Chris Eaton
Former Paradise Honors quarterback Gage Baker was just in their shoes two years ago. Preparing for his senior year and working on helping better himself. Baker took his talent and that GPA (Sports360AZ All-Academic Team honors with a 4.62) to Rapid City and South Dakota School of Mines. Now after a year of college, he’s giving back to the West Valley at Canyon View HS by working with the Jaguars during the summer.
In addition to having a convenient place to work out, Baker is getting to spend a little extra time with family. His father, Ron, is the quarterbacks coach at Canyon View and younger brother Treydon is a utility specialist for the Jaguars. Treydon can play center, receiver, and linebacker. Gage said his dad asked if he wanted to help out with coaching the QBs during the summer.
“We have always believed that you should pass on the knowledge you have acquired to the next set of QBs,” Gage Baker said in an email interview. “So, it became an easy decision to always go out and help coach the QBs whenever we would hold summer throwing sessions or even travel around to the 7-on-7 tournaments.”
It’s a new coaching staff at Canyon View, located in the way-west Valley in Waddell, this year as Manny Alcantar was the first of what has become 72 coaching changes in the varsity head coaching ranks within the state this offseason. He was hired on December 1, after being an assistant at Liberty each of the past two years (both ending in Open Division titles). Prior to that, Alcantar was a head coach at both Cesar Chavez and Dysart.
Alcantar said Gage comes from a good family, is disciplined, and humble.
“When he would get in the weight room, the kids would see his work ethic,” Alcantar said. “If you want to model yourself after somebody, that’s what you want to model after.”
Canyon View is coming off a 3-7 season, but the Jaguars were competitive much of the way. CVHS hung with 5A champion Desert Edge for a half (trailed 7-5) and was in games with Millennium (21-18 loss) and 5A runner-up Cactus (30-23 loss) right to the end.
“The talent has always been there,” Alcantar said. “This year, we’re getting the buy-in. We have our #1 (quarterback) now, but we’re giving others a chance to play. We’ve got some young QBs.”
To wrap up 7’s season, Canyon View went up to Flagstaff and won the tournament held at Northern Arizona University. Along the way, the Jaguars were impressive in defeating both Brophy (an Open contender chock-full of D-I recruits) and their own CVHS “B” team (the varsity crew edged the juniors 15-14). While June victories may not necessarily translate to the fall, it is clearly a sign of progress and a raising of the bar for the Jaguar program.
Set the standard mijos, NAU 7s champs!!! Proud of you guys and coaches!!!!! @CVjagsfootball pic.twitter.com/vqFxNYDtzd
— JR Alcantar (@FBCOACHA) June 28, 2025
“It definitely showed the true potential this team has,” Gage Baker said of the NAU tournament title. “The team has so many special players on both sides of the ball and seeing their hard work produce results was a huge confidence booster for them.”
Gage comes from a coaching family. Ron has a lot of experience over the past 15 years coaching flag football at the youth level, middle school tackle at Paradise Honors, varsity ball at Willow Canyon, Paradise Honors, and now at Canyon View. Gage said that coaching is indeed something that is often on his mind.
“I definitely want to share all the knowledge that I have gained from this fantastic sport with the next generation,” Gage Baker said. “I want to make them not just better football players, but better young men as well.”
Before any of that coaching talk, Gage will go back to school at South Dakota Mines this fall. He redshirted his freshman year for the Hardrockers and still has four years at the Division II school that is one of the top engineering schools in the country.
“College life has been great,” Gage Baker said. “South Dakota Mines does a great job of making the new players feel at home and has been a blast so far. From the amazing coaching staff (Head) Coach (Charlie) Flohr has put together to the administration, they have made the transition feel very smooth and easy. I’ve been able to grow so much in just this first year and am looking forward to a great year.”
Gage said he’s seen great improvement in the quarterbacks at Canyon View this summer and attributes it to the mentorship the student-athletes have had with his father.
“He doesn’t get the credit he always deserves,” Gage said. “But he has created a standard of excellence and guided the QBs to be their best day in and day out.”
Alcantar said senior Brady Scott is the Jaguars’ starter. Scott took most of the snaps on varsity last year, throwing for 859 yards and seven touchdowns. Right behind him is another senior, Christian Sartor-Sharp, who played on JV the second half of last year after transferring from Saguaro. The other quarterbacks in the program competing for spots are junior Jake Spickler (a transfer from Verrado) and sophomore Titan Jacobs.
“Brady and Christian have been able to really hone in on becoming leaders of the offense while understanding the new schemes brought in by Coach Fisch (assistant coach James Fischer),” Gage said. “Jake and Titan are both young, exciting prospects that will turn lots of heads in the near future. All of the QBs have made lots of improvement in understanding their progressions and getting the ball to their playmakers in an efficient manner. Very exciting to see for Canyon View!”
In addition to the scouting report on the quarterbacks, Gage is excited for Treydon as he enters his senior year as well. He can not only run routes, he can put his hand in the dirt (or turf) and take on guys bigger than him. Treydon also gets it done in the classroom with a 3.80 GPA.
“He’s been working extremely hard to make this his best year yet and be a leader on this Canyon View team,” Gage said. “He has made tremendous growth in his route running and speed while still adding muscle to his frame. He’s ready to show the state of Arizona who he is.”
For those unaware of what Gage did at Paradise Honors, or just want to be reminded, he simply put up numbers that you wouldn’t even equal on a video game in easy mode. Playing in a true air raid offense, a quarterback’s dream, Gage threw for 6,045 yards and 91 touchdowns. Not for his career, that was just in his senior season! During an 11-3 campaign in which the Panthers played in their first 3A championship game, Gage ranked #1 in the nation in yardage and tops in touchdowns. As a matter of fact, those 91 TD passes tied for the all-time high in a single season at any high school in the United States (with current Cincinnati Bengal Jake Browning).
Looking back, Gage said it was surreal and awesome to be a part of. He had 503 attempts for the season (average of 36 per game) and finished his three-year varsity career with 173 touchdown passes.
“The whole season ws a testament to how hard the players and coaching staff worked to make it all happen,” Gage said. “I personally haven’t seen anything like it, it definitely was one-of-a-kind.”
Alcantar is familiar with Canyon View because, although he was coaching at a different school, he has worked at CVHS for four years. He’s a student support specialist helping with counseling all students and working in mediation. Being that he was hired at the start of December, he’s had a full offseason to get his team ready for the opener on Aug. 29 at home against South Mountain. The Jaguars play in the 5A Desert West Region.
“I think seeing the shift in the culture with new head coach Alcantar has been super exciting to see,” Gage said. “He has been able to create a different type of mentality within the team and has really been able to inspire leadership throughout the whole program. The standard ‘Rebuild the Culture’ at Canyon View is in full effect.”
Regarding the motto, Alcantar said it is all about buying in. The stronger the foundation (in all levels) is, the bigger the program can become. It includes relying on one another and being there for each other.
“It’s about understanding what it means to be a team,” Alcantar said. “How do we back one another when things go away? No matter what happens, we have to stick together.”
Reach Chris Eaton at gridironarizona@yahoo.com or DM at @gridironarizona with story ideas.
