Sunrise Mountain will open in California at Palos Verdes HS
WEEKLY BLOG: 5/15/23
Spring sports are wrapping up their postseasons, Spring Ball is well under way, and seniors are rapidly approaching graduation ceremonies. What does that mean for those high school football players that will be returning come the Fall of 2023?
It's time to get started!
And with that we have the annual announcement that the schedules for the 6A and 5A teams have now been posted on Arizona Varsity.
In case you want to jump over to them now (please come back and finish the article, though), here are the 2023 6A schedules as well as the 2023 5A schedules. All 78 of them are there for your viewing pleasure, and all with just two clicks.
While these are not yet the "official" schedules as they still need to be formally set by the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA), I don't anticipate very many changes. These have been obtained from the teams that have posted them through social media as well as some inquiring on my end to athletic directors and varsity head coaches.
If you discover any errors in the schedules, please drop me a line at gridironarizona@yahoo.com.
The regular season will begin a week earlier than the last two years and we'll have August football for the 6A and 5A schools beginning on August 24-25. Matchups for Thursday nights have not been announced by those that stream weekly games, so the schedules will be adjusted at that time. It's an 11-week slate with a bye week for every team. No one will play 11 regular season games and no team has a bye before Week 5. Additionally, every team will have had its off week before Week 9, so the schedule for the weeks of Oct. 20, Oct. 27, and Nov. 3 will be full.
Regions have changed for many teams with the annual realignment. Here's a look at what regions everyone is in for the coming season. There has been talk of going back to a two-year block for realignment by the AIA and it is sounding likely that the regions will remain intact for the 2024 season and the schedules will be identical as this season with just the sites swapping places. There has been no talk of dropping the Open, even though seven of the eight schools from last year consisted of 6A teams. As of now, there have been no formal announcements of expanding beyond the current eight schools. The multiplier put in last year, which uses a factor of 10 to compute the final points for 6A schools, 9 for 5A schools, and 8 for 4A schools had an effect on making the Open more "top heavy" in terms of conference representation.
Once again, many Arizona schools will be seeing how they stack up against out-of-state competition. Not counting Yuma Cibola, which will play three Inland Empire schools, a total of 17 schools from 6A & 5A will take on teams from California, Utah, and Nevada. In the first week, Pinnacle, a 5A finalist in 2022, will travel to Las Vegas to face Arbor View (8/25). Sunrise Mountain will be on the scenic Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County meeting Palos Verdes HS (8/25). Week 2 falls on Labor Day weekend and among the matchups are the Honor Bowl at Cathedral Catholic HS in San Diego. Brophy will face the hosts on Friday (9/1) and Red Mountain will play Helix (CA) on Saturday afternoon (9/2). Open finalist Saguaro will play at Sierra Canyon in Los Angeles in Week 5 (9/22).
A rematch of note will be in Week 3 on Sept. 8 when Saguaro hosts Basha in Scottsdale. Last year at Sun Devil Stadium, Basha won its first state championship with a 28-21 victory over the Sabercats. Chandler defeated Centennial in an Open quarterfinal last season and the teams will meet in a late-season non-region game on Oct. 6 at Chandler. Another first-round Open rematch will occur in Week 2 when Liberty hosts O'Connor in Peoria on Sept. 1. The Lions were victorious in last year's matchup.
Once again, Week 11 is reserved for traditional rivalry games. The Ahwatukee Bowl returns to that spot as Mountain Pointe will visit Desert Vista on Nov. 3. Other tilts that night include Mountain Ridge @ O'Connor, ALA-Queen Creek @ Queen Creek, Mountain View @ Red Mountain, Higley @ Williams Field, Mesa @ Westwood, Centennial @ Liberty, Perry @ Basha, Paradise Valley @ North Canyon, Verrado @ Desert Edge, Central @ Camelback, South Mountain @ North, and Sunnyside @ Desert View.
If you thought I forgot one in that previous paragraph, Hamilton and Chandler will resume the Battle for Arizona Avenue a day earlier on Thursday, Nov. 2 to finish the regular season.
So, who's excited? We're just 101 days away from kickoff for that Week 1 slate of games beginning on Aug. 24. It will likely be a long and hot summer, but the football season will be here before we know it.
Reach Chris Eaton at gridironarizona@yahoo.com or DM at @gridironarizona with story ideas.