Region Preview: 5A Sonoran
The 5A Sonoran region will be fairly similar to last year. However, there will be some new faces expected to fill big roles. Cholla still looks to be the head of the 5A Sonoran region despite the graduation of Marcel Dean.
1. Cholla
Cholla will definitely have an uphill battle in order to maintain the success that they have had in recent years. They lost a number of key contributors from last year’s group. However, the team brings back guys who can score the basketball and compete at a high level.
One of the most intriguing prospects for the group is Myles Gantt. Gantt has contributed since his freshman year, but had somewhat of a limited role due to the prospects ahead of him. He should now have the ball in his hands more than ever and be in control of the team.
In addition to Gantt, Cholla will have Josh Sutherland. Sutherland is another capable scorer who took a back seat due to the talent that was ahead of him. He demonstrated that he can score the ball very efficiently and will now be given the opportunity to have more touches and scoring opportunities.
2. Mountain View (Marana)
Mountain View has the potential to take a huge step forward and potentially compete to win this region. Much like Cholla, they will be relying upon some new faces with key prospects graduating. However, they have a couple of guys who have proven that they can contribute and win at the varsity level.
Julian Molina led the team in scoring last year while hitting nearly 2 threes per game. He will be missing the pass first point guard who created for him a lot last year. However, Molina will have the ball in his hands more and have more opportunities to score it. He will have a lot more weight on his back this upcoming season.
In addition to Molina, Elijah Elmer and Colton Cotton are two other returners who played meaningful minutes last year. These two will be looked to for bigger roles in order for Mountain View to maintain this ranking and contend for the region title.
3. Flowing Wells
Flowing Wells has a lot of potential due to the number of strong contributors they had last year returning. However, the biggest question is can they win games? While they have experienced prospects returning, they are coming off an 8 win season and will need to figure out how to win games in order to stay at this spot.
Khalid Whitaker is one of those prospects who made noise last year. He led the team in scoring and assists while putting together quite the stat line. Unfortunately, his impressive season was not enough to catapult Flowing Wells into a successful season. With that said, him returning should give Flowing Wells confidence that they can have an improved season this year.
Whitaker will have Nick August to aid him as well. August demonstrated that he can be a playmaker at the varsity level and score the basketball from all three levels. These two guys will need to continue to score the ball, but at a more efficient clip, in order for Flowing Wells to take the next step.