It’s time to talk football, although interest in the sport seemed to wilt with the heat.
Sedona Red Rock High School, in particular, continues to struggle with player turnout in its two biggest spectator sports, football and basketball.
As of practice Thursday, July 28, just 14 Scorpions were participating.
Fourteen.
That’s the same number of Sedona Red Rock Junior High School seventh- and eighth-graders interested in coming out for that team.
Almost double that number turned out for Camp Verde High School’s weekly June tournaments — and that’s without a middle school program to support it.
Camp Verde Middle School will not have a football program this fall due to lack of interest.
Not lack of funding, or inability to schedule teams. There just weren’t enough players, nor a coaching staff willing to keep the Cowboys going.
If SRRHS is going to field a team that can compete this fall even with rival CVHS — much less with the rest of the 2A Central Region — head coach John Bradshaw is going to have to hope for late-to-the-party stragglers, and fast.
Bradshaw and his staff have been frustrated over repeated 11-player turnouts for seven-on-sevens and practices.
Two June camps were canceled because Bradshaw could not get even that many to commit.
SRRHS, CVHS and Mingus Union High School — which won its section last season — all open their seasons Friday, July 26, at 7 p.m.
That’s more than enough time for a couple handfuls of able-bodied Scorpions to avoid the unthinkable: Cancellation of the football season.
Making matters worse, the June swoon wasn’t just a football problem.
Head basketball coach C.J. Sells and his son and assistant coach, Michael, announced July 26 they would not be returning.
The main reason: Lack of turnout.
They had to cancel a late June weekend camp at Chino Valley because they couldn’t get even three players to play.
“What we figured is, either they don’t have much interest in us or not much interest in basketball,” said Sells after ending his third stint as a basketball coach at SRRHS — most likely his last. “It just wasn’t what I signed up for.”
