Saguaro defensive tackle signs with San Diego State
This is No. 7 in a month-long series of profiles of Arizona high school seniors that signed with four-year colleges. Here's the full list (currently totaling 254) of players from within the state moving on to the next level.
SPOTLIGHT: 2/13/21
Following a strong junior season, Darrion Dalton earned his first Division I offer a year ago this month. What followed were nine more colleges interested in the Saguaro defensive tackle.
San Diego State was the fifth of those 10 offers in April and a couple months later, Dalton committed to the Aztecs.
"I chose to sign with San Diego State because I feel like it is the best fit for me academically and athletically," Dalton said in an e-mail interview. "From the great academics to the location to the winning football tradition, they have all I was looking for in a school."
He did just that as part of the early signing period in December.
Demolition of the stadium in San Diego that was once home to the Chargers and Aztecs began in November. It was known by several different names: San Diego Stadium, Jack Murphy Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium, and SDCCU Stadium. The venue also hosted the Holiday Bowl. The site will be the future home of Aztec Stadium, which is slated to debut in September of 2022 when SDSU hosts Arizona.
"The thing that excites me the most about San Diego is getting to play in that new stadium that's being built and will be done in 2022," Dalton said.
The high school football program often referred to as SAG-U has been a powerhouse since 2004. The current senior class continued that over their four years. The Sabercats went 29-5 over the past three years taking the 4A title in 2018 (the team's sixth straight), making it to the first Open championship game in 2019, and qualifying for the Open once again in 2020.
"Saguaro is special," Dalton said. "We've got guys who come here for only one year and will be a Sabercat for life. What we do is just different. It's a brotherhood. If Saguaro football never was introduced into my life, I don't know where I would be today."
The Saguaro D-Line had three seniors on it that are all going D-I. Quintin Somerville signed with UCLA and Alani Ma'afu signed with Northern Arizona. The other lineman, Tristan Monday, is a junior that has seven Division I offers including Iowa State, Florida State, and Colorado.
Dalton was a two-year starter for the Sabercats and finished his varsity career with 80 tackles (25 for a loss), and 5.5 sacks. One of the highlights of his senior year was a pick-six against Gilbert for 23 yards that was his first touchdown.
"My biggest accomplishments at Saguaro were probably making the All-Region teams and retaining above a 3.0 my whole high school career," Dalton said.
We don't have any footage of him hitting the books (although we know he did), but here he is doing a little summer work in the pool.
Dalton comes from a successful football family. His father, Donny, played at Minnesota and his older brother, Donovan, is a junior defensive back at Hawaii. . . . . which also plays in the Mountain West Conference.
"I'm super excited to play my brother and Hawaii," Dalton said. "It's a dream come true for both of us. We both grew up working our tails off to get to the next level and for both of us to achieve that and be in the same conference; man it's just a blessing. But at the same time, it is a great rivalry that has started in my house and I'm ready to go out there and take home the W every year."
San Diego State is scheduled to play at Aloha Stadium in 2021 (Mountain West Conference game dates not released yet). The Aztecs finished 4-4 last season with the losses coming to teams that went a combined 29-6. In its last full season, SDSU went 10-3 with a victory in the New Mexico Bowl in 2019. This fall, the Aztecs will play their home games at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson (home of the LA Chargers from 2017-19 and the LA Galaxy) located 120 miles northwest of San Diego.
