Check out our latest blogs from Coach Stark from Marcos de Niza, and Coach Murphy follows up his last blog with more info from Flagstaff. All coaches are welcome to blog; football and basketball are in high gear for the summer. Check any forum and go to the announcement at the top to learn what you need to do. Or, click on the link to the right. It's easy!

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Marcos de Niza

Summer ball is here! It will be a crazy month for the Padres as we will play about 46 games in 30 days! I just got back from a last second win over Mesa Mountain View in the Tempe Summer League and thought it was time to send out an update on my Padre boys. We are in our second week of my Padre Fundamental Camp and I am real proud of how hard my guys are playing at night and on the weekends after pushing them so hard during camp. Some of our guys are lifting for football, coming to my camp and practices and games and some are even playing baseball along with passing league etc. Our summer schedule includes the Tempe League and tourney, both Central High Jamborees, San Diego team camp and then Mesquites Best of Basketball Tourney to end our summer ball. All in all it will add up to about 45-48 games. I know it is a lot for not only me and my boys, but I believe that it is imperative to get in some work but also have some fun playing the games and tourneys as well. A lot of the bonding and team chemistry is formed during the summer. Burn out is a consideration, but I have yet in my 19 years of coaching in the summer had a player not enjoy the games and all that playing together in the summer can offer. Positioning for spots next year and opportunities for some players to possibly make that happen many times occur when a coach can see commitment, attitudes, work ethic skill development etc. during the summer. I do know that come July this coach will need a break also as I have coached my two sons Gym Rats team this whole year. I will estimate about 160 games I have coached this year between Varsity season, summer and Fall etc., and all of the U11 and U9 games for my sons. I do love it and my second sons team won the state U9 championship, but I will welcome a short break in July and first part of August! My goals in the summer for the boys is to strengthen fundamental skills, play hard and scrap each game, build team unity and also have fun playing the game! There are a lot of ups and downs during the course of the summer season and it is hard to be up for each game, but it is a goal that we strive for as Padres. We began the summer with 2 close losses to Valley Christian and Dobson, and then went on a tear with 7 straight wins over North, Basha, Willow Canyon, Goldwater, Brophy, Chandler, and Carl Hayden. We then lost to Basha and Greenway and beat Mountain View tonight. The summer will bring some wins you wouldn't expect as well as some losses! It is all about making gains and improving. I do not take a lot of stock in the summer except that we compete and go hard and strive to play the way, which will carry over to the season. When we won the state 5A championship in 2002 we were about 38-12 in the summer. Not exceptional by any means. But our goals of playing smart, hard and as a team were established at that time and the foundation of 5 straight years of top ten Padre teams was built. Anyway, the summer will bring many surprises to many teams and I wish all who love the game enjoy the summer as it can be a very exciting time for these young men and their coaches who put in a tremendous amount of time and energy to build their respective players and programs.

I would also like to introduce my 2 new assistant coaches as Marcus Williams and Eric Smith went to Williamsfield high school for next year. I now have former Padre and Loyola Marymount player Robert Davis as my J.V coach, and former Padre and member of our state championship team Gabe Shahin as my Frosh coach. Steve Garrison will assist me on Varsity as well. This is a great group of coaches to help me and will infuse some young blood and intensity that will boost the program!

My summer team consists of guards; Devin Barnes, Harrison Evens, Donald Richardson, Ramon Abreau, Tavon Newell, Erden Jakupi, forwards; Daniel Johnson, Ryan Bawek, Dimitri Clark, Matt Talton, Shamik Torres, and Casey Merrilat. I also have some younger players who move up at times as well. We have a very scrappy and quick backcourt and mobile big men that complement our style of pressuring the ball and getting up the court in transition quickly. We are working on our perimeter shooting as we know that with our speed and ability to break down the defense off the dribble, teams will force us to hit some shots once the transition and secondary break is gone. I am excited with this group and am impressed with how hard they are working and becoming what a Padre basketball player strives to be. That is a scrappy competitive team that will love to play the best and leave it all on the court! Summer ball included!!! Have a great summer and please go out and support your teams and players.

Coach David Stark

Marcos De Niza Boys Basketball Head Coach

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Agua Fria

June 8 & 9 we traveled to Flagstaff for their team camp which is run and organized by Brandon Pritchett who was a former player of mine he does a great job up their organizing it. Bringing only seven guys due to other players working, baseball, and other functions I thought this would be a great opportunity for some of my younger guys to work on their game to become better ball players. I never thought we would go 6-0!

Payson-Won- We played Payson first and we found that Payson will have a good team this upcoming season. Big man Oliver Lewinson will dominate 3A. We played Payson running and pushing the ball as much as we could we found ourselves with easy transition points. We had a great team effort in this game, which we won by one. We had great shooting by our guards DJ Hamilton, Jordan Yancy, Chanz Walton, and Joseph Garcia.

Chino Valley-Won- Next game was Chino Valley another close game, but we managed to come away with another win over Chino Valley!

Monument Valley-Won- Before this game I told my guys we have to get back and cover the three's well. Well, in the first half my guys did not do that and we saw 3's reign down on us from baseline to baseline to the top of the 3 point line. We got down early by ten but managed to regroup and claw back and win by ten.

Flagstaff-Won- We had 8am game against Flagstaff which we saw ourselves come out very sluggish and tired after three games the night before. We found ourselves down most of the game but managed to hang around just enough to win by one when Joe Garcia was fouled with two seconds left and hit a big free-throw to win the game.

Mingus-Won- Our afternoon game saw us against Mingus high school which the Owls came out great and never looked back winning by 20+. The team played well together with some great highlights such as Senior Erik Bynes getting two dunks one off the backboard and another on a break. My PG Jordan Yancy also got into the mix with a dunk of his own.

Coconino-Won- Our evening game had us against Commander's team. It was great to see Commander and his team. This was going to be a great test for my guys going against Duran and Dennett. We got down ten to zero in the opening five minutes. Daniel Duran was monster on the block and he is going to do some damage in the 07-08 season. As for Dennett he was shooting well the whole weekend hitting a clutch shot to tie the game against us with four seconds left. I told my guys we have to push the ball as much as we can and as fast as we can. This paid off when DJ Hamilton hit just beyond half-court at the buzzer to win. Throughout the whole game we could not get ahead consistently but just managed to get close and then Coconino would open the lead again. We had trouble stopping Duran and Dennett they gave us headache from the outside and inside. These two guys are going to be tough up here in the high country for the 07-08 season. This was a great game to watch and coach, my hat off to Commander he is going to have a team next year that is going to be there at the end.

Upcoming Schedule:

Monday- Westview

Tuesday- Alhambra

Wednesday- Glendale

Thursday-Shadow

Friday-Sunday- NAU Team Camp

Coach Murphy

Agua Fria Owls