The Scorpions are feeling something the program hasn’t felt in quite a while: They are state contenders.
The last time that happened was in 2005.
With the Scorpions’ conference win over the Pinon Eagles, who were seated in the No. 1 spot of the Division V Section I conference with an 8-1 record, the Sedona Red Rock High School football team made it into the state playoff bracket as the No. 16 seed. Their first game will be against the No. 1 seed, Northwest Christian.
“I am so happy for the seniors, for the kids,” said Rick Walsworth, head coach of the Scorpions. “I’m so happy to be playing football in November. It feels great.”
When the boys traveled to Pinon on Oct. 26, they knew they had the win, but weren’t sure if it would be good enough to make the playoffs.
“We knew we were the better team,” senior quarterback and captain Keenan Crans said. “It didn’t cross our minds that we were going to lose.”
“The question was just by how much and would we make the playoffs,” senior lineman Jacob Moore said.
Due to the new power rankings by MaxPreps, it is not always clear who made the playoffs until they are officially announced on the Saturday morning after the last regular season game. Factors like toughness of schedule and win-losses are taken into account.
“I thought that [Pinon’s] game was the last game of football I was ever going to play,” Crans said. “It was a 50-50 chance, so I acted like it was my last game.”
“We were all praying at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning that we made it,” Moore said.
“I didn’t think we were going to pass enough teams to get in,” Walsworth said. “When I got home at 2:45 a.m. after the game and logged in to see who won and lost, I went to bed thinking we would be No. 17, that we were probably going to be the first team out.”
Walsworth watched the webcast on Saturday morning when the teams were announced and when SRRHS was the second team announced at the No. 16 seed, he almost couldn’t believe it.
“It was really exciting,” Walsworth said.
When asked whether or not they thought at the beginning of the season they would find themselves
For the full story, please see the Friday, Nov. 2, issue of the Red Rock News.
