4 A Football Preview State Games

The 4 A State race has begun. McQueen coming off of their big win over Elko last week takes on upstart Foothill in Reno. In Las Vegas, Durango tries to keep their defense from stopping opponents once again. They take on tough Las Vegas in the Wildcats toughest test of the season, Here is the breakdown for this week's games.

Odds and Ends in the NIAA

• Last week, Elko hosted one of the classic high school football games in Nevada history. Unfortunately, many will remember the post game incidents more. Elko had put in portable bleachers for the game down behind one of the end zones for 500 + fans. From NIAA contacts, Elko fans ran from one end zone to the next when in over time they switched ends and this caused problems. At the end of the game some McQueen players and Elko fans got into verbal exchanges with unsubstantiated reports saying that physical confrontations happened. First off, portable bleachers so close to the play and the allowing of fans to actually get behind an end zone should not have happened. There are reasons why there is a fence that surrounds the field. Elko deserves blame on allowing this to happen, while McQueen might have done a better job of walking away from the situation.
• Noting what happened last week in Elko, questions need to be asked about the emotional state of McQueen. It was a very big win for the Lancers. Now they get a team that mirrors last year’s Eldorado squad who they handled in the State Semi Finals. Getting up to play a game with this much on the line after last week might be a lot to ask. It is still McQueen and not another squad new to big wins that will be bouncing back. That is the difference.
• Talking about Foothill star Running Back John Ford, his UNLV commitment may not be one after all. He is taking recruiting visits to Washington and Oregon in coming weeks. In terms of comparison, UNLV does not hold a candle to either program. Oregon signed Western star Tim Day and Washington signed Valley star James Sims from Las Vegas last year. He would not be alone up in the Northwest. When you look at the potential of playing at UNLV, running back is not a position where UNLV will be hurting in the coming years. Washington State transfer Deon Burnett is penciled in as the starter after being one of the top Freshman running backs in the PAC 10. Larry Croom transferred in from Arizona after being slotted behind two other RB in pre season. Joe Haro had a solid year and he will be in the mix. Same for Dominique Dorsey. We don’t even ask the question about Dyante Perkins who redshirted. So how can Ford feel that he will even see playing time in a backfield with so much talent? He can’t pure and simple. Ford was taken in by relatives after the death of his Father last year, so staying at home has it’s positives. At Washington he would be behind one back in Rich Alexis and at Oregon he would be behind Tennessee transfer Smith. Playing time is there in either program where their facilities are mind blowing vs UNLV. Expect a reversal seeing the powers of programs that are nationally ranked, with solid coaches that will be around for his Senior year and major bowl games annually.
• Antoine White of Las Vegas is headed to Junior College. In talking to LV Coach Kris Cinkovich, White is a non qualifier for D1. This is too bad for a back with so much potential. Expect him to be headed to a major D1 school next year.
• The Meadows ran the table for 4 straight years! Pat Curren put on a display for the ages lining up at QB for injured Mike Paulos in the title game and still managed to rush for 100 yards. What is interesting is the position of Frank Desantis who will get the call to Coach a Las Vegas 4 A school next year. After having so much turnover last year, the openings for the coming season do not look to be as good. Bonanza, Cheyenne, Valley, Basic and Mojave look to be possibles. These are not the Green Valley, Cimarron, Western or even Coronado opportunities. Western has the talent to be solid but needs direction. Something that was missing this year. Could a surprise school pull the trigger in the hunt for the winning Coach in Nevada?
• FOX 5 receives the award for best coverage of football this year. After starting out as a project, Dave Hall put together the best football show in Nevada. While we are involved in the show, we still have to admit that no one has put in the complete effort of covering prep sports that FOX did this year. Channel 3 deserves credit for raising the bar, but FOX really has pushed all of the stations to spend more time to cover high school football in the right way. Looking forward to basketball season, when FOX is back in action in January.
• Is basketball king or what in town? All of the talk on the message boards is about hoops and not football. The North and the South are getting into what could happen this year. A quick pre season All State team would look like this:

G – CJ Watson – Gorman, G – Joe Heaton – Galena, F – Martel Johnson – Durango, F – Jeremy Atwater – Las Vegas C – David Padgett – Reno

In the wings – Platt – Green Valley, Wheeler and Richardson – Cheyenne, Brown – Durango, Marshall – Foothill, Porter – Desert Pines and Alleman – Elko.

• The State Football title game will be on TV live. Congrats to Caples Productions for having the sense to give it a shot this year after having 10 years of delayed broadcasts in Las Vegas. It also shows that Las Vegas and Reno TV stations are seeing that high school sports have value to put live on the air. State Basketball was done last year and will be done again this year. So it is a good thing to see everyone step up in covering the prepsters.
• While everyone is banging away being critical of NCAA Hoop Tournaments being held at Valley, people are missing the point that the promoters of the event gave Valley $20,000 for the gym. This money will be spent on funding a meals program for kids who could not afford breakfast or lunch at Valley. There were great crowds on Thanskgiving for games and they will get even better this weekend. Those who are bagging on this event, have not opened up to see the positives that have brought into town for this event. Seeing the number 2 ranked team in the country play at a high school gym is amazing. If you are a prep fan, get on out and support this event. You will not be sorry that you did.
• State Semi Final games on radio this weekend. In Las Vegas, we faced a situation with many college football games being rescheduled along with the time change for the Las Vegas vs Durango game. We will be giving a live audio feed on the internet for both games, with a delayed broadcast on 1340 KRLV. The Miami vs Washington game is so large to the college football scene and due to it being set for 5 PM it would have delayed the majority of the high school game. It was decided that a delayed broadcast instead of airing Air Force vs Hawaii live would be a solution. Next week the entire State will be live on radio, with an hour pre game show to get everyone in the mood from either Reno or Las Vegas. UNLV could look like a hero if they work out a deal to host the State final game at the Silver Bowl if Foothill gets the win over McQueen. Foothill was the team that was offered to have one of their home games at the Silver Bowl following a Friday night UNLV game. After all of the negative press that UNLV had about scheduling not only one game, but two at home on a Friday night, this would be a good move.