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Salpointe's
Max Fritz and Sunnyside's Mike Smith |
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Francisco
Medina/Tucson
Citizen |
Thursday, November 3, 2005
Friday Night Fever: As good as it gets
City rivals will square off at Ed Doherty Stadium
The Class 5A South Region high school football title is at
stake when Salpointe Catholic plays host to Sunnyside tomorrow
night.
CORKY SIMPSON
Tucson Citizen
Friday night lights never burned brighter than for Sunnyside
vs. Salpointe Catholic in high school football.
Packed stadium. Region title on the line. Old grads from every
neighborhood in town. Private school against public school.
Tomorrow's 7 p.m. game at Ed Doherty Stadium on the Salpointe
campus is expected to attract between 7,000 and 8,000 fans, a
phenomenal attendance for high school.
And the fans will be fairly evenly split between the midtown
Lancers of Salpointe and the South Side Blue Devils.
Football in any direction, at any level, just doesn't get any
better than this.
And fittingly for such a budding rivalry, there's much at
stake: the Class 5A South Region championship, likely
home-field advantage for next week's first round of the state
playoffs and . . .
"You get the bragging rights for the whole year until the next
time we meet," said David Valenzuela Jr., co-treasurer of
Sunnyside's booster club.
The game is so important for Salpointe, which is celebrating
Senior Night, that two students put messages on senior lockers
saying:
"If you don't join in, 'there will be consequences,' " said
Andre Diaz, Salpointe senior class president.
Salpointe brings a 7-2 record, Sunnyside, 6-3, into the game.
Both are undefeated in league play.
"Exciting? Oh, yeah. Everybody knows how important this game
is," said Sunnyside coach Richard Sanchez, whose team won
state 4A championships in 2001 and 2003.
"This shapes up as an epic battle," Salpointe coach Dennis
Bene said. "This will be one of the greatest football games in
southern Arizona in a long time."
Bene played quarterback for the late Doherty, one of the grand
old men of Arizona high school football. Doherty built a
schoolboy dynasty at Phoenix St. Mary's in the late 1960s and
early 1970s before rebuilding the Salpointe program and taking
the Lancers to the 1981 state title game.
Sanchez was a wrestler at Pueblo and later led Sunnyside to
state titles in the sport before taking over the football
coaching duties.
"Richard and I are good friends," Bene said. "He knows my kids
play hard. I know his do the same."
Although not traditional rivals – they didn't play for four
years when Sunnyside was at the 4A level – the game has taken
on importance recently because of each programs' success.
"And there's even more respect this year because Sunnyside
moved up to Salpointe's 5A level this season," said Olga Vorel,
a member of Sunnyside's booster club.
When "we didn't have the opportunity to play each other,
people used to wonder what would happen if the two teams came
together," Sanchez said. "Now we're in the same league and
it's one of those things you really look forward to, playing
Salpointe."
Although its a Catholic school playing a public institution,
there's a lot of interesting crossover in the rivalry.
"Salpointe is probably 40 percent Hispanic," Bene said. "And
we have a lot of kids from the Sunnyside area."
Sanchez can counter with a heavy percentage of Catholic kids
ready to duke it out on the field with their parochial rivals.
"Our kids are mostly Hispanic, but without question there's a
good mix at both schools," Sanchez said.
School pride is something that doesn't go out of fashion. Just
ask Salpointe senior Clay Frey. His father, Rick, who was
Salpointe's student body president in 1971, plans on attending
the game.
"It used to be CDO was Salpointe's main rival, but now it's
definitely Sunnyside," Clay Frey said.
Top-flight high school football played by kids who love the
sport has made Sunnyside-Salpointe a classic matchup that
could mean something for a long time.
Let Salpointe safety Levess Eafon explain why:
"We know we have dudes that can play," he said, "and we know
they have dudes that can play.
"It will all be in the heart."
Citizen Staff Writers Mary Bustamante and Jessie Vanderson
contributed to this story.
Salpointe Catholic
Enrollment: 1,275
Record: 7-2, 4-0 league
Coach: Dennis Bene
Titles: 5A South, 2002-04; state runner-up, 1981, '91.
Famous players: John Fina (OL, UA, Buffalo Bills), Chris
Hopkins (DB, ASU), Tyler Graunke (QB, Hawaii)
Sunnyside
Enrollment: 2,086
Record: 6-3 (4-0 5A South)
Coach: Richard Sanchez
Titles: Class 4A state champions, 2001, 2003; 4A Sonoran,
1999-2004
Famous players: Fred Sims (RB, Oklahoma), David Adams (RB,
Arizona), Jon Horton (WR, Arizona)
Game glance
When: Tomorrow, 7 p.m.
Where: Salpointe High, 1545 E. Copper St.
Recent games
2004: Sunnyside, 38-14
2003: Salpointe, 35-10
1998: Salpointe, 20-3
1997: Salpointe, 21-14 |
