Section 7 - What did we learn?
Column
Section 7 boys weekend has come and gone and as it passes by, for most teams one more live period event remains before club season continues in July.
This year’s edition saw many bright spots such as a jump in attendance from college coaches, 682 to be exact… Well technically 683 due to something that took place during the weekend (we’ll get to that).
That number is a jump of over 250 coaches from the previous high.
This goes hand in hand with a jump in the total of Arizona teams in the event as 48 teams participated in the weekend, another all-time high in the event.
Arizona is continuing to progress as a basketball state as blue blood programs such as Duke, UCLA, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Kansas evaluated and recruited different athletes on different courts.
Prior to Covid, that would’ve been a rare occasion. Now? That’s become normal.
But as things have progressed and Arizona reaches a new level, some things stay the same while other things have changed.
Note from Seliga & The NextUpAZ Team:
To Ray Arvizu, The ABCA, Lucas Ramirez, Mark Wood, and Jordan Augustine… Thank you for your hospitality, your support, and willingness to help the basketball athletes in Arizona. We know the time and effort you put in behind the scenes to making sure Section 7 goes on without a problem doesn’t get the appreciation it deserves. The long days and countless hours you put in before, during, and after the event is appreciated.
Give me “Grace”
For the second time in over a month, Higley is once again in the market for a new head coach. David Grace is on the move again as nearly six weeks after accepting the job at Higley, he leaves the school to take the job at Florida Southwestern State College, a junior college in Fort Myers.
Truthfully, I cannot knock any coach for taking a job at a higher level when given the opportunity. However, this is different.
The perk about being in the media, especially a scene as tight-knit and truthfully small as high school basketball media in Arizona, you know more than you should about big time coaching searches.
Candidly, Grace dragged his feet for multiple weeks before accepting the Higley job including going back and forth saying yes and no to different people and never giving a straight answer. This continued until a few days before accepting the job.
But what’s so disappointing and frankly frustrating is how before the Knights even played their first game at the event, more time was spent by Grace talking about his new college job to anyone who’d listen and showing off everything. Then, after it starts to leak out he tells his kids in the middle of the event with multiple games to go he’s leaving.
He then proceeds to go on the baseline during their next game and spend more time shooting the breeze with other college coaches instead of coaching his own team and gets ejected from that game… The same one he couldn’t even bother to focus on still coaching the kids he had in the event.
This is the second time in recent years that Grace has jumped ship as quickly as he gets on it with an Arizona team, doing the same thing to Centennial high school before going to Campbell Hall.
The kids are the ones who get hurt here. Kenneth Drake resigned in March, and for well over a month the Knight community waited until this hire and now once again they’re needing to search. And this comes with the territory of high school sports. But the blatant lack of respect for the kids and the program to not even bother giving the bare minimum effort and energy in an event that multiple kids on the roster need to shine in front of college coaches is just disheartening.
Squabble Up at Arcadia?
The behavior by a parent of Arcadia high school on Sunday was downright disgusting.
Immediately following the Titans final game of the event which capped off a lackluster 0-4 weekend, an Arcadia parent stormed on the court to confront the head coach of Arcadia, Greg Richards. The parent put his hands on Richards and raised his voice towards him mentioning broken promises and lies that Richards had told his kid, other kids, and himself.
This incident has raised many eyebrows and has led to an investigation into the incident by the Arcadia high school administration. More details about the incident have been uncovered by NextUpAZ and will be released by Delon Bowen soon.
In the meantime, relative to previous years the overall behavior by parents at the event this year were much improved and more respectful. But in regards to this situation, no parent and frankly no one for that matter should be storming the court or laying their hands on a coach. Frustrations run high, yet that doesn’t excuse that behavior.
According to multiple sources, Section 7 has identified and contacted the parent involved and issued a ban from the event. This comes after they had already removed him from the premises immediately following the incident.
The Grass Ain’t Always Greener
If one thing can be taken away for new faces in new places, it’s that sometimes the grass is perfectly Green where you’re already watering it.
Throughout the Arizona teams but also with the out of state teams as well, the era of transferring has reached a point where players are on teams three and four entering the event this Summer alone.
This rush to run when things aren’t going their way coupled with coaches giving out one week “trials” to make themselves look better is a bad look.
Multiple coaches were contacted and warned about playing prep players who were specifically added to compete for their program just for the event with the threat of being banned from the event while other coaches played players who weren’t enrolled in their school and were already gone by Monday morning.
Multiple players were seen competing for their third program in as many weeks and others were looking at other programs gauging where they fit in.
But the most alarming thing was how egregious certain coaches and programs were at attempting to recruit this past weekend.
Coaches talking to players and parents as soon as said player’s coach isn’t visible and offering promises of starting spots and exposure.
The grass is Green where you water it, it’s that simple. You have an obligation to water your soil and tend to it so the grass can grow. When you rush the process, you get dead patches and an ugly lawn.
What message does it send to the kids in your program when you’re giving figurative ten day contracts to kids instead of focusing on the ones who’ve been at every offseason workout and practice?
What does it say when you’re more focused on recruiting than making adjustments on the court while your team gets blasted?
Put On For The State!
First off, congratulations to the lone bracket winner from Arizona this weekend, the Cienega Bobcats. Cienega went 4-0 and defeated Democracy Prep (NV), Vanden (CA), Roosevelt (CA), and Fairmont Prep (CA). Jackson Moore who’ll be one of the most prolific scorers in the state regardless of class had a fantastic weekend and showcased why Cienega although with a new coach will still be a tough team in the 5A conference.
Six teams finished the weekend 3-1, Millennium, Pinnacle, Chaparral, West Point, Notre Dame Prep, and Mesa.
What’s unique about all six of those teams including Cienega, is that those teams had the most success this weekend mostly because they’re the teams that relied the least upon transfers/players who developed outside their program. Yes, Millennium gained Maurice Carter II from Willow Canyon but the majority of their rotation and those who played were players in the program last year.
Pinnacle reached the championship in their bracket and did it with nearly the same rotation from last year. Chaparral returned multiple starters same with Notre Dame and Mesa. West Point has a new starting cast but its players who were already in their program.
Continuity and development are the key things that stand out in an event like this as the teams that have the most success are the ones who aren’t relying on multiple new pieces and forcing new players to fit alongside what they already had.
Even the teams that went 2-2 in tough brackets such as Canyon View, Basha, Cactus Shadows, Desert Edge, and Mountain Pointe all showed more consistency on the court as a group and more rhythm than more talented teams that finished below .500.
Granted some of the top teams such as Liberty, Sunnyslope, and Perry were .500 or worse due to players missing from either injury or national team events but those teams are mostly the same and in spurts showed that.
Maybe the teams that went 1-3 or 0-4 will improve entering Nevada & Cali Live after having more reps, but one thing is certain, the Arizona teams that are truly a team will be ready to compete.
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