VarsityXtra

Mesa High basketball player Ryan Salcedo likes to elicit response from the Jackrabbit faithful with demonstrative gestures and urgings after he scores and when the Jackrabbits are playing well. He gets caught up in the emotion of games more than most players.

That’s OK, but taunting the visitor’s bench crosses the line. Nothing wrong with being excited about playing well and performing well, but not at the expense of directly showing up the opposition as he did Mesa Mountain View in the ‘Rabbits overtime win Tuesday night at Jackrabbit Gym.

Hopefully, Mesa coach Shane Burcar has chatted with Salcedo and reeled in that behavior for the future. It taints victories and muddies hard work and hard-earned victories by his teammates.  Mesa’s strong year doesn’t need Salcedo’s actions detracting from  what could be a very good year. 

Several football players will join together to sign their National Letters of Intent at Majerle’s Sports Grill in Chandler on Feb. 6, which is the first day players are allowed to officially sign with colleges.

Among those expected to be there are Scottsdale Notre Dame’s Brandon Hirneise (committing to Air Force), Austin Briehl (undecided), Sean Renfree (undecided) and Scottsdale Saguaro’s Chris Merrill (Arizona), Joe Kellogg (Boise State) and Derek Bisgard (Army). About five or six schools  in total will bring their Division-I bound players to the restaurant.

Watching the Tempe McClintock girls basketball team play earlier this week, I was highly impressed with the grace and fluidity of forward Amy Patton’s game on both ends of the court.

Only a junior, Patton is unstoppable one-on-one and clearly the most refined talent in the

East
Valley.

She is the biggest reason why the Chargers are 19-3 and ranked No. 2. What McClintock does in the postseason, though, will likely be determined more so by the actions of high-energy, multi-talented junior point guard Stefanee Perez, which coach Eric Magana acknowledged after Tuesday’s victory over Scottsdale Chaparral.

“Stefanee is the motor. She gets us going,” he said. “She’s the heart and soul of this team. She’s the emotional leader in practice and in games. She’s always focused, always fired up. She motivates the other girls so well.”

In today’s Tribune, we had a quick blurb on Scottsdale Chaparral football player Mike Cummings committing to the University of Montana. Cummings had interest from bigger schools such as Colorado State and Nevada, but instead chose the traditional Division I-AA power from the Big Sky Conference.

Cummings visited Montana this weekend and told the coaches his intentions before leaving.

I asked Chaparral coach Charlie Ragle if Cummings ever thought about going the junior college route and then trying to play for a bigger school, but Ragle said that was discussed just briefly and not seriously considered. Former Saguaro safety Max Tabach did so after leading the nation in interceptions in 2006, and turned a good year at Glendale Community College into a scholarship from Arizona State.

Cummings, though, was thoroughly impressed by Montana, and is excited to be a member of the Grizzlies.

Ever hear the line from the modern day real estate broker: It’s better to own than rent? Well, there is a good reason to disregard that advice.

If your child or children are in high school please rent. That way you can move your football, basketball or baseball star to another school in the middle of their high school career with ease. Just break your lease and open up another. No muss, no fuss.

Then again, if you’re raking in the bucks you can just buy a new house or an additional one as an investment and have your kid live there for a year or two. Whatever it takes to move Johnny or Susie up the athletic food chain.

It is no secret the Arizona State football team has gone after Scottsdale Notre Dame quarterback Sean Renfree hard since he de-committed from Georgia Tech in mid-December.

While Renfree still weighs his options, a fellow Saint has been offered by the Sun Devils. Tight end Austin Briehl has been offered a delayed enrollment greyshirt, according to the recruiting service ASUdevils.com. A greyshirt means Briehl would enroll at ASU next January and would count as a mid-year signing in next year’s class.

ASUdevils.com said Briehl has not made up his mind, but Air Force was the favorite before this offer.

Gilbert Perry athletic director John Wrenn has been rumored to be joining Rick Neuheisel’s staff at UCLA now that the former McClintock High and UCLA grad has the reins for the Bruins football fortunes.

Wrenn said Tuesday he has no statements on those reports and that he’s happy working in his current capacity for Chandler Public Schools.

“I like what I’m doing,” Wrenn said. “But I do miss coaching. Having contact with kids. I enjoy college, but I have a great job here.”

Sounds like Wrenn would be happy in either capacity. We’ll see.