Shamrocks moving from tough region to seemingly easier one
In 3A West, YC no longer has to deal with likes of V. Christian, P. Honors
Sports editor’s note: The Arizona Interscholastic Association has realigned conferences/regions for the 2020-21 school year. This is the fifth part in a series looking at the realignment, with today’s focus on Yuma Catholic’s placement in the 3A West region.
Yuma Catholic’s volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball programs are moving to the 3A West region after spending the previous two years in the 3A Metro West region.
Though it doesn’t sound like much of a change, on paper it appears the Shamrocks’ road to region titles may have gotten a little easier.
Gone from YC’s region are Valley Christian (now in the 3A Metro) and Paradise Honors (4A Southwest), two schools that combined for five of a possible eight 3A Metro West region titles in the aforementioned sports. Horizon Honors (2A Valley) and Bourgade Catholic (3A North Central) are also no longer in YC’s region.
Odyssey Institute is the lone former 3A Metro West member joining YC in the 3A West.
And instead of being joined by the likes of Valley Christian and Paradise Honors, they’ll now have two former 2A schools — Parker and Tonopah Valley — in their five-team region, with Kingman rounding it out.
No sport better represents the drop in competition than boys basketball. The last two years, Valley Christian and Paradise Honors both finished the regular season ranked fourth or higher in 3A.
Now, coach Bret Felsenthal’s team is in a region full of teams coming off losing campaigns. Only Tonopah Valley (11-8) posted a winning record last season, and that was only good enough for the No. 17 ranking at the 2A level.
Perhaps that’ll help YC — which went just 6-11 in AIA play last season — bounce back from the program’s worst campaign in years.
“I don’t know (the region),” Felsenthal said. “We have Odyssey Institute back, so we know a little about them and we’ve played Parker the last few years. We’ve got Tonopah coming up from a 2A school. I don’t want to say it’s favorable, but yeah it’s easier than our previous years.”
The only sport in which YC won a 3A Metro West region title was girls basketball, as Bob McGalliard’s squad did so two years in a row. The Shamrocks’ stiffest competition came from Paradise Honors and Valley Christian, two top-16 3A teams.
There’s unlikely to be any stiff competition in YC’s new region, as only Parker is coming off a postseason appearance — and YC beat Parker by 19 points last year and 30 points the year before.
In softball, YC is the region’s only member that posted a winning record two seasons ago.
Baseball may be the region’s strongest sport, as four of its five teams qualified for the postseason in 2019.
The sport in which YC struggled the most during two 3A Metro West years was volleyball, as the Shamrocks finished fourth in the region last year and fifth the year before. They’ll still have to deal with Odyssey Institute, which is coming off a run to the 3A semifinals. Parker has also been traditionally good at the 2A level.
“We’ve seen Kingman before at the Lake Havasu tournament and I will say we beat them there,” coach Dusti Williamson said. “Parker, for whatever reason, has always been a big competition for us. There’s this big rivalry and I’m glad we get to see them.”
OTHER SPORTS
In boys soccer, YC is a member of the 11-team 3A Southwest region. In girls soccer, the Shamrocks are in the seven-team 3A Southwest region. As already written about during this series, YC’s football team is in the five-team 3A Metro West.
For individual sports, YC remains in Division III for cross country, golf, track and tennis, and Division IV for boys wrestling.