How does a girls soccer team go undefeated in its section, finish its regular season ranked third in the state, yet not get a single player on even its all-Section first team?
That’s what happened to Sedona Red Rock High School and head girls soccer coach Juan Carlos Aguilar.
Deserving congratulations go out to Camp Verde High School senior guards Gabby Ontiveros and Javier Perez for their first-team basketball honors in Division IV, Section I.
Well-deserved kudos also go out to Mingus Union High School senior forward Luis Hernandez, junior midfielder Devyn Spitzke, defender Cayden Ontiveros and fellow sophomore Zeke Behlow for being named first-team all-Section in Division III boys soccer.
But Aguilar led the Scorpions to a perfect 6-0 record in Division IV, Section III, a 10-1-1 record and a state quarterfinal appearance. It was one of their best-ever finishes, as senior Mason Feldtkeller would tie the school record for the most goals in a season.
Yet neither Aguilar nor Feldtkeller won Coach or Player of the Year honors from their section. The Paradise Honors head girls soccer coach, and one of his defenders, did.
Feldtkeller didn’t even make the first team, in fact. The senior forward lost out to two girls from 9-4 Paradise Honors High School named “Drew P.” and “Abigail N.”
That’s right: Feldtkeller lost out to two forwards who apparently don’t have last names.
Now unless you believe that “Sophia V.” is the real name of the Panthers’ goalkeeper — and that she, along with seven of her teammates, are in the witness protection program — the legitimacy of the voting has to be called into question.
SRRHS did have a chance to vote online, according to athletic director John Parks, but why should any coach have to stuff the ballot box with his players to give them the recognition they deserve?
This isn’t a popularity contest. The undefeated section winner shouldn’t get ignored in favor of the teams it beat. Especially when the voters can’t even be bothered to enter the players’ full names.
Only senior Marissa Pedroza received recognition, earning second-team all-Division IV honors in The Arizona Republic.
Eventual Division IV champion Anthem Preparatory Academy — whom the Scorpions also defeated, 5-4,
Jan. 19 — and Paradise Honors, which not only lost at home to SRRHS but lost in the first round to Anthem Prep, were the only two teams to vote.
So a State finish can’t even justify this insult to Aguilar, Feldtkeller and the best girls soccer team in SRRHS history. Someone, starting with Paradise Honors, owes them an explanation — and, in my view, an apology, so that such absurdities like the 2016 all-Division IV, Section III girls soccer teams are never repeated.
