Running, whether long distance in cross country or short distances in track and field, was once again a bright spot for Flagstaff prep sports
Several schools boasted state champions in different running sports in 2021, continuing the area's legacy of success.
There were, of course, other great stories spread around the city, with success in football, cycling and more. There was even a brief scare that high school sports wouldn't even be played in 2021, only to be reinstated later.
Here's a look at the top 10 high school and community sports stories of 2021, a year that was full of surprises and much more.
No. 1: Panthers win first cross country title with coaching family, Hall takes first for Eagles
The Coconino Panthers girls cross country team won the cross country Division III state championship race in November, claiming team gold for the first time in program history.
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The Panthers are coached by a grandfather, mother and son trio in Tsosie Taylor, Shannon Taylor and Taylor Taliman, who each graduated from and competed for Coconino in their high school days.
Shannon Taylor, the team’s head coach, said the title was a culmination of the effort each of the family members, and all the athletes in Coconino’s cross country history, have put in over many decades.
“I still get teary-eyed thinking about it. And just seeing the kids in the hallways these past two days has been amazing. It’s something we’ve all collectively wanted for so many years, for every sibling and every athlete we’ve had,” she said after the championship race.
Not only was cross country running for Coconino a major part of each of the trio’s childhoods, it was a part of their native culture.
“Navajos are supposed to get up in the morning and run to the east to greet the sun, so it’s very much a part of our culture. I remember being a kindergartner, going to the park and running two miles. And I remember taking Taylor as a little kid and he’d run. So it’s part of who we are as a family,” she said.
Mia Hall also took home gold in her junior season in the D2 girls championship race. Her 18:06.2 5K time dominated the field, coming in 53 seconds faster than the second-place time of 18:59.5.
No. 2: Sventek wins four
Then a junior at Northland Prep, Sydney Sventek took home four gold medals in state track and field in May.
Sventek won the D-IV girls 100-meter hurdles with a 16.09 clip and the 300 hurdles with a 47.91 time. Her 17-foot, 9-inch mark in the long jump earned her a third individual gold medal, and Northland Prep’s 4x400m relay, coming in at a 4:10.71 mark, beat out St. John’s by a mere .08 seconds for Sventek’s fourth gold medal of the meet.
It took a bit of time for Sventek to fully realize her accomplishments after the season.
“I was striving for it, but I can’t say I was expecting to,” she said.
Sventek was also a major contributor to the 2020 Spartans girls soccer championship team. She scored 17 goals and assisted 10 more, including an assist in the championship game, for undefeated Northland Prep.
No. 3: Flagstaff High School wins cycling state championship
The Flagstaff High School mountain biking team took first place in the Arizona Cycling Association state championships on Sunday, Nov. 7, in Fort Huachuca.
It was the first time in Eagles history that the program won the title.
Based on the scores of the top racers in each of the freshman through varsity races, both boys and girls, the Eagles finished with a score of 4,041, just 18 points ahead of Basis Prescott’s 4,023 for second place.
“Our team hasn’t done that before, and it’s a pretty awesome experience,” senior Ellie Thompson said of the team’s title performance. “I’ve been on the team for five years now, and it’s kind of been building up to this, I feel like. At the beginning of the year, we were all hopeful because we had a lot of fast riders and the team seemed really good.”
No. 4: Hopi’s Baker named to National High School Hall of Fame
Hopi cross country head coach Rickey Baker, one of the most decorated high school running coaches in the United States, was honored as one of the 12 latest members of the National High School Hall of Fame in July.
Baker was inducted to the 2021 Class as part of the NFHS’ 102nd annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. Each inductee was honored for their success in high school athletics and other extracurricular activities. The winners were selected in March of 2020, but COVID-19 precautions limited in-person activities and the ceremony was postponed.
He became the coach at Hopi in 1987. Beginning three years later, Baker’s Hopi boys cross country teams rattled off 27 consecutive state titles.
While Baker has considered what’s next after several decades of coaching, there is no immediate plan to stop.
“You think about retirement, but you still don’t want to. You want to take it a little further. I try to think to myself, ‘I’m still young,’ and whoever takes over the program after this, I will be there to help that individual,” he said.
No. 5: Flagstaff's Morrow commits to Cal
After a months-long recruiting process that he called a “whirlwind,” Flagstaff High School senior Nick Morrow announced his commitment in August to play football at the University of California following graduation in 2022. He signed his letter of intent in a ceremony in mid-December.
Morrow, a defensive lineman and tight end for the Eagles, said his commitment came down to the state-of-the-art facilities on campus in Berkeley, as well as the relationship he had formed with the coaching staff.
“A lot of came down to the experience I had when I was there over the summer. All the coaches knew who I was, all of them being there for my workout and being super nice was great. The facilities were so nice, and all of their coaches staying in contact with me was amazing,” Morrow said.
Morrow is the first FBS commit for Flagstaff since 2008. He hoped his recruiting success can lead to other Flagstaff-area players getting their own offers.
“I think a lot of people from Flagstaff, even in the past when we’ve had great players that hadn’t gotten as much recruiting, kind of felt down on themselves, like they wouldn’t get a chance because we’re in this small town and don’t get as much attention as like Phoenix or California. So it’s kind of cool to show that you can still get your name out there to big programs,” Morrow said.
No. 6: Football teams volunteer to relieve flood damage
As floods have ravaged parts of Flagstaff over the summer, members of both Flagstaff and Coconino High School’s football teams utilized their brawn for something other than the gridiron, as both teams took part in volunteer efforts to help prevent and alleviate flood damage to Flagstaff residents’ homes and businesses.
The two teams both skipped their traditional afternoon practices, separately, to volunteer at different shoveling sites, digging and loading bags of dirt for people to place outside their homes to block water from leaking in.
“We basically just grabbed as many shovels as we could -- from the school, my house, wherever we could get them -- and went down there. We’d done some homework on our end about who’s doing what around town. We filled bags and loaded people’s vehicles and just got to it,” Coconino coach Mike Lapsley said.
“We knew the city had this facility. You bring the volunteers, they provide the materials. So we figured, why not do something?” Flagstaff coach Sean Manning added.
No. 7: AIA cancels, reinstates high school sports
Following pushback from member schools, athletes and parents, the Arizona Interscholastic Association reversed course and held a 2020-21 winter high school sports season.
The AIA Executive Board initially voted, 5-4, against having a winter sports season in January due to concerns about hospital capacity in Arizona, which was deemed the No. 1 hot spot for COVID-19 cases in the United States at the time. But during an emergency board meeting just days later the AIA voted 5-4 to have winter sports start with key modifications: all athletes wore masks, whether in games or not. The board also unanimously passed a vote to let local schools and districts to allow at most two parents per athlete depending on their health guidelines and rules.
Rules have changed since then, with new trends such as COVID-19 vaccinations and knowledge about the spread of the virus, to allow more fans in arenas and players to participate without masks on.
No. 8: Jaramillo is Coconino football's comeback kid
There was a lot to celebrate as Coconino running back Jonathan Jaramillo smiled after a 26-24 Panthers win over Cactus Shadows on Sept. 21. He ran for 119 yards and a touchdown in the victory -- which was a comeback story not unlike his own journey.
He suffered two skull fractures and internal bleeding after he fell out of the back of a moving truck in the Coconino High School parking lot on Sept. 28, 2020. He was helped by friends and witnesses as his parents rushed to the school and medical responders arrived to take him to Flagstaff Medical Center.
He underwent months of rehabilitation, missing the entire 2020 football season -- his junior year -- that saw the Panthers go 8-1 and reach the 4A Conference state tournament quarterfinals. The whole time, Jaramillo was imagining himself putting on a Coconino uniform again, making plays for the team.
“Coming back physically was a struggle, but I just got back into a rhythm grinding every day and dealing with the pain that was coming in, just doing my thing,” Jaramillo said.
He added: “The fire in my heart, this comeback has brought me back that joy, back to everything I love doing. I love being on the field. When the accident happened, it took everything away. I was so low, I wished I could be back on the field doing this.”
Jaramillo was a contributor on both offense and defense as Coconino had yet another winning season in 2021 and reached the first round of the 4A Conference playoffs.
No. 9: Blair and Hovis the first soccer signees for NPA
Mia Blair and Kiarra Hovis, daughters of Spartans girls soccer coaches Michael Blair and Keith Hovis, respectively, were the first two girls players in the team’s history to commit to play college soccer following their graduation from Northland Prep in 2021.
Blair played for Wheaton College in Illinois, while Hovis signed with New Mexico Highlands. Both recently finished their freshman seasons, playing heavy minutes right away.
The pair were major pieces for the Spartans, who won the 2A Conference championship in each of their four varsity seasons.
Blair was named the player of the year in the 2A three of her four seasons, led the United States in assists in 2019 (37) and won 60 consecutive games when she was healthy, just to name a few accomplishments
Hovis was second on the team in goals (23) and assists (24) in 2020, with one of each in the 5-0 victory over St. John’s in the 2A Conference state tournament title game in their final Spartans soccer game.
Both players said they hoped their journeys could help younger Spartans players accomplish their own dreams.
“It’s awesome coming from a small town and a small school that I can hopefully encourage these kids that, if they want, they can do it. They can play a different sport, or whatever they want, they can play college sports. It’s obviously hard and takes a lot of work, but if you keep at it you can make it,” Blair said.
“Our coaches have taught us a lot about that, and I am pretty confident in myself that I can be a leader. I give a lot of credit to my teammates and coaches for that. So I’m excited to try to put that into the college game,” Hovis added.
No. 10: New high school coaches
Several local high school athletics teams saw new faces come in to lead the programs. Among them, Sean Manning took over for Flagstaff football after Todd Hanley left to coach at Tempe High School, and Dalton Schwetz – also the defensive coordinator for the Coconino Panthers – stepped in as the Panthers head baseball coach. Erik Carrillo also became the head coach for the Coconino boys soccer team, while still retaining his position as the head coach for Northland Prep in the fall.
The most recent is the addition of Savannah Berry, who took over a championship-caliber Flagstaff girls soccer squad with the departure of Holly Jones.
The Eagles began the 2021-22 season in early December, going 4-0 and outscoring opponents 35-1 in the first four matches under the new leader. She said she hopes to keep up with the success Flagstaff has come to expect.
“I’m walking into an awesome program. The past coach left this team in such a great place. ...And these girls are in a really good mindset of being ready to learn and compete, so it makes my job a lot easier,” Berry said. “This is my first time in a head coaching position. I always thought it would be a hard time going into this from a player to head coach, but with these girls, I’m inspired to be even better and have this group do what we can.”
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2021 in Review: Running paces exciting year of prep sports - Arizona Daily Sun
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