Citizen Staff Writer
TC Varsity
GEOFF GRAMMER
ggrammer@tucsoncitizen.com
The backdrop was fitting.
Each donning dark blue Nighthawks Football T-shirts, eight Ironwood Ridge High School seniors sat down in the team’s weight room on Wednesday and signed letters of intent to accept college scholarship offers.
“I felt this was a good place to have the signing because all eight of these men got it done in here and that has a lot to do with where they are today,” said Ironwood Ridge coach Gary Minor, whose team went 10-3 last fall and lost to eventual state champion Peoria Centennial in the Class 5A Division II semis.
The eight-person signing class at Ironwood Ridge was the biggest single recruiting class of any southern Arizona high school on Wednesday. It was easily the largest in the school’s still young history.
But the day didn’t belong only to the Nighthawks. Roughly 40 southern Arizona athletes signed letters of intent Wednesday to pursue their football playing careers, and educations, at the next level.
There were headliners such as Ironwood Ridge’s Jake Fischer and Palo Verde’s Adam Hall signing to play at the University of Arizona and Santa Rita’s J.J. Holliday signing with ASU.
But there was also validation of the growing excitement surrounding the Pima Community College program since the hiring of head coach Pat Nugent. Including five of Ironwood Ridge’s stars, Pima signed 22 area seniors on Wednesday and a few stars from past graduating classes hoping to get their college careers started, including former southern Arizona star running back AuBura Taylor (Santa Rita, class of 2008), quarterback Daniel Nicholas (Canyon del Oro ’08) and offensive lineman John Romero (Salpointe, 06).
“This is an all-star team of Tucson kids,” Nugent said of his initial recruiting class.
So how did Nugent pitch a Pima program that has won only once in the past four years and was outscored last year 505-37?
“He said it’s a new program. It’s serious,” said Ironwood Ridge offensive lineman and Pima signee Marvin Snodgrass. “People are excited and it’s a serious program now.”
The group can start “a whole new, different kind of legacy there,” added Ironwood Ridge teammate Zach Booker, who also signed with Pima.
Minor said the impact of the Nugent hire at Pima and the benefit it will have on southern Arizona football is enormous.
“If this was a year ago, I would have told all these guys not to even consider Pima,” Minor said. “Obviously that’s changed a lot. . . . Now I think it’s a great thing for these guys to go there and they have a coach who is showing some enthusiasm to go out and recruit. The previous coaching staff never stepped foot on this campus. Obviously that’s changed in a hurry.”
At least five locals also signed to play at Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher, a school that has in recent years given several Tucson-area football players college opportunities.
Wednesday’s successful signing day for Tucson-area players is only the beginning of things to come, according to Holliday.
“It should get better,” the future Sun Devils receiver said. “Arizona in general, but especially in Tucson, I think players get overlooked. They underestimate us, but that’s starting to change and I think more and more players from Tucson are going to start getting noticed.”
Staying in AZ
Several southern Arizona players signed letters of intent to play college football Wednesday. An in-depth recruiting list (all sports) can be found online at www.tucson citizen.com/misc/recruiting. Here are some of this year’s area commitments for in-state colleges:
University of Arizona
Jake Fischer, Ironwood Ridge
Adam Hall, Palo Verde
Arizona State
J.J. Holliday, Santa Rita
Northern Arizona
Scott Brown, Sabino
Stuart Tawney, Sabino
Kyle Walker, Sabino
Pima Community College
Travis Anderson, Palo Verde
Zach Booker, Ironwood Ridge
Scott Campbell, Ironwood Ridge
Nick Carlson, Ironwood Ridge
Ernie Escarcega, Cat. Foothills
C.J. Evenson, Mountain View
Andy Garcia, Nogales
Chris Johnson, Amphi
Marcus Klune, Ironwood Ridge
Mark Leal, Sunnyside
Michael Lukowski, Salpointe
Eric Marquez, Nogales
Daniel McIver, Catalina
Maambo Mumbuluma, Amphi
Malik Parra, Sunnyside
Leo Ramirez, Desert View
Luis Rodriguez, Salpointe
Griffin Ronstadt, Canyon del Oro
Joe Sayre, Salpointe
Marvin Snodgrass, Ironwood Ridge
Doug Steele, Canyon del Oro
Mike Trejo, Sunnyside
Eastern Arizona
Josh Carter, Mountain View
Javier Galindo, Pueblo
William Griffin, Tucson High
Allonte Singfield, Sahuarita
Deandre Tanguay-Penn, Canyon del Oro
Glendale CC
Ray Cottman, Ironwood Ridge
Gareth Facciano, Ironwood Ridge