VarsityXtra

No movement in the 4A rankings, as every ranked team won or didn’t play. The 4A-I teams, particularly, all looked impressive. Four of the top 4A-II teams were idle but will get rolling this week.

4A-I

1. Canyon del Oro (1-0): Very impressive 27-13 win on Friday over an Ironwood Ridge team that made the semifinals in 5A-II last season. Ka’Deem Carey was brilliant, rushing for 190 yards and returning a punt 80 yards for a touchdown. Dorados are looking good.

2. Sabino (1-0): The Sabercats rolled in their first game, beating Tucson Sahuaro 54-17.

3. Saguaro (0-0): Saguaro will begin its season on Friday against Copper Canyon. It may not be much of a test, but it will be interesting to see how the young skill players perform.

4. Vail Cienega (1-0): Even without big guns Ronnie Burton and Trent Simon having much of an impact, Cienega still rolled over Buena, 28-7. Willie Willis had 20 carries for 171 yards and two touchdowns.

5. Apache Junction (1-0): Moving former quarterback Nate Scola to fullback worked out well in the first week. He rushed 12 times for 124 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-12 victory over Bradshaw Mountain.

4A-II

1. Paradise Valley (0-0): The season starts this week against Bradshaw Mountain. The biggest question is, who will be the player of the game for the Trojans? I’ll take Tyree Parker.

2. Santa Rita (1-0): The Eagles beat Rincon 33-3. Not much information floating around on the internet about this game, but it seems like Santa Rita had an easy time of it.

3. Notre Dame (0-0): The re-tooled Saints kick things off at Shadow Mountain on Friday. Will the team show that it didn’t miss a beat once again, or will there be growing pains?

4. Arcadia (0-0): I have the Titans ranked higher than most other projections. A home contest against Coconino might massage my ego, but it won’t be a true indicator. But next week against Paradise Valley sure will.

5. Greenway (0-0): Good first test next week against Phoenix Sunnyslope. Greenway has the receivers to spread the defense, as long as new quarterback Daniel Rankin can get the ball out.

As the rebuilding process begins at Mesa Westwood, the Warriors start this season without a most basic of football personnel.

A kicker.

They have a kid who can do kickoffs, but no one whom the coaches feel comfortable can punt, kick field goals and extra points.

On Friday (and possibly in future weeks) the Warriors were 3-for-3 in two-point conversions during a 47-24 loss to Mesa Red Mountain. They also went for it on fourth down regularly with mixed success.

Coach Greg Mendez tried to recruit some kids from the soccer team as well as a kicker from the past, but none showed up to practice everyday or met his academic requirements, and those aspects aren’t negotiable.

“We have strict rules and I have faith in these kids,” Mendez said. “It hurts us on special teams (Red Mountain’s Derek Molina had a 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown) but I’m not going to bend those two standards. These kids are used to going for it on 4th down, it’s what we practice. It’s just another play.”

Every time I’m at a St. Mary’s athletic event - usually it’s football, or a boys basketball or softball state tournament game - my pregame objective is twofold:

1. Seek out Eddy Zubey, David Lopez, Bobby Pacheco or (insert coach here) of that day’s event.

2. Scan the stadium/arena peripherals for former football coach Pat Farrell.

He’s always on the ends of bleachers. Or in the outfield instead of behind home plate. Or standing in the corner of a gym instead of center court.

(He should have his own collection of “Where’s Farrell?” books).

I wasn’t sure if he’d go to Thursday night’s game, given the commute required from Phoenix to Chandler during what’s still rush hour; Moreso because of the St. Mary’s-Steve Belles connection and how his former state championship quarterback and player of the year vowed never to compete against St. Mary’s as long as Farrell coached.

He couldn’t stay away, and I found him Thursday night on his way to the St. Mary’s bleachers.

He revealed this is his last semester working at St. Mary’s. After 36 years filling more roles at the school than will fit in this space, he’s going into sales for a former player’s family.

It’s a big change, and more than a little nerveracking for someone changing careers in their late 50s.

Life on the other side of the high school track fences has been good to Farrell, and even though Mrs. Farrell must have run out of home and garden work for Pat to do, I suspect he’ll do just fine in this new venture.

My only request isn’t that he get a cell phone (though that would have prevented legendary games of phone tag each week during his final two seasons of coaching).

It’s that he keeps coming to St. Mary’s games, and someone saves him a seat.

Say what you want about Huskies coach Steve Belles. He’s up front, honest, thick-skinned and a little cut throat. That rubs some people (and coaches) the wrong way. He gets that.

Belles quipped after Thursday night’s game that there are a couple teams out there he wouldn’t have minded running up the score against. Against his alma mater, however, it was hard not to think the 73-15 final score bothered him.

The Huskies had scored again to make it 44-6 in the third quarter, when, instead of kicking an extra point, Huskies center Tyler Johnstone made a quick-snap call and went for a two-point conversion.

Belles was furious.

About 15 minutes after the game finally ended, Knights coach Eddy Zubey was the only Knight still on the field, talking to a couple reporters on the opposite end of the field from the Huskies locker room. Johnstone came over and apologized to Zubey for making the two-point conversion call.

Credit Johnstone for owning up to a mistake, Belles for enforcing that ownership and the classy Zubey, whose team wore brave faces in the wake of a stormy night.

Mesa Red Mountain coach Jim Jones said senior John O’Connor will get the first shot at being the team’s starting quarterback this season when the Mountain Lions open their season at Mesa Westwood on Friday night.

O’Connor, a 6-foot-3, 180-pound senior, didn’t see action under center last year with Derek Mendoza entrenched as the starter.

O’Connor entered this fall in a competition with juniors Clint Cogswell and Aaron Eisler, but the Lions like his mobility, which is why he gets the nod out of the gate.

There was speculation that former Mesa Desert Ridge right-hander Jake Barrett, who was a third round pick of the Blue Jays but didn’t sign, might play at a junior college in the spring and then re-enter the draft.

That’s not the case. Barrett is attending ASU and will play for the Sun Devils this season. He has two-way potential and could win a spot in the starting rotation and get consistent at-bats either at designated hitter or possibly first base.

One local pitcher that won’t be at ASU this year is Gilbert Highland’s James Pazos. The left-hander was also drafted, in the 40th round by the Tampa Bay Rays, but also didn’t sign.

He originally committed to the Sun Devils, but will be attending Chandler-Gilbert Community College this season.

I thought it might be a case of Arizona State recommending Pazos for more seasoning there - the roster is much more crowded than expected with Barrett and senior Josh Spence back in the fold, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing, considering current Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier was sent to Chandler-Gilbert for a year before returning to ASU - but Highland baseball coach Scott Cook said it was Pazos’ decision, as far as he knew.

I have a call out to Pazos and will update the situation if/when I hear back.

UPDATE: I got a voice mail from Pazos on the situation. He said it was his decision, something he had thought about during his high school season, and something he decided on after the draft.

Pazos talked to the ASU coaches about it and they were OK with it.

At least it won’t count.

It’s already another less-than smooth start for Phoenix St. Mary’s, which will be without a dozen players - nearly 25 percent of its roster - for Thursday night’s season opener at Chandler Hamilton.

Four players are out with injuries, most notably starting defensive end Kameron Gregory, who suffered a broken fibula in last week’s scrimmage against Mesa Westwood. The second-year starter is likely out 6-8 weeks.

Outside those four, the others are suspended for the game for what coach Eddy Zubey called “team violations,” which will put a hurting on the team’s depth defensively and special teams.

“They can be back next week,” Zubey said of the suspensions, then joked:  “I was going to call (Hamilton coach Steve Belles) and tell him he could only suit up his best 32.”

It means a few players will have to play offense, defense and special teams against the Huskies, a tough task in what’s expected to be 105-degree weather.

The silver lining (if there is one) in all this is because St. Mary’s took an 11th game, by rule the first game of the season can’t count toward power points, so it’s essentially another exhibition outing for the Knights.

Perry will have to shuffle the deck at quarterback for Friday’s season opener at Casa Grande.

The Pumas lost last year’s starting quarterback, David Walker, to a broken foot in last week’s scrimmage.

“It was kind of a freak thing,” Perry coach Preston Jones said. “He just got his foot stepped on. He had surgery  (Monday). He’s going to be out at least six weeks. We might get him back for the last three or four games.”

With Walker out, Jones will go with Chase Richardson at quarterback. Richardson was going to play some tight end, running back and linebacker on defense. With his role at quarterback, he’ll be limited to little if any time on defense, according to Jones.

Tempe McClintock football coach Mike Gibbons is looking for Chris Freudenberg or Brent Davis  to win the starting quarterback job outright in a scrimmage against Scottsdale Notre Dame on Wednesday.

If not, he will go with a two-quarterback system.

“Unless something drastic happens, my guess is they’ll both play,” Gibbons said. “They both bring things to us we need.”

On one day, Freudenberg, a 6-foot-3 junior left-hander, will look better. But the next day, Davis, a senior right-hander, will shine brighter.

Gibbons said he likes the senior leadership Davis brings to the huddle, while Freudenberg is physically gifted with a good arm.

The pair are battery-mates on the baseball diamond, and while the competition has been fierce, the players remain friendly.

There aren’t any concerns that it could divide the team.

“I don’t see that being an issue,” Gibbons said. “Both of them have the respect of the team. They’re both team guys. I’m sure they both feel like they should be the guy. Maybe that will work itself out. It just hasn’t yet.”

Gibbons was the offensive coordinator at Tempe Marcos de Niza in 2004 when the Padres used a two-quarterback system, and he said it worked well.

When the second guy came in, even if he didn’t perform any better, it seemed to rejuvenate the offense, Gibbons said.

“It’s like one kid coming out of the bullpen,” Gibbons said. “It oftentimes gave us a spark. Maybe it will be like that.”

Apache Junction standout Nate Scola will play fullback on offense this season, coach Rich Milligan said.

He filled in at quarterback as a sophomore and played there full-time last year, but the coaching staff toyed with the idea of moving him as early as last winter. Scola will continue to play linebacker on defense.

“Nate was working hard and putting on weight,” coach Rich Milligan said. “We joked with him that as big and strong as he was getting, he would end up on the offensive line. Then my assistant coach said, ‘Well, a fullback’s just a guard that can move.’ It began as an off-the-cuff remark like that and then we started looking at the personnel.”

Roy Machuca, last year’s junior varsity quarterback, will take the snaps under center. Milligan told him the news on Monday.

“He was a pretty happy young man about that,” Milligan said. “I told him, ‘Now when you go out there, you make me look like a genius, not an idiot.’ He laughed.”

Milligan made the move to get Scola a few in-game breathers. He was accustomed to playing nearly every snap on Friday nights.

“For a kid that’s not used to coming off the field, if you can just get him off for six or eight snaps, mentally that’s a huge pick-me-up,” Milligan said.