***SPECIAL TO ARIZONAPREPS from Guest Analyst: George Courtney The Mesa Fear the Hop Tournament is quickly emerging as the top Thanksgiving Tournament in the State of Arizona. This year’s event drew in out-of-state teams from Hawaii and Texas. The first day was filled with a bunch of prospects to keep an eye on. Here are a few that stood out on Day 1: AJ Seumanu 2024 6-3 Wing Mesa Seumanu impressed with 13 points, 14 rebounds and 3 assists in his opening performance. The strong downhill prospect was hard to contain, as he is strong and tough and cleaned the…
Author: George Courtney
***SPECIAL TO ARIZONA PREPS from Guest Analyst: George Courtney In the first game of this year’s 20th Annual Mesa Fear The Hop Tournament, host Mesa High School (1-0) won the jump-ball and striked early with a lay up from McKy Peters. Paradise Valley High School (0-1) answered back with a three from guard Antoine Anderson. The atmosphere was rocking, as this was the “Student Body Game” where Mesa flexed their home-court advantage with having their entire student body attend the game. Mesa employed defensive pressure to start the game, which flustered Paradise Valley’s offensive timing. Paradise Valley would keep biting…
Inspire Prep National made history by having their first Division-I prospect sign. Elite floor general, Dilen Miller signed his National Letter of Intent with the George State University Panthers. Miller is one of the top floor generals in the 2024 class. He transferred from Tucson Magnet over to Inspire Prep. The move proved to be beneficial, as his college recruiting stock flew to new heights. Miller is a 6-foot-4 floor general with three-level scoring ability. He thrives in getting to the cup to either facilitate, finish at the rim or pull up. Miller uses his IQ to read his opponents…
Inspire Prep National is one of Arizona’s newest basketball prep academies. Enter Philadelphia native Coach Erik Hood, and the Pilots are ready to soar to new heights. The Pilots opened their national schedule in a Monday night showdown at Paragon Academy in Chandler, Arizona. Paragon is led by Arizona Hoops legend Christian Polk. Polk originally launched prep academy Eduprize in neighboring Gilbert, Arizona, before launching his new program at Paragon. The game started off a little slow as the Pilots were looking for their rhythm. The Panthers (Paragon) looked very young and inexperienced, however Coach Polk has his kids competing…
The Mesa High Boys Basketball Program has created a new tradition to kick off the scholastic summer high school season. The event attracted ten teams from the Canyon Athletic Association and the Arizona Interscholastic Association to include Mesa, Eduprize, Desert Mountain, AZ Compass Prep, Pueblo, Palo Verde, Casa Grande, Dream City Christian, Horizon Honors and Ridgeline Academy. This event is refreshing to see, since most of the teams in this event do not see each other in the regular season. Here are a few thoughts from my observations . . . Despite the tough loss in their first game, Mesa…
The GC3 Hoops Platform (partnered with Arizona Preps) is looking to build and expand coverage of deserving athletes to add to our database. One of the state’s biggest secrets is the Canyon Athletic Association (CAA). The CAA serves charter, public, and non-traditional schools at the elementary, junior high and high school levels. In my honest assessment and opinion, the CAA has the top middle school league in the state with (95) Junior High School teams with a state tournament for (3) different divisions (1, 2 and 3). I was able to catch the matchup between Dobson Academy and Leading Edge…
Poston Butte was founded in 2009 to serve a growing, unincorporated community in San Tan Valley, Arizona. The school has been a hotbed for growth, as more homes are being built – drawing in families to settle in the Phoenix Valley’s Southeast corridor. Coach Savannah Bix took over the program during the 2018-2019 season and is the third coach in program’s history. She hit the ground running and established a foundation. Ultimately, she instilled an expectation of winning and qualifying for the playoffs. In her first season, her team finished 9-17, however she continued to grind to get her kids…
When people think of the Mount Rushmore of Arizona Basketball, Coach Art Dye is one of the influential figures in Arizona Basketball History. Dye has been coaching for a total of 50 years in club, high school basketball, baseball, hockey and football. I had the pleasure to meet Coach Dye during my coaching career, as he was an assistant at Seton Catholic, while I assisted at Casa Grande Union. I loved the conversations we had, as Coach Dye had a wealth of wisdom and a burning passion for the game of basketball and the student-athletes we coached. We found a…
The Sunnyside High School Girls Basketball Program has endured much success over the last few seasons under leadership of Head Coach Justin Delgado. This year’s team has Coach Delgado’s father, Pete, as an assistant and twin daughters Lexi and Gabi Delgado in his backcourt. This roster of family truly makes the program a family affair, which gives solid tight knit chemistry among the players and staff. Even Coach’s wife, Llahaira, is involved in supporting the family closely at games and practices. A coach’s spouse is one of the toughest positions, as they often become nearly single parents during the season,…
In an exciting atmosphere, the Nogales Apaches traveled to the Sunnyside Blue Devils for a Friday Night Showdown. The gym was packed with fans from both sides, as it was a battle of two of the stronger big school programs in Southern Arizona. Sunnyside brought in a #16 6A Ranking (Open Unranked) and Nogales put their #6 5A Ranking (#22 Open) on the line. From the get go, both teams battled physically, nearly trading baskets back and forth with multiple lead changes. Players diving for loose balls and tying each other up, this game was a making of a Instant…