spend endless hours shopping their kids around in the first place so find the school you want and live with your choice. More and more kids are playing for two or more schools in their ‘careers’ than before . Self-policing doesn’t work, not on a widespread, even-playing field basis. The rules need to be tightened to compensate for that shortcoming in the AIA’s eligibility rules.

Ever ignore a gut feeling because the straight facts demanded it?I did that Friday when Gilbert played Desert Vista. All preseason, the Tribune staff had lauded the talent on the Thunder’s side of the ball. Speed, skill, good lines. How could Desert Vista possibly lose to a Gilbert squad that had just dropped a low-scoring affair to a Westwood team that was playing without one-third of its roster for disciplinary reasons?So I went with Desert Vista in my Tackle the Trib picks, ignoring that gnawing feeling that this was a mistake - a feeling I even expressed to others in the office.Never again. Here’s what I should have factored in: Gilbert had already played a game while Desert Vista had been idle. And that one game, a last minute loss to Westwood that came after dominating the entire game, had irked coach Jesse Parker so much that he barked at his players to get to the bus immediately after its conclusion.The guess? Last week was no fun at Gilbert practice. I should have known a Parker team would come prepared in Week Two. I should have known Jesse wouldn’t start out 0-2.My bad.