Heideman switches from varsity to freshman coach

By Justin Janssen '11

According to Brophy football's website, Scott Heideman is no longer a Brophy varsity football coach.

Heideman will still be with the program, just changing positions. Heideman is switching from varsity linebackers coach to an assistant freshman football coach.

This is the second freshman program at Brophy he will be coaching. Last spring Heideman became the head lacrosse coach for Brophy's freshman squad.

Off the field, Heideman is a full time substitute teachers, inspiring students with his 212 degree speeches. Heideman is also known for giving students push-ups instead of detentions when they are disciplined.

Before coming to Brophy in 2007, Heideman was the head coach of Boulder Creek High school in its first three years of existence.

Prior to his stint at Boulder Creek, Heideman was an assistant coach at four other valley high schools for 12 years.

Defensive coordinator and strength & conditioning coach Gary Galante will be filling the void left by Heideman by also becoming the linebackers coach in addition to being the special teams coordinator.

Williams, Firth set school records in final race

By Justin Janssen '11

The historic Hayward Field is known to bring out the best of track athletes. The aura for a track athlete at Hayward Field is comparable to a baseball player competing at Wrigley or a football player at Lambeau.

On June 25, at Hayward Field, in the Nike Track Nationals, Thomas Williams '11 and Will Firth '11 set personal records in their respective events in their last race as a Brophy Bronco.

Williams and Firth graduated from Brophy Prep one month ago so this was the last time they would don the Brophy uniform.

Williams is the 2011 Arizona D-I 800 meter champion and 2010 Arizona 5A-I 1600 meter champion.

"Williwams" ran 1:54.10, good for 4th place and 910.50 points in the decathlon scoring. That's not a typo on my part, for some reason Nike has Tommy's name recorded as "Williwams."

Williams was right with the lead group for the entire race, but lost a step on the leaders in the last 100 meters or so.

"There was a little bit of contact with about 80 (meters) to go," Williams said. "I kind of got sandwiched behind a couple guys."

Williams has said in the past that he sometimes struggles at the end of races; the victor of the race finished 0.48 seconds ahead of Williams.

But place isn't too important in the decathlon scoring meet, as finishers 1 through 4 earned almost the same number of points for their team.

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Firth did not compete last year for Brophy at the Nike Nationals meet because he was sick at the end of the season.

This year he's healthy, but he had to wait till the last event of the night to show everyone.

During the mile race, coaches and the fans remaining in the stands stood in the outside lanes, anticipating the grand finale of the track season.

After one lap, Firth was in 6th place, but quickly (no pun intended) made his way into third.

With just 100 meters to go, Firth fell behind the two leaders by about 15 meters.

Then Firth found fifth gear and dashed faster than he'd ever gone before. Firth made up ground and passes the runner positioned in second at the finish line.

His time was 4:15.19. Converted that mile time into 1600 meters and the result is 4:13.79. A school record.

Firth had tied the school record of Charles Hampton '03 in 1600 meters at the Meet of Champions last month, but now he's all alone in Brophy's record book.

Upon receiving the runner-up medal at the meet, cheers for Firth erupted. The PA announcer said,"Apparently he has a very large fan club at Hayward field."

Video of races:

Williams PR's

Williams interview

Firth motors to 2nd

Firth receives award

Allen stumbles, wins in Nike Nationals

By Justin Janssen '11

The Nike Track Nationals at legendary Hayward Field in Eugine, Oregon started when Devon Allen '13 stumbled in the 110 meter hurdles and the Brophy Broncos couldn't recover from Allen's disqualification.

Allen, who was projected to finish second, got off to a clean start, but looked like he overextended his left leg after the second hurdle.

Allen was off-balance, but he recovered and continued the race. He lost a little less than two seconds off his time, but it all went for not because Allen was disqualified.

Allen made up for the blunder later by surging to a first place victory in the 100 meter dash.

It was the oppositie of a wire-to-wire win for Allen, who only led the race at the finish.

At the midway point Allen was in 5th place, but a late surge gave him a tightly contested victory. The victor of the race could not be seen with the naked eye. Electronic times showed Allen crossed the finish line first.

Ironically, Allen stumbled this time too, but this time it was after the race.

Allen extended his body at the finish line ever so slightly to push ahead, but his extension at top speed forced him to the ground.

Allen needed every last step and extension because second place finished two milliseconds behind him.

"You know I just wanted to get out and PR," Allen said. "I didn't make up as many points (as projected) in the hurdles. I wanted to make up points for my team."

Scoring at the Nike Nationals Meet is in a decathlon format, meaning times, distances, and heights are converted onto a point scale.

Allen's disqualification in the hurdles earned 0 points for the Broncos, a blow that no team could recover from.

If Allen finished his projected 13.90 seconds in the race (1000 points), the Broncos finish 3rd out of 12. Instead they finished last.

Allen crossed the finish line at about 15.6 seconds, which would have given Brophy more than 700 points. This would have placed them 8th.

But Allen still has a bright future ahead of him as the record holder of 11 school events (100 meter dash freshman, sophomore, varsity; 200 meter dash freshman, sophomore, varsity; 400 meter sophomore, 110 meter hurdles sophomore, 4 X 100 meter sophomore, and freshman and sophomore decathalon.

Allen was also Brophy's leading track scorer in route to their first ever track state championship. He scored in four events at the state meet.

On the gridiron, Allen was Brophy's leading receiver in 2010 (915 yards 6 TD) and already has a scholarship offer.


Video of both races:

Allen stumbles in 110 hurdles- DQ

Allen wins 100 meter 10.75 - 919.05 points

H.S. Track National Championship today - meet broadcased online

On the website http://www.runnerspace.com/NTN, the 2011 high school Nike Track Nationals will be broadcasted starting at 6:20 p.m.

Brophy is ranked No. 10 in the nation, but is eight among teams that made the meet. For some reason qualified schools North Shore (TX) and Kentwood (MI) did not go to the meet leading the way for two more Texas teams. No. 1 Loyola (Calif) is where Jaric Erike '11 and Michael Erike '12 transferred to.

The schools competing are Loyola, No. 2 Vista Murrieta (Calif), No. 4 Ben Davis (Indiana), No. 5 Sam Barlow (Oregon), No. 7 Great Oak (Calif), No. 8 Dana Hills (Calif), Brophy, No. 9 De Soto (Texas), Brophy, No. 11 The Woodlands (Texas), No. 18 Godby (Florida), No. 20 Don Bosco (New Jersey), and No. 27 Eden Prarie (Minn).

The official meet schedule of events is below. In white are the events Brophy fans care about.

6:30 PM  Discus  NTN  Girls  Infield
6:30 PM  1,500 Meters  Junior  Women Final
6:40 PM  1,500 Meters  Junior  Men Final  
6:50 PM  Shot Put  NTN  Boys  West ring - Brophy and 1 other team dropped this event. 
7:00 PM  100 Meter Hurdles  NTN  Girls 
7:10 PM  110 Meter Hurdles  NTN  Boys (Devon Allen). Allen ranks 2nd out of teams who made meet.
2 teams dropped event. 
7:15 PM  Pole Vault  NTN  Girls  East runway
7:15 PM  Pole Vault  NTN  Boys  West runway (Cole Walsh) Walsh is T-3rd with 3 other people.
3 teams dropped event. 
7:20 PM  High Jump  NTN  Girls  West apron
7:20 PM  High Jump  NTN  Boys  East apron (James Harper) Harper is T-4th with 2 other people.
2 teams dropped event. 
7:20 PM  400 Meters  NTN  Girls 
7:25 PM  400 Meters  NTN  Boys  (Ian Parker) Parker is 10th. 2 teams dropped event. 
7:30 PM  Long Jump  NTN  Girls  East runway
7:30 PM  Long Jump  NTN  Boys  West runway (Josh Dennard) Dennard is 8th.  one dropped event. 
7:40 PM  800 Meters  NTN  Girls 
7:45 PM  800 Meters  NTN  Boys (Tommy Williams) Williams is 6th. No one dropped event. 
7:55 PM  Discus  NTN  Boys  Infield (Danny Vimmerstaet) Vimmerstaet is 10th. No one dropped event. 
8:00 PM  Shot Put  NTN  Girls  West ring
8:00 PM  100 Meters  NTN  Girls 
8:05 PM  100 Meters  NTN  Boys (Devon Allen) Allen is 3rd. No one dropped event. 
8:50 PM  Mile  NTN  Girls 
9:00 PM  Mile  NTN  Boys (Will Firth) Firth is 4th. 0 teams dropped event. 

Track Officially Qualifies for Nike Nationals

By Justin Janssen '11

Ahh, it's been quite a long time since I've last updated this blog, primarily because nothing has really been happening in the high school sports world.

But the biggest track meet of the year looms one week from today. The second Nike Track Nationals meet stationed at Nike and University of Oregon headquarters will unveil a national champion.

High school track is different than most high school sports because scoring is based off of times and distances rather than points on a scoreboard.

In track, more than two teams compete on the track/field, expanding the amount of teams that can compete at once.

No. 10 Arizona D-I state champion Brophy Prep auto-qualified for this prestigious meet a second year in a row by winning the southwest region.

Brophy will be amongst 12 men's teams vying for the title.

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

Brophy has their own version of "The Big Three" with Devon "scrub" Allen '13, Tommy Williams '11, and Will Firth '11.

Allen was Brophy's leading scorer in the state meet placing in the 100, 200, 400, 4 X 100 relay, and the 110 meter hurdles.

In this meet Allen will just run the 100 meter and 110 meter because Nike limits an athlete to two events.

Williams, the reigning Arizona D-I 800 meter champion and owner of that school record, will run that event in the meet.

Firth is Brophy's 1600 meter runner (approximately 1 mile) after tying a school record in the event.

Josh Dennard '11 is jumping, Cole Walsh '13 is pole vaulting, James Harper '12 is high jumping, and Danny Vimmerstadt '12 is throwing the discus.