Jason Jewell,”The Godfather” of Arizona high school football, dropped down some thoughts on week 1 of the high school football season.
I started at the Casteel v. Apollo game and then went to second half of Arcadia v. Deer Valley game. Let’s start with the Colts.
* Casteel is going to be just fine in 5A. Sure, they took their lumps last week against powerhouse Centennial but they manhandled a solid Apollo team that beat Desert Mountain last week.
Gunner Cruz looked fantastic, he threw only 3 incomplete passes and 2 of those were drops. He is going to fit in the Washington State offense very well. He has plenty of arm strength, makes quick decisions, gets the ball out of his hand and is a good leader.
Someone is going to get a fantastic football player in Zach Nelson. The senior wideout is tough, sure-handed, and has good speed.
* The same can be said for Apollo senior RB Ali Mohamed. He is a very good player. He’s a tough competitor, great student, great sport and could play on either side of the ball.
* Kerry Taylor has done a good job so far at Arcadia. He has those kids playing hard and believing. I had heard some stories about player/staff behavior this off-season at passing leagues, I did not see any of that Friday. Junior QB Kadin Beler is a talented dual-threat kind of passer.
* I have always been a fan of Deer Valley athlete Dez Melton. He lines up at RB and is the Skyhawks only real threat offensively and people know it. he still produces. His combination of size and speed is crazy.
* Most schools would be lucky to have one D1 quarterback in a decade but how about Pinnacle with two on their roster now. Spencer Rattler goes down and J.D. Johnson comes off the bench and leads the Pioneers to a win of traditional power Mt. Pointe. Impressive!
* I am curious to see how Hamilton responds after going 0-2.
