VarsityXtra

Although the voting hasn’t officially happened, early indications suggest the 5A schools will vote against a proposed time-limit for JV and freshman baseball and softball games, while 4A will accept it.

The measure wouldn’t let a new inning start one hour and 45 minutes after the pregame coaches meeting, and could result in tie games.

For smaller schools in rural areas, the measure makes sense. Teams don’t want to be getting home at all hours of the morning, and playing long games at schools multiple hours away makes that a reality.

But the part I don’t get is 4A’s decision to pass the measure, if it happens. Most 4A region schools are bunched relatively closely together - generally less than an hour apart - and the JV and freshmen often have separate fields to play on, so there is no waiting. There may be one or two instances when the kids are home a little later than normal, but giving them the ability to play a full game means a lot in the name of development.

Talk of transfers, domiciles and private investigators were the hot-button topics at national meetings last week. Arizona is like practically every other states in the thick of those controversies, and now that the Arizona Interscholastic Association is allowed the use of a private investigator, questions of policing, enforcement and jurisdiction come to the forefront.

It wasn’t the only hot-button topic last weekend, however, and after sitting through a weekend’s worth of meetings and discussions with 40 other state’s high school governing authorities, AIA Executive Director Harold Slemmer is chewing over a few other ideas:

On the subject of what’s a “home” or “residence” (sticky terminology when it comes to families moving and transferring), Slemmer talked about a case in Nebraska where a high school athlete who was living with her family on a farm. Her coach moved to coach at a a different school in Lincoln, and to try and follow him, the student-athlete’s family claimed they also moved into a 700-square foot apartment.

Problem was the family had two parents and five children. The family farm was still operational so she was denied eligibilty. The family sued Nebraska claiming they were being discriminated against.  It didn’t fly.

Oregon (and they’re not the only one) has a Prior Instruction Rule. 

It means if a coach (high school or club coach, doesn’t mattter) either leaves to coach a different school or takes a coaching position at a school, a student-athlete who’s been coached or instructed in any way, shape or form by that coach in the past year, is not eligible to play the first season if they transfer. 

The idea is to basically eliminate club coaches taking kids with them to their new school, and prevent kids from transferring all over the place (at least for a year). 

I like it.

One final item which raised eyebrows. 

The state of Alabama had approximately 900 ejections (coaches and athletes) from high school sports last year.

“I don’t think we’re even close to one-third of that,” Slemmer said.

In Mississippi, any coach or athlete who is ejected from competition costs that school $500. 

Phoenix Desert Vista athletic director Jim Bell said he hopes to have a new girl’s basketball coach in place within a week.

Willie Young led the Thunder to a 40-16 record and two state tournament appearances the past two seasons, but decided to step down this spring.

Interviews of Bell’s top 3-4 candidates have been underway late this week.

The Thunder are typically a strong program, but filling Young’s shoes will be difficult. 

It happened again.

Two weeks ago, Nicole Rodia, a Phoenix St. Mary’s varsity swimmer and JV softball player, was killed in a two-car accident (with her best friend from Phoenix Xavier in the driver’s seat).

On Wednesday night, four football players from Gilbert Williams Field were involved in a rollover accident, which killed 15-year-old Dylan Beaver, a JV football player, and sent three other friends and teammates to the hospital in critical condition.

Only one wore a seat belt.

It’s that time of year to put the pedal to the metal, with school winding down and the weather heating up. What teenager can resist cruising?

Talk today should be about the Gilbert football players who chased down a thief in their locker room and called police.

But it won’t be, because unnecessary lives lost will forever overshadow a citizen’s arrest.

We can only wish it doesn’t happen again, but we all know it will.

Breaking news: Phoenix St. Mary’s hires Eddy Zubey as its football coach to replace Stuart Goldstein.

Actually, a press release sent out by St. Mary’s announcing the hire Monday is four days too late. That part is a little easier to let slide given last week’s tragedy in which a Knights’ student-athlete was killed in a car accident.

Meanwhile, the release notes Goldstein “rescinded his acceptance due to personal and health reasons.”

One out of two isn’t bad.

“Health reasons?”  That’s public relations garbage.

The “personal reasons” has some merit to it, though nobody at St. Mary’s has been interested in discussing what transpired, and probably never will.  Much as the players, students and staff deserve to know what caused such a high-profile position to crumble so quickly, there’s little to gain for school administratiors by explaining exactly what went wrong with Goldstein.

So it’s former Mesa Westwood Eddy Zubey’s turn to try and turn around the sagging Knights, and though the path to get here doesn’t make St. Mary’s endearing, it’s a good hire. Zubey got Westwood on the right track in only two seasons, is young and energetic, and got an offer too good to refuse.

In the last 10 days athletic director Ric Moreno had to deal with a tragic death and an unexpected departure of its football coach (The St. Mary’s and Phoenix Diocese power structure makes it hard to believe Moreno was responsible for that February hire in the first place).

Plus, the possibility of restructuring and budget cuts could put the affable Moreno out of a job this summer.

That’s a rough week.

Despite rampant rumors, no one knows why Stuart Goldstein’s tenure as the Phoenix St. Mary’s football coach lasted only two months before former Mesa Westwood coach Eddy Zubey took the reins, as was reported first by Les Willsey on eastvalleytribune.com Thursday night.

It’s my opinion, however, that the Knights made a mistake in hiring Goldstein in the first place. Contentious, often arrogant and dogged by rumors of impropriety, Goldstein was a far cry from the class and grace that defined the program under coaching icon Pat Farrell.

Was it Goldstein’s ability to attract student-athletes from all over the Valley that so enticed the Knights? He did, after all, make several stops in Arizona (Phoenix Carl Hayden, Scottsdale Saguaro, Phoenix North) that helped familiarize him with various points of interest.

Whether the truth of this affair emerges or not, hopefully Goldstein’s ouster will serve as a lesson to other schools (are you listening, Laveen Cesar Chavez?) to look at more than winning percentage when hiring a coach.

As it stood following a semifinal loss to Scottsdale Saguaro last season, there wasn’t much to dislike about the returning roster for Scottsdale Chaparral’s football team.

Quarterback Spencer Stone would return after a stellar junior season. Brandon Martin seemed poised to take over as the go-to wide receiver after the departure of Mike Cummings.

The defense was ready to be the biggest strength, led by the dominating defensive end Craig Roh (who has scholarship offers USC and Michigan, among many others).

Really, the only question was at offensive line. But almost sheepishly, coach Charlie Ragle informed me today about two impending transfers that will no doubt bolster that front.

One is a player from the state of Washington who is – get this – 6-foot-8, 350 pounds. The other is Cactus Shadows transfer Taylor Lewan, who registers at 6-feet-6 and a svelte 275.

“This may be the biggest team we’ve ever had at Chaparral,” Ragle said.

The Desert Sky Region is shaping up to be the toughest in 4A-I, and it’ll be a pleasure to watch heavyweights like Chaparral, Scottsdale Saguaro and Paradise Valley face off next season.

Chaparral begins its spring practices on May 5.

There are definitely some similarities between last year’s 4A-I title-winning Tempe McClintock baseball team and the current year’s version at Scottsdale Saguaro.

McClintock had a pair of arms - Jimmy Patterson and Kyle Heckathorn - who you knew would always give you a reasonable chance to win a game. The Sabercats have the same in Matt Anderson and Scott Zuloaga.   Neither team could solve Scottsdale Chaparral in the regular season, but the experience of those games helped McClintock beat the Firebirds in last year’s state semifinals, and one would expect a good game should the Sabercats and Chaparral meet in the tournament this year.

 McClintock, the seventh seed, didn’t go into the state tournament as the favorite, or even one of the main contenders. Saguaro would currently be sneaking in as the 14th seed, though the team will likely move up.

The biggest difference is offensively. Players like Patterson, Xorge Carrillo and Dan Milner carried McClintock offensively, and the others in the order always seemed to come up with a timely hit.

Saguaro has more balance, but would likely need a big tournament tear from a player like Devin Thaut to have a chance at the title. The Sabercats won’t be entering the state tournament as the favorite, but definitely put them on the list of sleepers.

A revolt is coming in the high school baseball and softball universes.

The Power Point system, adopted anew before the school year began, is wimpy.

It used to matter. Baseball and softball teams who put themselves in quality tournaments were rewarded for stretching themselves, gaining experience from strong competition and being tangibly rewarded in power points by either beating quality teams, or earning points simply by playing the strong.

Now it’s all about the ‘W’ in getting one of those 16 state tournament spots.

We’ve been to each of the polar extremes. Strength of schedule meant everything (the way it does in football). Now sheer wins means everything. Tournaments are simply selfish gauges for each team to measure themselves against others.

Despite a system based on numbers, there’s no tangible reward for playing a good team in a tournament.

If you win, doesn’t matter. If you lose to Carl Hayden or Phoenix Xavier, it doesn’t matter.  Region games don’t much matter.

Beating the woeful 18 times during the season gets you, say, an 18-6 record and top 16 spot. Lose five or six games to the Valley’s best (as the Desert Valley region will do in softball), and you could lose your state tournament spot to the 18-6 team with the Stay-Puffed scheduling.

Changes better be coming. Again.

Something has to change.

Because of the new region format and tournaments having no impact on Power Points, baseball and softball teams are playing one another three times in the next three weeks.

In most of the other 4A and 5A regions, teams play each other either two or three times, depending on the number of teams.

Since the Central and Desert Valley regions have four teams each, they’re most affected.

It’s ridiculous. Good luck finding a team which wants to play three games against one another, and that’s before the state tournament.

It’s overly repetitive.  It’s boring.  And eventually it’s like watching a team practice against itself.  By that time, everybody knows everybody else’s softball and personal history.

What’s the point?

It would be a logistical challenge for sure, but if tournaments aren’t going to count toward Power Points, perhaps everyone should play 30 regular season games against 30 different opponents.

Or, at least, replace the absurd number of region games with a few more non-region contests. It may diminish the significance of region games, but minimally if teams play quality opponents from the outside.

It may also keep us awake.