The first Agua Fria Union High School District football media day Aug. 27 at Millennium High School’s new Rise and Roar Center featured some friendly fire.
The afternoon started with the six coaches of the district’s five schools reading some prepared remarks. Desert Edge co-coaches Mark and Marcus Carter, in talking about their team, said they believe they have the best running back in the district in Chris Cordero.
Millennium’s Lamar Early was next and said he knows his team features the best running back in the district and probably the state. He’s referring to junior Zues Pindernation, who ran for 1,574 yards and 15 touchdowns on 216 carries as a sophomore.
“Stats don’t lie,” Early said with a chuckle.
Here’s snippets from other interviews during media day
Ricky Higuera – first-year Agua Fria head coach
“The end goal, something we would like to see happen not just this year but moving forward – all five sister schools playing each other. It would be great for all these kids and have our own trophy that means a little something early,” Higuera said.
Marcus Carter
“If you shoot for the moon, you might catch a star,” Marcus Carter said. “We’re going to shoot for the moon and play every game like it’s our last. Our schedule is not easy. We scrimmaged Casa Grande, the 4A champion. We play at the 6A champion Highland. And we play the Open champion at Saguaro. But our kids are ready for it. They want to play the best.”
Mark Carter
“We tell them we love them every day. We tell them we appreciate them every day. So we cultivate that kind of relationships in our program,” Marcus Carter said.
Kaleb Jackson Carter – Desert Edge senior offensive tackle
“All I’m going to say is y’all not ready for what we’ve got in store. Cause that gold ball is coming home. Desert Edge 2022 season champions,” Jackson Carter said. “We’re talking about the big one.”
Gavin Parks – Desert Edge senior wide receiver
“(Buddha) Hezekiah Millender dominated freshman ball. Now he has to live up to what Adryan did. I’m not saying he’s going to be like Adryan but Buddha has a lot of potential. He could be one of the best quarterbacks in the state, ever. His growth from freshman football to varsity is huge. He can throw it better and he can run.”
Nate Manzanarez – Desert Edge senior safety
“Even though I’m not playing this year – I suffered an ACL injury this summer – I’m going to do my best to lead this team and make sure everybody is on point. I’m still a captain,” Manzanarez said. “We have a lot of players coming back. The potential is to the roof.”
Lamar Early
“Jax Adair .. you’re going to hear his name a lot this year. Cole Marszalek missed a lot of last year due to injury,” Early said.
Kyan Fields – Millennium senior wide receiver
“Both quarterbacks (David Berry and Titus Johnson) are very capable of leading this team. It’s more a matter of who’s going to make the throw when you need the throw and who’s going to make the decision when you need a smart one. It’s going to come down to the wire,” Fields said.
Shahid Wilson – Millennium senior defensive back
“I feel like it takes some pressure off the defense. The defense was the main focus last year. But with our offense being more efficient this year and this off season, it takes a lot of pressure off the offense,” Wilson said.
Jax Adair – Millennium senior defensive end
“It started for me in my freshman year. I’ve been wanting this senior year since the last seniors left me as freshmen. We had a great run our freshman year and showed we really could be something. Since then, we’ve been waiting for this season to be good,” Adair said.
Dustin Johnson – second-year Verrado head coach
Johnson was one of – if not THE – final high school coaches hired in Arizona before the 2021 season started. He said he was hired on a Thursday in late June and the Vipers left for camp the next Monday.
“The Verrado kids, no matter what I do, they play the same because that’s just who they are. That’s how the community is. They give it all they have and it’s all the same no matter who they play,” Johnson said.“This whole off season has been huge for us. They embraced our values last year but with this full offseason they really grasped on to it.”
Erick Santiago – Verrado senior quarterback
“Ever since my freshman year we’ve always played top teams. Usually a lot of these teams are bigger than us and have more guys than us. But here at Verrado we never take that into account. We treat every team as if we can win 100 percent. We’re extremely confident in our abilities,” Santiago said.
Ryan Willey – Verrado junior defensive end
“Colin (Tibbs) is the guy. He’s there for you all the time. Same with Nathan Bilski,” Willey said. “But we have some guys coming up from freshmen last year to the varsity like Trig Riefkohl. He’s going to be a star this year. Another guy that came up this year is Alvaro Pereira. He was injured last year with his knee, but he’s going to overcome it all and have a great senior season.” We’re a bit of an underdog here,” Willey said.
Nathan Bilski – Verrado senior linebacker “My other inside linebacker Max Douglas worked his ass off this offseason. He’s gotten so much bigger. We both have and we feel better technique, strength and speed-wise,” Bilski said.
Nick Gehrts – second-year Canyon View head coach
“I’m really excited. I think it balanced out really well – adding Apollo, adding Ironwood and Goldwater to the region. I think that it’s going to help everybody come playoff time, playing in a tougher region,” Gehrts said.
Demari Colbert – Canyon View senior wide receiver
“With our younger players coming in, we definitely have a lot more of that dedication than last year. I believe that will make us tougher,” Colbert said.
Keegan Landis – Canyon View senior linebacker
“I’ve played most of these kids or I’ve known them since we were 6. There’s an extra amount of something in the air. Us and the boys are ready to get after it, starting with Millennium,” Landis said