Senior Signing Spotlight: Jayson Petty

This is No. 22 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 293) of players from within the state moving on to the next level.

SPOTLIGHT: 3/3/20

A leader for the Sabino football team will become a Minot State Beaver after graduating this May.

Jayson Petty committed to the North Dakota school the last week of January and signed a letter of intent a week later. He also held offers from Black Hills State, Idaho, and Western Colorado.

"The thing that brought me to Minot State was the coaching staff and the players making me feel right at home on my visit," Petty said in an e-mail interview. "The campus and tour were like no other."

He plans to be a Criminal Justice major at Minot State.

At Sabino, Petty was a three-year starter at both defensive end and wide receiver. His name appears up there among the best at both positions in Sabercat history.

As a receiver, the 6-3, 220-pound Petty caught 30 passes for 351 yards and had five touchdowns last season. His 17 career TDs caught rank third on the SHS all-time list. Arizona Varsity named Petty as its 3A Tight End of the Year.

On the defensive line (where Petty was recruited by MSU), he made 26 tackles and had three sacks. In his junior year, Petty recorded 10 sacks, which was the second-most in a single-season for Sabino. He was named to the First Team All-3A South Region as a DL.

"The thing that sticks out (about playing D-line) are the little details that go into every movement you make," Petty said. "From the hands to the hips, to feet, etc."

Last season, Sabino stood 7-2 and 4-0 in region play heading into its season finale at home against Safford (which was also 7-2, 4-0). After a tight first half (7-6), Safford pulled away for a 28-6 victory to take the region title. Amazingly, the next morning, Safford was listed as the No. 7 seed and the Sabercats were the 10, so they would do it all over again, this time a couple hours to the northeast at the home of the Bulldogs.

The next Friday, Sabino avenged that loss and made up for the ruined Senior Night with a 30-19 win. Petty had five catches for 66 yards, forced a fumble, and recovered one. The Sabercats' D forced four turnovers and the offense rolled up 463 yards.

"The midset throughout that week was just wanting another 48 minutes together will all the guys and doing whatever it took to have it," Petty said.

Sabino finished 8-4 and two weeks after the Sabercats' quarterfinal loss to ALA-Queen Creek, Petty was suited up and scoring for the SHS basketball team. Sabino had a remarkable run on the hardwood as well going 26-4 and advancing all the way to the 3A state championship game (a loss to ALA-Queen Creek last Saturday night).

As you would expect, in order to play both sides of the ball on offense in football and then turn it around a couple weeks later to embark on a three-month basketball season, it takes a lot of conditioning. Petty said playing multiple sports benefits him by making him stay on top of his schoolwork and getting his work done in the gym.

"Our coaching staff was very good at making sure the people that played on both sides of the ball knew how to handle it," Petty said.

For the second year in a row, Minot State planted its flag in the state of Arizona and had five players sign with the Beavers. Minot State finished 3-8 last season and competes at the Division II level in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The leading rusher for MSU was freshman Ali Mohamed (Apollo HS alum) with 851 yards and six touchdowns.