Flowing wells goes to class 4a

After eight years in Class 5A, Flowing Wells will be returning next fall to the 4A ranks after its enrollment dropped to where it ended up among the bottom half of the state's largest high schools.

The move down is being welcomed by nearly everyone at the school, 3725 N. Flowing Wells Road, though if there is a contingent that would prefer to stay at the 5A level, it is the school's girls teams.

"I feel that we're a competitive program and we'd want to compete at the highest level," said girls basketball coach Michael Perkins, whose team is coming off a trip to the 5A-II state championship game last March.

As recently as the 1998-99 season, Flowing Wells was considered one of the strongest all-around athletic programs in Southern Arizona.

Girls sports have continued to excel since moving to 5A eight years ago, whereas most of the Caballeros' boys teams have struggled to compete.

During the 2005-06 season, the girls and boys teams fared very differently.

Girls teams in basketball (28-5), soccer (25-3) and tennis (12-7) were 5A-II state runner-ups. The cross-country team was third overall after winning the 5A title in 2004.

The girls track and field squad placed sixth at the state meet. And the softball team (19-13) made the playoffs for at least the 15th straight year, a run that includes 5A state titles in 2000 and 2002 along with a 4A title in 1999.

Compare that to the boys sports, which included playoffless seasons in football (1-9), basketball (8-19) and soccer (4-14-1).

The Caballeros' baseball team made state despite having a 7-20 record, but was eliminated in the first round along with Flowing Wells boys entrants volleyball (20-18) and wrestling (11-10).

More top athletes in 5A

Athletic director Pat Weber, who previously coached Flowing Wells' wrestling team, notes that in moving from 4A to 5A he noticed in boys sports that the number of high-quality athletes on opposing teams rose dramatically.

"In 5A they just had a whole lot more of those," Weber said.

Numbers in general have been an issue for boys sports at Flowing Wells the last few seasons.

First-year football coach Mario Piña fielded a varsity team of only 28 kids this fall, resulting in another 1-9 season that ended with Friday's 49-14 loss to Mountain View. Mountain View had more than 50 players on varsity this season, while some of Flowing Wells' Phoenix-area opponents had more than 60 players.

"We always had the least amount of players" each game, Piña said.

Flowing Wells' enrollment of approximately 1,930 students will now make it one of the largest schools in 4A after spending the past few years at the absolute bottom of 5A in terms of enrollment, often facing schools with more than 2,500 students.

"No matter what level we are (playing) at, we just want to get our numbers up," said Piña. "The thing is just to get the kids to come out."

The girls teams have not had trouble attracting players. On a field next to where the football team practiced last week, more than 30 girls were training for the upcoming soccer season. In the meantime, inside the East Gym 15 freshman and junior-varsity girls basketball players finished their workout while another 15 varsity girls got ready to practice.

"The girls (at this school) can definitely hold their own," said Terri Swaney, who coached Flowing Wells' girls soccer team from 1995-2005 but is taking this season off. "The girls, they're just going out there to prove themselves all the time."

Some boys frustrated

Junior Mike Knitkowski, a quarterback and linebacker for the football team, said the past two seasons have been frustrating, and he looks forward to moving down from 5A to 4A and restoring some of the pride to the boys sports at Flowing Wells.

"It will help our mentality that we won't beat ourselves before we even play a game," said Knitkowski, 16, who also plays basketball and is on the track team.

"There's so much negativity around our program and around campus, and no one wants to be a part of it."

No one wants to come and play boys sports at Flowing Wells, especially not from outside of the district, Knitkowski added.

It's a different story with girls sports.

"I came here to play softball," said senior Rachelle Federico, 18, who transferred from the Marana Unified School District before her freshman year. She has since stopped playing softball to concentrate on basketball, for which she has earned a scholarship to play next year at the University of California.

4A competition no slouch

With another 35 students, Flowing Wells would have remained a 5A school for the next two years. But it would have had the option to petition the Arizona Interscholastic Association to move down to 4A, as Pueblo High School successfully did for next year, though Weber said his district wasn't interested in doing that.

"Certainly, athletics is important here, but it's not our No. 1 activity," Weber said. "We just try to be as competitive as possible."

Schools are able to petition up as well, as private school Salpointe Catholic (enrollment 1,218) does every two years from 4A to 5A.

If a school were able to have its boys teams play at one level and girls teams play at another, Swaney said, she believes the girls teams would "definitely want to stay up at 5A and compete at that higher level."

Though Perkins feels his team would still do well at the 5A level, he believes playing in 4A next year will provide plenty of competition from historically strong local girls basketball programs such as Catalina Foothills, Marana and Sahuaro.

"There are still going to be plenty of good teams in 4A," Perkins said.

Most opponents have more students

● Flowing Wells had an enrollment of 1,929 students on Sept. 29, the date the Arizona Interscholastic Association uses for its biennial realignment. Compare that to the enrollments of the Caballeros' 2006 season football opponents:

Opponent Enrollment

Ironwood Ridge 1,959

Casa Grande 3,164

Alhambra (Phoenix) 2,991

Mesa 3,498

Desert Ridge (Mesa) 2,249

Salpointe Catholic 1,218

Tucson High 2,930

Sierra Vista Buena 2,807

Sunnyside 2,386

Mountain View 2,202