By Michael Moroney ’13
THE ROUNDUP

The AIA instituted divisional realignment over the 2011 summer that moves the Brophy football team to Division I/Section III for the 2011 football season after having played in the 5A-I Fiesta Region since 2009.

Division I is now the highest classification for Arizona high school sports just like 5A-I was in past years. Division II is roughly equal to what 5A-2 was and Division III is nearly the same as 4A.

There are five total athletic divisions and three sections for each division. The sections will replace the regions from the previous format and are based on location.

“There was a desire to have less travel for public schools throughout Arizona,” said Mr. John Chambers, the Brophy athletic director. “The scheduling is done by computers, which base it on location.”

Since joining the Fiesta Region in 2009, the Broncos had regularly faced highly competitive teams like Hamilton, Chandler and Desert Vista during the regular season. Brophy football will face neither Hamilton nor Chandler due to the realigned sections.

“It’s fun to play those big name teams because they are our rivals,” said Alex Rosner ’13, starting varsity football player. “But we plan on playing them in the playoffs.”

This year, the Broncos football squad will only play eight of the 11 teams in their section. Brophy will not be facing Desert Mountain, Desert Vista or Mesa Mountain View.

“The playoff system will be different with the top 16 teams making the playoffs and the top three teams from each section get in automatically,” Chambers said.

In addition to their eight sectional opponents, Brophy will play two out-of-section teams, Westview and rival St. Mary’s.

St. Mary’s decided to petition up to play football in Division I despite only having about 600 students. This number of students would normally place them into the Division IV category.

Brophy will compete in Division I for all sports starting now in 2011. The divisional and sectional placements are not subject to change until fall of 2013.

Some notable games this year include an opening game against Mountain Ridge as well as games against Red Mountain and Mountain Pointe.

Mountain Ridge and Red Mountain were both playoff teams in the 2010 season. Mountain Pointe defeated the Broncos in the semifinals by a score of 13-12 to move onto the semifinals.

Division I/Section III:

Boulder Creek

Brophy

Desert Mountain

Desert Vista

Mesa

Mesa Mountain View

Mountain Pointe

Mountain Ridge

North Canyon

Pinnacle

Red Mountain

Sandra Day O’Connor

Westwood