VarsityXtra

Give props to Chandler Hamilton for its victory over Miami Booker T. Washington on Friday. The Huskies traveled across the country and beat the Miami Herald’s No.1 team and the defending 4A Florida state champ in its own backyard. Every Arizona school should thank Hamilton for representing the state so well.

But before we go anointing Hamilton as a national power let’s put the win in perspective. Booker T. Washington’s enrollment is more than a thousand students fewer than Hamilton’s and there are two higher classifications of prep football in Florida (5A and 6A). To be blunt, Hamilton should always beat a school that much smaller.

Sure, Washington had a lofty national ranking in some publications, but if Friday’s game proved anything, it is that national prep rankings are absurd. Teams don’t play each other enough to form a reasonable comparison. Publications like USA Today create national rankings to sell newspapers and draw readers to their Web site. Period. National power? Maybe so. Or maybe there are eight teams in Ohio alone that could handle the Huskies. We’ll never know.

So enjoy Hamilton’s win for what it is. And stay tuned for a much bigger and more telling matchup on Friday when Hamilton faces defending 5A-I state champ Phoenix Brophy in what is rapidly becoming the state’s best rivalry.

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.

Wondering who the contenders are in the 5A-I state title chase?The picture will be much clearer after Thursday.Three games involving what are essentially the only six remaining players (sorry, Chandler, Phoenix Desert Vista and Mesa) take place in a Yom Kippur-induced early week.No. 1 Chandler Hamilton battles No. 2 Mesa Red Mountain; No. 3 Phoenix Brophy battles No. 4 Mesa Mountain View; and No. 5 Mesa Westwood battles would-be No. 6 Chandler Basha.Here’s hoping Red Mountain gives Hamilton a game. It would be nice to think there is still some intrigue left in the season before we hit region play.

The first power points come out the week of Sept. 24, giving every team an early read on where it stands in the playoff race.It will be interesting to see how many teams from the newly formed 5A-II Pima Region make the postseason. Given the weakness of three other 5A-II regions, here’s hoping all five — Horizon, Desert Ridge, Pinnacle, Skyline and Marcos de Niza — make it.No. 3 Marcos and No. 4 Pinnacle seem like shoe-ins, and Desert Ridge’s schedule should put it in the hunt. Horizon has lost a pair of games to 5A-I teams but should gain significant power points from those games. Don’t count out a Steve Casey-coached team.Skyline looks to have the toughest road, but a win tonight against Glendale Mountain Ridge could be all the Coyotes need to punch their ticket. The Pima is easily the toughest region in 5A-II. It should reap the rewards come November.

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.

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.

If there’s a more animated football coach in the East Valley than Hamilton defensive coordinator Manny Palomarez, the coaching ranks must be rife with blood-pressure conscious pill poppers.Alternately pounding the glass when an official made a bad call (as if they could hear him) and cheering his boys when they did something well, Palomarez was better theater than Thursday’s sloppy early-season game between Hamilton and Brophy, if you happened to have a nearby seat in the press box where he was caged.Just when I started to worry about Manny’s long-term health, the game ended and the same cheerful, teddy bear of man emerged with that smile and softspoken voice that I had seen and heard so many times before.Yin and Yang. Fourteen more weeks, Manny. Hang in there. Football is an emotional game.

High school coaches and players finally have something they can agree upon. The offseason was too short.For players, a summer spent chilling with friends is in the books. It