Brophy finally has their QB, and without the drama

By Justin Janssen

There's an old football cliche, "If you have two quarterbacks, you actually have none."

For the first time since Bryan Berens, Brophy Prep has a crystal clear situation at quarterback without any controversy. Berens was the starting QB for the only two state championship teams (2005 and 2007).

Junior Tyler Bruggman is by without a doubt, Brophy's starting QB. As a sophomore, Bruggman threw for 1304 yards with 11 TDs and 6 interceptions before injuring his ankle in a "freak accident" the day before a game.

Scouts and sportswriters are high on Bruggman. "[Bruggman is] returning from a broken ankle suffered in mid-October, has worked hard to put himself among the state's elite quarterbacks," said Richard Obert of The Arizona Republic. "Strong, accurate arm, smart, manages the game well." Jason Jewell, scout.com's southwest recruiting expert rates Bruggman as the sixth best QB prospect in Arizona (and first among juniors).

The stability Bruggman brings to the most important position in sports for Brophy is a blessing for a program that has had 7 QBs in the past three years.

In summary:

2008: Brophy used two different quarterbacks, substituting them in even in the middle of drives.

2009: There was controversy over three different quarterbacks Chase Knox, Garrett Wilson, and Billy Freeman. Freeman transferred to Red Mountain where he would switch positions, while Knox started throughout the season, but many felt Wilson was not given a fair shot at the starting gig.

2010: Knox transferred two days before the season begam because coach Scooter Molander wanted him to split time with sophomore Tyler Bruggman. Bruggman hurt his ankle in what was described as a "freak injury" midway through the season.

In order to get some playing time for his last gig, Wilson, who switched positions, was out for the season a couple weeks before, leaving receiver Fred Gammage at the helm. Gammage held up the fort for the remainder of the season and played surprisingly well, considering the position switch, and led Brophy to the quarterfinals.

Bruggman has all the weapons to succeed in 2011. Speedster Devon Allen caught 60 passes for 915 yards and six scores. According to The East Valley Tribune, the 60 catches and 915 yards are school records. Gammage caught 41 passes for 462 yards and hauled in four touchdowns. Almost all of those numbers for Gammage came in the first half of the season because he had switched positions. Marche Dennard was Brophy's X-factor last season, mainly being used in trick plays, but he ran for more than six yards a carry.

2011 Cross Country team will need to reload

By Justin Janssen

Note: head cross country coach Mike Keahon asked me to write this article along with the previous one. They will appear in Brophy's sportsbook, which can be found at football games this fall.

Brophy is going to need to reload if they want to remain near the top of Division 1. Three of their top four runners (Will Firth, Tommy Williams, and Patrick Wolf) graduated in the spring. Firth won four meets in his final cross country season. Williams and Firth were key components the last two seasons for Brophy’s track program, qualifying for the national championship both years. In track, Williams owns the school 800 meter dash record and Firth has the 1600 meter record.

The graduation of Brophy’s fastest runners is an opportunity for younger runners to carry the torch.

Dual-sport athlete Brock Ghelfi is Brophy’s top returning runner. The rising senior lacrosse player set personal records in his freshman season in both the three mile (15:23) and the 5000 meters (16:20.80). These PR’s were not been broken by Ghelfi in his sophomore and junior seasons. As a freshman and sophomore, Ghelfi was Brophy’s top runner in the state meet.

Rising junior Marco Ruiz was voted by the coaches the most improved cross country runner last season by cutting minutes off his times. Ruiz improved his three mile time from 18:13.50 his freshman season to 17.24.90 last season and his 5 kilometer time dropped from 18:27 to 17:04.60. In the spring, Ruiz qualified for the D-1 state track meet in the two mile (9:51.51).

Tyler McGehee, a dual-sport athlete in soccer and cross country, might be the No. 2 runner on the team in the fall. McGehee is a rising senior and was Brophy’s top finisher in two meets. He ran two of his three best times in the sectional (16:56.73) and the state meet (17:19.50).

Student council leader Jack Welty is a returning varsity letterman and has been running with Brophy since freshman season. His personal record in the three mile is 15:54.80 and 16:59 in the 5K.

Jake Ghelfi, Jack Rubenzer, and Henry Miller are potential candidates to fill the three varsity slots left by Firth, Williams, and Wolf.

Jake Ghelfi, the younger brother of Brock Ghelfi, will be a sophomore in the fall. He won the freshman 5K at the Ojo Rojo meet, but missed part of last season with an injury. Henry Miller, a rising senior and lacrosse player, has been flirting between junior varsity and varsity for the past couple seasons. Miller has run on varsity when other runners missed a meet.

Jack Rubenzer might be more of a middle distance runner than a cross country runner. He ran a 2:01.91 800 meter dash and was a leg on Brophy’s varsity and sophomore 4 X 800 school record teams. Rubenzer cleared 18 minutes three times in the 3 mile/5K races last season.

With these athletes, incoming freshman, and other wild cards, Brophy could be on to another successful season. While the graduating seniors of Brophy will be excelling next season at the NCAA level, a new generation of stars could be born.

2010 Brophy Prep Cross Country season recap

By Justin Janssen

Note: head cross country coach Mike Keahon asked me to write this article along with the following one. They will appear in Brophy's sportsbook, which can be found at football games this fall.

The 2010 Brophy Cross Country season started in July, when runners learned there was a new coach on the team. Alex Mason, who finished third in the 2003 Cross Country state championship meet, was the next assistant coach alongside Andy Schmidbauer, Steve Smith, Ted Skowron, and head coach Mike Keahon.

Brophy started the season with a bang at the Sole Sports Running Zone Cross Country Festival in Scottsdale. Will Firth and Tommy Williams crossed the finish line in first and second respectively, and the team scored a second place finish out of 27.

The next week the team traveled to Prescott for the annual Ray Wherley meet. This meet is typically followed by the team’s retreat at Manresa. Will Firth out-legged Alhambra’s Jorge Martinez, the two-time reigning 5A state champion by under two seconds. Williams, Patrick Wolf, and Brock Ghelfi were fifth, 15th, and 17th respectively. The team finished second to Alhambra in the 16 team field.

At the annual George Young Invitational hosted by Brophy Prep on Sept. 18, Firth won his third straight meet to start the season and Williams finished fifth, again. Brock Ghelfi and Patrick Wolf were 19th and 20th. As a team the Broncos finished third on the rolling hills.

At the Ojo Rojo Invitational Sept. 25, Brophy’s top four runners sat out. McGehee was Brophy’s top finisher in 32nd place followed by Marco Ruiz (39th) and Jack Welty (44th). As a team, Brophy finished 11th in the 27 team field.

On Wednesday Sept. 29, the team returned to Granada Park, a place they practiced at in seasons past in a four team meet vs. Gilbert, Mesa, and Mountain Pointe. Brophy again rested their top four, but still won, behind Marco Ruiz’s win (16:53.40). Jack Welty finished third (17:11.20), Jack Rubenzer 4th (17:14.10), Henry Miller 6th (17:52.20), and Jake Ghelfi 8th (18:12.80).

In the Desert Twilight Festival, on a Friday night, Firth and Williams finished fourth and seventh respectively. As a team, the Broncos were 7th, but had the 4th best total time.

At one of the most prestigious Cross Country meets, the Doug Conley Invitational, at the Rolling Hills Golf Course in Tempe, Firth picked up his fourth victory of the season. In the 161 player field, Williams finished 8th, Wolf, 32nd, and Ghelfi 44th. Brophy had the best combined team time in the meet, but settled for third place.

In the last tune-up before the sectionals and state meet, Brophy decided to rest their top four runners in order to find out who was the best of the rest. Tyler McGehee was Brophy’s top finisher in the Ken Denson Invitational in 19th place, followed by Henry Miller (36th) and Marco Ruiz (39th).

At the sectional meet the week before the state meet, Brophy finished tied for second place out of the 18 teams in Section 1. Section 1 contains 1/3rd of the teams in Division 1. Firth finished third, Williams 10th, Wolf 16th, Ghelfi 18th, and McGehee 21st.

The grand finale of the cross country season is the state meet. Will Firth was the runner up in D-1 to Yuma Cibola’s Bernie Montoya. The top five runners for each team score in this meet. For Brophy, Tommy Williams finished 13th, Brock Ghelfi 32nd, Patrick Wolf 52nd, Tyler McGehee 55th, Marco Ruiz 80th, and Jack Welty 134th. As a team Brophy finished 6th in the state meet out of 25 teams in D-1 with 154 points, and was just five points off of fourth place.

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.