BC923 {l Wrote}:There’s enough in state talent in Arizona for one of the two programs to be pretty damn good at a time. It’s where a lot of the kids who would be California talent live now. Right now it looks like advantage Herm, but many of those kids are leaving the state entirely (Budda Baker and Byron Murphy both went to play at Washington, Christian Kirk ironically played for Sumlin at A&M)
Two years ago I attended my very first high school football game in the state of Arizona. I was the old "chaperone" to about 5 freshmen girls (my daughter being one of them.) I brought them to the game, paid for their tickets, and they got lost in the mob of students standing in the stands. So I kept one eye on them and let them socialize with all their friends as I sat down to watch the game.
High school football in Massachusetts was nothing like this. Growing up if I saw 1000 fans at a game (and that is 1000 people total on both sides of the field) that would be an impressive number, a really good showing. And that was even for Friday evening games. So I was not prepared for what I was about to witness.
Horizon High School (approx 2500+ students) was playing Pinnacle Peak High School (approx 3000+ students.) With the very rare exceptions of Brockton, New Bedford, and the larger private catholic high schools (BC High, Catholic Memorial) schools in Massachusetts just didn't have schools with that large of a student body. The game was played at Horizon and the school didn't just have a field and some bleachers. Oh no. This school had a fucking STADIUM. Five minutes before kick-off, the announced attendance was just shy of 12,000 spectators. I have no idea where these people parked. I got there an hour early and I just barely found a spot.
Horizon had the standard 60 boy roster right along with Pinnacle Peak. On Horizon's roster there was 7 or 8 players that were 6'5" or taller, more than 30 boys weighing more than 200 pounds each, five of them weighing 300+ pounds. I try to imagine what it must do to a 16 year old body having 300 pounds of body mass. Pinnacle Peak had very similar weights and heights. I started wondering if I was at a high school football game.
Here is where the plot thickens. Chatting with some of the people in the stands I found out that Horizon had not one, but TWO 4-star rated players playing on the field at the same time. Now I thought was impressive! Ha. That was nothing. Pinnacle Peak had two different 5-STAR PLAYERS, each having multiple Power-5 scholarship offers. Two 5-stars on one team!?!?! I don't remember a time where Massachusetts had a 5-star rated player in the entire state. I think there is only (what?) 150, maybe 200 5-star rated football players in the whole country. Well in 2018, two of them played for Pinnacle Peak. I'll let you guys look them up. And yes, Pinnacle Peak won, albeit it was a very close, very high scoring game.
Point is this: BC923 is correct, Arizona is LOADED with high school football talent, loaded. They play football in this state, 12 months a year. Its ridiculous. In some ways, that makes it feel like Texas or Florida. There is probably more than enough talent just in the Metro Phoenix area to fill out very respectable rosters for both ASU and U-of-A. But yes, many of the kids pass on the Sun Devils and Wildcats and leave the state. The best player at Pinnacle Peak went to Oklahoma not ASU.