Sports

Some high school championships will be broadcast live

BY ZACH ALVIRA

Sports Editor

The Arizona Interscholastic Association has partnered with Arizona’s Family to broadcast select high school championship games live on local channels beginning this season.

The announcement comes after the AIA announced a three-year deal with local station, which broadcasts live on channels 3 and 5. The deal makes Arizona’s Family the “Exclusive Content Partner of the AIA,” a position previously held by Bally Sports Arizona.

“We’re thrilled to have a partner in Arizona’s Family that is able to engage fans in a way that will provide a great deal of excitement around high school sports,” AIA Executive Director David Hines said in a press release. “The content fans will enjoy are more than just championship events. It’s also how the AIA impacts each school’s community. Now there will be many more opportunities to showcase the talent we have at our schools and those programs.”

The three-year partnership begins with the upcoming 2022-23 school year. As a result, the 5A, 6A and Open Division football championship games will be live on Arizona’s Family channels. It is the first time since 2015 football championship will be broadcast on live television.

In previous years, Fox Sports Arizona, which later became Bally Sports Arizona, recorded championship games and broadcasted them at a later date on a tape delay.

“I think for the notoriety of what’s going on, promoting the sport in Arizona, that’s a positive,” Chandler head football coach Rick Garretson said. “It gives everybody the ability to not have to pay but still watch the kids play and support them. I think it’s definitely a positive step for the promotion of AZ football.”

Garretson has coached the Wolves to six straight state title games as both an assistant and the head coach, including last year’s Open Division state championship where they fell to Saguaro. He believes the live broadcast won’t, and shouldn’t, have much of an impact on the players’ overall mindsets for a game of that caliber.

But he believes it’s good for the growth of Arizona high school football as a whole. Saguaro head football coach Jason Mohns agrees.

“I think it’s a great

The Arizona Interscholastic Association partnership with Arizona’s Family to broadcast select state championship games live, would include games such as the Open Division football title match, which Chandler has played in the last three years and won in 2019 and 2020. (File photo)

See AIA on page 32

Ultimate Frisbee taking off in Arizona

BY RICKY WEIPZ

Cronkite News

On a Thursday night in south Tempe, two fields reserved at the Benedict Sports Complex featured typical athletic activities: drills, competition and a bit of trash-talking.

Welcome to the world of ultimate Frisbee, which often is simply called “ultimate.”

The sport combines elements of football and soccer while participants fling a plastic disc up and down a narrow field, looking to find their opponents’ end zone. Ultimate’s easy-to-play nature draws the interest of many.

The Valley of the Sun Ultimate Organization has been around for almost 40 years creating playing opportunities for those interested in the niche sport.

“I’ve enjoyed it from the beginning,” organization president Tim Streit said. “I think it’s a fun sport. There’s a lot of great things about it from the different levels that you can play it at, to the different people who can participate in it, the low amount of equipment that you need to play it and the fact that it’s self-organized.”

Since its creation in 1968 by students at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, the sport has taken off and now is played in more than 80 countries by an estimated 7 million people, according to the sport’s governing body, the World Flying Disc Federation.

Ultimate is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and has tried, so far unsuccessfully, to be part of the Games. It has a huge college participation rate, and the USA Ultimate U.S. Open is set to air on ESPN2 in August.

Ultimate, unlike most organized sports, does not rely on referees to make foul calls. Instead, the concept of “spirit of the game” allows players to police themselves and only call fouls when necessary.

“We don’t use referees at very many levels at all,” Streit said. “There are no referees at any level I play at, and that includes up to the national championship for the club team.”

Of the two fields at Benedict reserved earlier this month for Valley of the Sun Ultimate, one was for the co-ed recreational league, which Streit was preparing to play in.

On the adjacent field, the organization’s club team went through some drills during practice. Cynthia Thomas was standing on a dirt path between the two fields, throwing some lighthearted heckles at the teams with her adopted husky, Colton.

“I started playing with VOTS (Valley of the Sun Ultimate) at the end of my sophomore year in college,” Thomas said. “Then I started playing with ASU in about 2011, 2012.”

Thomas, a graduate of Arizona State and Chandler High School, currently plays professional ultimate for the Arizona Sidewinders. The Sidewinders, the first pro team in the state for ultimate, is made up of women and non-binary players. They recently finished in third place in the Western Ultimate League.

Professional ultimate “is a bit more intense and a bit more structured,” Thomas said. “The rules are a little bit different and it’s catered to be more of a spectator sport than recreational.”

She added that even though she was not playing that night, she just liked watching and embracing the people she has met over the years. Also, who does not love a little friendly trash talk?

“It’s definitely the people who play ultimate that make it a fun-loving but competitive group,” Thomas said. “I think it’s a great mix of the two. We have fun tournaments throughout the year where people will dress up in costumes and go out and play in our local leagues that are running pretty much all year.”

Among those tournaments is the pride and joy of Valley of the Sun Ultimate: the New Year Fest. The 38th annual event was held in January 2020, but it hasn’t been played since because of COVID-19.

Streit said people were reluctant to play in the tournament during the pandemic. Even though ultimate is considered a non-contact sport, plenty of close encounters occur with other players while playing defense.

His goal is to have the tournament return next January.

“Traditionally, we’ve drawn teams from Seattle, Philadelphia, Canada, all around the country and beyond,” Streit said. “I think that has gotten a little smaller in recent years just because of the nature

Valley of the Sun Ultimate just began its summer season, with players of all skill levels participating and playing under the lights at the Benedict Sports Complex in Tempe.

(Photo by Ricky Weipz/Cronkite News)

Larissa Blanchard ready for big senior track season

BY ZACH ALVIRA

Sports Editor

Growing up in Ahwatukee, Larissa Blanchard took to soccer as her primary sport.

There were moments where she believed her skills on the field would help lead her to college. That was her goal as she went through elementary and middle school at St. John Bosco Catholic School in Ahwatukee. But that began to change in high school while attending nearby Seton Catholic.

She joined the Sentinel track & field team as a sophomore to help improve her speed for soccer. She didn’t realize she would quickly fall in love with the sport, specifically the hurdles.

Now, as she prepares for her senior season at Perry High School in Gilbert, she is dead set on a career as a hurdler in college.

“I think it was halfway through the track season my sophomore year,” Blanchard said. “I was like, ‘oh my gosh, this is really fun. I can actually do this.’ It is really an individual sport, and you don’t really have to rely on teammates to win. It was a lot more fun for me.”

Blanchard enjoyed her time at Seton Catholic. Deciding to transfer to Perry wasn’t an easy decision by any means. But most of the track coaching staff at Seton Catholic had decided to step away after the 2022 season.

She had her choice of schools with Arizona being an open enrollment state. She contemplated Chandler, a powerhouse program that up until last season had won five straight state titles – excluding the canceled 2020 season – and 14 since 2006. But she decided on Perry, the team that dethroned the Wolves in May.

The decision was also made easily with her father living in close proximity to the school. Her mother, Ann, still lives in Ahwatukee. Beyond her living situation, Blanchard identified what has and is currently still being built at Perry. It’s a school that has appeared in and won several state championships across several different sports. Track is now one of them.

“I think this is going to be a huge switch from Division III to Division I,” Blanchard said. “Especially with coaching, at Seton there were coaches that coached multiple events. Here, it’ll be more one-on-one, which I’m excited for.”

Despite being less than two years into her track career, Blanchard has already established herself as one of the better hurdlers in the state.

In her first season she made it to the state track meet in five events. As a junior, she focused more on hurdles. She also competed last spring in the 100-meter dash.

She knew heading into the state finals for the 100-meter hurdles Remy Romney of American Leadership Academy – Queen Creek would be among her toughest competition. But in the final race she put on one of her best performances to win gold in Division III.

“It was really cool for me,” Blanchard said. “I’ve only been doing it two seasons and I did against Remy Romney, who is a really good hurdler. My first thought was, ‘this is really happening.’”

Blanchard’s impressive showing this past season helped her earn an invitation to the National Outdoor Championships in Oregon. She didn’t attend, mostly because she felt she wasn’t ready for that caliber of competition just yet. However, if invited next season, she plans to go.

The state championship win, coupled with her natural ability, has also helped her get on the radar of some colleges. She has talked to some locally and has even toured Arizona State. So far, her options are open.

But it appears that she will eventually follow in her mother’s path to becoming a Division I track athlete. Ann was a distance runner at Ole Miss in college. So, to see her daughter follow a similar path is meaningful.

“For me, it would be like the legacy lives on,” Ann said. “My whole family, we want to see it. We don’t want her track meets and her athletic career to end after her senior year. We want to see how far she can go.

“I think Larissa is going to be very competitive this year. I can’t wait to see her at the state championships next year.”

Perry recently announced it had promoted former assistant Jeff Gurecki as its new head girls’ track coach. He is replacing Bryan Idleman, who stepped down to spend more time with family.

Due to her transfer, Blanchard will have to sit out the first half of the spring season. But she plans to train with a club team with close ties to Perry this fall and winter. She is excited for the opportunity to compete for Perry as a senior and perhaps set new records for the Pumas.

She hopes to leave a legacy that centers around going for goals, no matter how new they may be.

“If you feel like you want to go do something, just go do it and see how far you can get,” Blanchard said.

Larissa Blanchard, an Ahwatukee native and resident, is currently preparing for her senior track season at Perry High School in Gilbert where she hopes to help the Pumas repeat

as state champions. (Dave Minton/STSN Staff)

AIA from page 31

thing for AZ HS Football to have our state championships broadcast live on television,” Mohns said. “We have some of the very best programs and players in the country, and it will be great for sports fans across the state and around the country to see them perform live on the biggest stage.”

Along with 5A, 6A and the Open Division football championships, Arizona’s Family will also broadcast all 5A, 6A and the new Open Division boys and girls basketball finals. The 5A and 6A baseball and softball championship games will also be live.

Mountain Pointe head basketball coach Kaimarr Price, who led the Pride to two straight state championship games in 2020 and 2021, said it’s a big opportunity for the players.

“This is a huge opportunity for these young student athletes to have the chance to play on live TV,” Price said in a text. “High school sports provide a unique experience which they will carry the memories of throughout life.”

As part of the partnership, weekly stories on Arizona’s Family channel lineup and the ability to broadcast bracket release shows done for most sports throughout the school year.

Since its inception in 2019, the Open Division football championship game has become one of the must-see events in Arizona high school sports. The first-ever championship game between Saguaro and Chandler drew thousands to Sun Devil Stadium.

In recent years, baseball and softball championship games have nearly filled Farrington Stadium at ASU and Tempe Diablo. Basketball championships, since moved to Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum, have also drawn large crowds and that is only expected to grow with the addition of the Open Division for girls and boys this year.

But one constant complaint from Arizona high school sports fans has always been the lack of a working livestream. Now, that problem will likely be solved with the AIA’s new partnership with Arizona’s Family.

“Arizona’s Family has always been committed to serving our community,” Vice President and General Manager of Arizona’s Family Debbie Bush said in the press release. “We know that there are so many inspiring stories coming from the high school experience and this partnership with the AIA allows us to shine a light on all the good that is happening in our local communities.”

FRISBEE from page 31

of the sport and the way that the USA Ultimate Organization sets up their club season. The January ‘fun tournament’ is not exactly fitting in the calendar the way that it used to, but it’s still good for a lot of teams.”

The club level of ultimate is more competitive than the seasonal leagues put on by Valley of the Sun Ultimate. Club teams can compete for championships on the national and international stage.

There is a range of competition levels, but the seasonal leagues offer opportunities for new players to learn the sport or just find a community. That was the case for Olivia Pascazi, who played ultimate in high school and recently moved to the Phoenix area from Pittsburgh.

“I wanted to join some type of ultimate league,” Pascazi said. “I just searched for Frisbee leagues in Tempe and VOTS came up, so I joined it and I’ve been here ever since.”

Pascazi’s first time playing with VOTS came this year, and she has caught on. She even helped her team, the Poached Eggs, score a few points.

“I think there’s a lot of camaraderie,” she said. “Especially in this league, everyone’s been super helpful. Even if you know they’re on another team, they’re really helpful to newer players. I feel like in other sports I played, it’s a little more cutthroat, which, you know, sometimes can be fun for those who want to be competitive. But for newer players, it’s really nice to have that camaraderie.”

Although the organization is bouncing back from the pandemic and leagues are up and running again, Streit notes there’s always room to grow the league and the sport in general.

“Our league will accept (players) 16 years old and up,” Streit said. “We have not traditionally had very much outreach to youth ultimate. There are places in the country that I know are better at that, but that’s something our organization has been lacking in. We hope to expand to that someday.”

The league will have a second summer league run from August through September. Then, the fall season will begin.