Firth sets school mile record, track eyes national championship

By Justin Janssen '11

Firth Captures School Record

Will Firth '11 ran Brophy Prep's all-time fastest 1600 meter May 21 at the meet of champions (4:14.43), but he was overshadowed by Tuba City's Billy Orman.

Orman, who will run at Harvard next season, set the all-time Arizona record in the event (4:05.29) during the race behind a racuous crowd at Queen Creek High School.

Firth and Tommy Williams '11 were right behind Orman after three laps, but could not hold the record pace in the final lap.

Williams, the Division I 800 meter winner and former 5A-I 1600 meter champion, ran a personal record 4:15.56.

Williams is headed to UCLA where he will be coached by Olympian Johnny Gray, who still holds the American record in the 800 meter (1:42.60).

Firth holds the freshman 1600 meter and 3200 meter records for Brophy.

Distance coach Alex Mason '05 described Firth as consistent. Mason said he can have a good day when he's not feeling well, and he can have a great day when he's feeling well.


Track Eyes National Championship

Currently Brophy's track team is qualified for the Nike Track Nationals at Eugine, Ore.

The decathlon scoring used to qualify high schools for this prestigious meet converts times, heights, or distances into a certain amount of points.

Nike allows a school to "drop" the event of the lowest scoring. In Brophy's case that is the shotput event.

Last season Brophy made the meet and finished eighth and the Broncos are in seventh place currently.

12 teams from around the country qualify for the meet.

The top team from each of the eight regions automatically qualify for Nike Nationals and four others are "wildcards."

Harry Danilevics '10 said at the track banquet that after the meet of champions, the Brophy athletes stopped their training.

Danilevics challenged the current Broncos to continue their training up until the Nike Nationals in the quest for a national title.

Brophy could use another banner in Robson gymnasium after the 2011 soccer team received a national runner up banner at the graduation ceremony.

The swimming program has a national title and a national runner up banner to display.

The Brophy athletes are below:

Devon Allen '13 is running in the 100 meter, 100 meter hurdles, Williams is running the 400 and 800 meter, and Firth is running the 1600 meter.

Josh Dennard '11 is doing the long jump, Cole Walsh '13 in the pole vault, James Harper '12 in the high jump, and Danny Vimmerstadt '12 in the discus.

Nike limits athletes to two events, otherwise Allen would be running the 400 meter.

Mystery Clouding 2011 Schedule Finally Solved

By Justin Janssen '11

After a strenuous and endless offseason wait, Brophy Prep's 2011 football schedule with dates has finally been released.

The releasing of the football schedules have been delayed on numerous occasions and various components of the schedules have been released on different days.

Here's a quick timeline on how we reached the final schedule:

Dec. 6: The AIA announced the new teams in the sectional format, eliminating regions.

Jan. 19: Sectional appeals were granted.

March 2: The first eight computerized games were announced.

March 23: The other two games the school picked were announced.

Just prior to April 27: The public was supposed to hear the dates of the schedules April 27, but then the AIA turned around and said it would only be available to coaches and that it would be made available to the public May 12.

Just prior to May 12: The AIA announced another delay in the public releasing of schedules. Now the schedules will be announced July 1, eight weeks before the season starts.

Luckily for some school's fans, a coach, or someone in the athletic department has released the team's schedule.

Eight of the 10 games on each team's schedule are a product an AIA computerized program designed to lower travel costs.

While travel has been reduced, (the AIA reports it cut 35% travel in all sports) teams are allowed to play a division up or division down, creating inescapable mismatches.

North Pointe Prep canceled their football season because the school thought their players would get injured playing much larger and stronger teams.

"I can't afford for ambulances to be showing up to prove the AIA wrong," North Pointe Prep Principal Richard Gow told The Arizona Republic. "We don't mind getting beat. But we have to protect our kids."

Without further ado, the 2011 schedule....

8/26 H Mountain Ridge
9/2 H Boulder Creek
9/9 @ Red Mountain
9/16 H Sandra Day O'Conner
9/23 @ North Canyon
9/30 @ Mountain Pointe *
10/6 H Westview
10/14 H St. Mary's *
10/21 @ Westwood
10/28 @ Pinnacle

The marquee matchups on the schedule are Mountain Pointe and St. Mary's.

The Mountain Pointe - Brophy matchup is a rematch of a tight quarterfinal playoff fame last season. Brophy looked like they were going to pull off the upset, but missed three kicks down the stretch in a one point loss. Mountain Pointe starting quarterback Kyle Faunce has transferred out of state.

I'm told by Brophy scout team linebacker Jack Stamets '12 that St. Mary's is losing at least seven starters due to transferring. The biggest transfer is runningback Orange Mooney, who left to live with his father after his mother passed away. The rising Brophy seniors have not beat the Knights yet, and what better time to do that than on senior night and homecoming.

Brophy Track claims first ever state championship

By Justin Janssen '11

During the 82 years since Brophy College Prep opened in 1928, the Broncos had never hung a state championship banner in track.

"Banner Wall" on the south side of Robson Gymnasium is filled with state championships, but none had ever come in track.

A full season's worth of hard work paid off May 11 and 14 at Mesa Community College, as Brophy finally ended the championship drought in track.

Distance runner Tommy Williams '11 told The East Valley Tribune, "We got in the room and said, 'guys, we can win a state championship.' And we calculated the maximum score in each event, so we were all motivated to perform our best to score as much as possible."

Williams capped off his Brophy career with an individual title in the 800 meter (1:55.48).

Williams, the 2010 5A-I 1600 meter champion, is also Brophy's all-time record holder in the 800 meter.

Devon Allen '13 didn't win a race, but may have been the meet MVP as he led the Broncos with 27 of the team's 77 points scored.

Allen placed second in the 110 meter hurdles (13.90), second in the 200 meter (21.50), third in the 100 meter dash (10.90), and fourth in the 400 meter (48.88).

Allen set the team sophomore 110 meter hurdle record. It's the sixth fastest 110 meter hurdle in Arizona prep history.

His 200 meter dash time is a sophomore and school record.

Allen lost three events to Trae Armstrong of Deer Valley, who won the 100, 200, 400, and 4 X 400.

Will Firth (first) '11 had to settle for two second place finishes in the state meet.

In the two mile, Firth (9:32.39) and Williams (9:33.72) finished second and third to Yuma Cibola's Bernie Montoya, but picked up 14 valuable points in the race.

Scoring in the state meet is 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1, meaning the victor picks up 10 points, runner up earns eight points, etc.

Firth (4:15.53) and Williams (4:19.01) finished second and third, respectively, in the mile to a man who lost his shoe in the final lap.

Bernie Montoya lost his right shoe, but still persevered to hold off Brophy's distance runners.

"I got scared for a moment," Montoya said to The Arizona Republic. "But this is the state title that I could actually lose. That last lap, it was hurting."

Montoya had to pull out of the half mile race because of the pain he suffered in the mile.

James Harper '12 earned three points for his high jump of 6-4. Fourth through eighth place all cleared that height.

Josh Dennard '11 picked up two points in the long jump (21-10).

Brophy needed almost all those points as the defending state champion Chandler Wolves scored 73.

Chandler scored 36 points in the field events, including Michael Okonkwo winning the high jump (6'10).

But Chandler was disqualified in the 4 X 400 race; they were projected to finish third.

A third place finish would have given the Wolves six points, enough to overtake Brophy.

Five Brophy school records were set at the meet (first three are above).

The 4 X 800 team composed of Williams, Firth, Tanner Brown '12, and Jack Rubenzer '13 (7:56.77) set a Bronco record, but still finished fifth.

The 4 X 100 team with Anthony Broglia '11, Josh Dennard '11, Robert Relf '13, and D'Amayi Grayer '13, (42.36) placed sixth, but it was enough to break a school record.

Brophy track leads D-I state meet after day 1

By Justin Janssen '11

Brophy Prep is off to a hot start on their quest for their first ever state championship in track.

Despite no individual winners yet, the Broncos lead the 60 team division 1 pack after five of the 17 events.

The rest of the meet concludes Saturday May 14.

Results Below:

Preliminary 100 meter (25 runners)

2. Devon Allen (10.75) - advances to final

24. Anthony Broglia (11.53)

Preliminary 200 meter (22 runners)

2. Devon Allen (21.80) - advances to final

Preliminary 400 meter (21 runners)

8. Devon Allen (49.92) - advances to final by 0.2 seconds

Final 3200 meter (25 runners)

2. Will Firth (9:32.39) - 8 points

3. Tommy Williams (9:33.72) - 6 points

22. Marco Ruiz (10:05.41)

Preliminary 110 meter hurdles (23 runners)

2. Devon Allen (14.28)- advances to final

Final 4 X 800 Meter (24 schools)

5. Tommy Williams, Will Firth, Jack Rubenzer, Tanner Brown (7:56.77) - 4 points

Final High Jump (33 jumpers)

6. James Harper (6'04) - 3 points

Final Long Jump (24 jumpers)

7. Josh Dennard (21'10) - 2 points

14. Robert Relf (21'04)

Team Standings after Day 1:

1. Brophy - 23 points

2. Desert Vista - 19.5 points

3. Chandler - 19 points

4. Hamilton - 18 points

5. Mountain View - 17 points

5. Cibola - 17 points

7. Deer Valley - 15 points

Races remaining: 100 meter, 200 meter, 400 meter, 800 meter, 1600 meter, Pole Vault, Shot Put, Discus, Triple Jump, 110 meter hurdles, 300 meter hurdles, 4 X 100 meter.

Races clocked: 4 X 400, 4 X 800, High Jump, Long Jump, 3200 meter.

Baseball loses rematch with Mesquite, bounced from playoffs

Blogger Note: Blogger was temporarily down, this post was originally published May 11.

Brophy 2
Mesquite 12

By Justin Janssen ’11
THE ROUNDUP

What started as a promising postseason for No. 9 Brophy (21-10) ended abruptly with two mercy losses to No. 4 Hamilton (25-6) and No. 1 Mesquite (29-4).

On May 12, the Broncos knew they had a tall task going against Mesquite ace Zach Davies (11-0, 1.82 ERA).

Davies is nominated for the Gatorade Arizona Baseball player of the year.

Despite Davies’ credentials, the Broncos had base runners in every inning and made Davies work for every out he got.

“We had a good game plan against Davies,” said Brophy head coach Mr. Tom Succow. “Our guys battled hard against him.”

Brophy struggles to contain the Mesquite offense. Starting pitcher Sean Maxon-Maldonado ’11 walked four batters and hitting two more in three innings.

“(Maldonado) pitched 1 2/3 innings Saturday,” Mr. Succow said. “It was the first time he threw since April 5.”

Mesquite got to work right away off Maldonado, scoring four runs in the first inning, three of the runners who scores reached on free passes by Maldonado.

Mesquite added a run in the second off of a wild pitch by Maldonado, and Spencer Applebach homered off him in the third.

“He deserved to have the ball, but just wasn’t sharp enough,” Mr. Succow said.

First baseman Dan Winkler ’11 jumpstarted Brophy’s offense with leadoff singles in the third and fifth innings.

Winkler came around to score both of Brophy’s runs.

A last chance at a comeback for Brophy was halted in the fifth inning when Connor Messman ’13 struck out with the bases loaded and two outs.

Mesquite ended the game in the sixth when they opened the inning with seven straight batters reaching the bases.

The Wildcats scored four in the inning and the 12-2 lead ended the game on the run rule.

Mr. Succow said he thought Brophy had a good season despite two straight losses by 10 runs.

“Anytime you win 20 games, it’s a success,” Mr. Succow said. “I’m proud of the effort the kids put in.”

Mesquite will take on Hamilton in the 5A-I semifinals May 12.

Due to Mesquite’s loss to Brophy May 3, if Mesquite beats Hamilton, the Wildcats have to play Hamilton again for the spot in the championship game.

Allen, Williams, Firth lead Brophy into state meet

The 2010-2011 school year is almost over. Some schools graduate as early as this upcoming Saturday.

The track and field season is also winding down to its final meet.

Brophy Prep figures to finish very high in the meet; maybe high enough to win their first ever state championship May 11 and 14 at Mesa Community College.

There is increased competition with seven divisions reduced to four.

The scoring is 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Qualifying times for the state meet below.

Devon Allen '13 leads the charge. 5th in 11o meter high hurdles time (14.55). Leader is Cameron Taylor of Westwood (13.98).

Allen is fourth in the 100 meter dash (10.83). Leader is stud running back Trae Armstrong of Deer Valley (10.66). Anthony Broglia '11 qualified as the 22nd runner in Division 1 (11.20).

The 4 X 100 team will probably not score due to Allen choosing other events. With Allen Brophy is 8th in the state and 0.01 seconds away from tying the school record.

Allen is fifth in the 200 meter dash (21.85), a school record. Armstrong leads this race (21.44).

Allen is second in the 400 meter (48.73) to Armstrong (48.25). This is another Brophy record.

The 4 X 800 team of Tommy Williams '11, Will Firth '11, Jack Rubenzer '13, and Tanner Brown '12 are 4th in Division I with a time of 8:05.30. Desert Vista is 1st (7:58.30).

The 1600 meter run is where Brophy could pick up a lot of points. Firth (4:17.45) and Williams (4:21.72) are second and third respectively in that race.

Firth recently signed with Rice, while Williams is a verbal to UCLA according to coach Mike Keahon '77.

The 1/2 mile is very competitive with Firth (1:55.97) and Williams (1:56.12) sixth and tenth. Williams owns the school record.

In the two mile, Firth (9:25.12) and Williams (9:42.89) are second and fourth. Marco Ruiz '13 qualified at the last chance meet (9:51.51) and is 17th.

The 4 X 400 team is 9th with Centennial leading the way.

Basketball forward James Harper '12 is T-7th in the high jump (6-04). Edmond Baker of Desert Vista has the highest jump at 6-10.

Running back/wide receiver Josh Dennard '11 jumps 21-05 in the long jump (17th). Travonn White of Mountain Pointe leads all jumpers with 23-02.50. Linebacker Robert Relf '13 is 22nd with a jump of 21-02.

In the pole vault, Cole Walsh '13 is T-5th (14-06), while Mark Schillinger '12 is T-8th (14-00).

Baseball gets rematch against No. 1 Mesquite

By Justin Janssen '11

After getting blown out 14-4 to Hamilton May 7, the Brophy Broncos baseball team is going to need to ride a lot of magic to advance in the 5A-I tournament.

There's an old saying "it's hard to beat a team twice", but Brophy will twice need to beat a team twice (not a typo)- just in the postseason to advance to the championship game.

Not exactly a nice birthday present for Dave Graybill '12.

No. 9 Brophy (21-9) defeated No. 1 Mesquite (28-4) 5-3 May 3 in the second round behind a furious rally in the sixth and seventh innings.

Dan Winkler '11 hit the tying RBI double in the sixth scoring Ryan Grant ’12, who pinch-ran for catcher Jon Rapisarda '12 after he started the inning with a double down the left field line.

Rapisarda delivered the go-ahead RBI single with two outs in the seventh inning.

Two batters later, Winkler, the team’s vocal leader, put the game out of reach with a two-RBI bases-loaded single.

But when Brophy and Mesquite play again May 10, in the loser's bracket, the Broncos will not have the luxury of facing Mesquite's relievers.

Instead, Brophy will have to face a man who has lost once in the past two seasons.

The Tigers will start ace Zach Davies (11-0, 1.82 ERA) against Brophy.

Davies' pitching gives him notoriety, but he almost beat the Broncos with his bat.

Trailing 1-0 in the fifth inning, Davies put Mesquite ahead with a two-run homer, chasing Brophy starter Steven Oleksak '13.

If Brophy overcomes Davies and No. 1 Mesquite, they will play No. 4 Hamilton (25-6) May 12 for the right to advance to the title game.

But Brophy would need to beat Hamilton not just once, but twice, on the same day, to advance.

Hamilton crushed the Broncos 14-4 May 7, forcing a run-rule to end the game in six innings.

The Huskies, winners of the Fiesta Region, also defeated Brophy twice in the regular season.

Baseball tops top-seeded Mesquite in second round

Brophy 5
Mesquite 3

By Justin Janssen ’11
THE ROUNDUP

Entering the seventh inning May 3 knotted up at two runs apiece, the No. 9 Brophy Broncos (21-8) needed a clutch hit or two against No. 1 Mesquite (27-4).

Catcher Jon Rapisarda ’12 delivered the go-ahead RBI single with two outs in the seventh inning scoring Chris Beall ’12, and the Brophy faithful could almost breathe after a nail-biting second round playoff game.

Two batters later, Dan Winkler ’11, the team’s vocal leader, put the game out of reach with a two-RBI bases-loaded single.

Winkler hit the tying RBI double in the sixth scoring Ryan Grant ’12, who pinch-ran for Rapisarda after he started the inning with a double down the left field line.

Beall hit an RBI triple in the first inning to put Brophy out in front, but then a pitcher’s duel broke out.

Brophy lefty Steven Oleksak ’13, who began the season on junior varsity, pitched four-plus innings and didn’t allow a run until Mesquite’s Kyle Davies blasted a two run homer in the fifth.

Oleksak kept the Broncos in the game and got out of jams in the second and third innings with double plays.

“He doesn’t get flustered out there,” said Brophy head coach Mr. Tom Succow about Oleksak. “He doesn’t have outstanding stuff right now, but he has great composure. And that’s more important.”

Nick Jones ’11 got the win in relief and held the Wildcats to one run in three innings pitched.

“He’s been our closer all year,” Mr. Succow said.

Mesquite pitcher Ryan Williams pitched into the sixth, and settled down after Beal’s hit in the first, but Winkler’s game-tying single chased him from the game.

“It was a great team effort,” Mr. Succow said. “Two of our best hitters (Joe Maggi ’11 and Dave Graybill ’12) don’t have a hit in the playoffs.”

Next, Brophy will play Hamilton (24-6) May 7 at Camelback Ranch, the Spring Training home of the Dodgers and White Sox.

Hamilton won the Fiesta Region and defeated Brophy twice in the regular season.

Mesquite moves to the loser’s bracket and will play No. 12 Highland Thursday.

Goodman gets first hit, good fortune coming?

By Justin Janssen '11

Goodman's first homer

Infielder Greg Goodman '11 saw one pitch in a playoff game against Alhambra, but the memory of that pitch will be remembered much longer.

Goodman smoked a baseball thrown by Stephen Burnham into left field giving Brophy a decisive 16-2 lead.

"Right when the ball was hit the dugout became ecstatic," Goodman said. "They all piled out and showed their support with high fives and congratulations."

But this was not just any home run, it was Goodman's first.

In fact it was his first hit as a Brophy Bronco.

Goodman had only three plate appearances all season prior to his home run in the first round playoff game at Alhambra High School.

Goodman tried out for Brophy's baseball teams all four years, but didn't make one of them until Varsity his senior year.

"(I tried out senior year because) I felt I was at the best of my game," Goodman said. "I played club baseball the three years before and Brophy Summer Baseball the summer before. I was also bigger, stronger, and more prepared than before."

"Going up to the plate I just kept in mind that it was most likely going to be one of my last at bats of the season, so I was going to try to utilize the opportunity the best I could."


Good Luck Coming?

After the Brophy's 18-2 "upset" victory over No. 8 Alhambra in the first round of the 5A-I playoffs, the team stopped to eat at Pei Wei.

One of Pei Wei and other Chinese Resturants symbols is the fortune cookie.

The Brophy baseball team received a couple of curious fortunes inside the fortune cookie.

According to relief pitcher Peter Fletcher '11 the fortune cookies said, "Your sports team will have great success this year" and "On Tuesday you will have great success."

The No. 9 Brophy Broncos (20-8) will need the fortune cookie prophecy to come true when they take on the No. 1 Mesquite Wildcats (26-3) at 7 p.m. at Camelback Ranch (Glendale, Ariz).

The Broncos probably won't see Mesquite ace Zach Davies (10-0, 1.66 ERA) because he pitched a complete game Saturday against North Canyon.

Brophy will likely counter Mesquite with Sean Maxon-Maldenado '11 on the mound.

5A Metro doesn't deserve any teams in the postseason

By Justin Janssen '11

If you look at some of the records of the 5A Metro teams, you might think they were good.

Alhambra (18-6), Trevor Browne (24-6), and Maryvale (15-9) all qualified for the 5A-I postseason, but if you look closer, you'd see their records are inflated by playing a high amount of regional games.

Each team played 16 regional games and some teams played even more games against the Metro Region in tournaments.

The result was anywhere from 60 to 81 percent of a team's schedule against their own region.

The rest of the region's records are: North (13-14-1), Fairfax (11-13), South Mountain (10-17), Hayden (5-20-1), Central (2-25), and Camelback (1-20).

Against other regions, the 5A Metro is a combined 22-53 (29 win pct.), with 9 of those wins coming from Trevor Browne.

The website Maxpreps.com, America's source for high school sports, agrees with my premise that the 5A Metro doesn't deserve a postseason team.

Out of the 31 teams in 5A-I it had the Metro schools ranked 19th (Trevor Browne), 26th, 28th, and 29th.

Out of the 32 teams in 5A-II maxpreps.com ranked all five metro schools lower than 26th.

In the playoffs, the result has been catastrophic, with all three teams losing their first round games by 10 or more runs.

After Brophy's 18-2 shellacking of Alhambra, I asked Brophy head coach Mr. Tom Succow if he thought Alhambra was among the top 16 teams in 5A-I (that's how many teams qualify for the postseason).

He said, "You know what, they are. They wouldn't have won all those games and wouldn't have been here if they didn't do something right."

I should of mentioned that the 5A Metro Region champion (Alhambra) won only one game all season against a non-Metro squad.