If you run an out pattern from the north end zone at Desert View High School, you find yourself at High Hope Lane. For the last 30 years, it might as well have been No Hope Lane.
For all of those years, the quietest place in the neighborhood has been Jaguar Stadium on a Friday night.
Desert View won a single playoff game in 1987. Since? None.
The Jaguars are 98-224 in that period and they’ve gone through five coaches and several 0-fer seasons.
Humberto Federico went 0-9 in 1985. Jeff Feldman went 0-10 in 1997. Don Fuentes finished 0-11 in 2002. Jim Monaco suffered through an 0-10 season in 2011.
Jaguar Stadium seats maybe 2,500 people and on Friday night it might spill over, past capacity. The two most honored players in school history, ex-Arizona Wildcats offensive lineman Will Walker and linebacker Adrian Koch, told me they expect to be part of the crowd.
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Those who live on High Hope Lane may wonder what all that noise is at the end of the street.
The Jaguars are 7-1. They will be playing the 6-2 Marana Tigers for the 5A Sonoran championship.
Marana, you say? Is that possible?
Desert View’s tale of woe won’t elicit any sympathy from the Tigers. For the last 30 years, Marana has gone 112-195. Much like the Jaguars, Marana did not win a single playoff game from 1988-2015.
The biggest names in Marana football history all played in the 1960s: Paul Robinson, Cleveland Colter, Lacy Colter, LeRoy Peoples and Sonny Campbell.
The Tigers won state titles in 1964, 1967 and 1968. After that? It became Desert View II.
Marana has gone through seven coaches in the last 30 years. One of them, Anthony Coronado, tried it twice. His first try began with a 1-9 record. His second attempt finished 0-10.
Desert View and Marana have so much in common that Friday’s game comes off as something of a match between the 2016 Cubs and the 1969 Mets.
It is High Hope Lane on a Friday night.
Jaguars coach Robert Bonillas and Tigers coach Andy Litten both started in 2012. Both inherited teams that were 0-10.
Both know what it is to struggle. Bonillas became head coach as his alma mater, Nogales High, in 2003, and went 7-13. He shuffled on to Sunnyside, serving seven years as an assistant coach.
Litten twice applied to be the head coach at his alma mater, Mountain View. Both times his old school told him no. So Litten served an apprenticeship on the Catalina Foothills staff before he was hired by his rival high school.
Already this year, Litten’s Tigers beat Canyon del Oro for the first time in history.
Bonillas’ Jaguars beat neighborhood bully Sunnyside for the first time since 1989.
This is not your typical Friday Night Showdown in October, but it may be the most compelling of Friday’s Big Three in Tucson.
Here’s how it usually goes:
Undefeated Cienega will play at 7-1 Ironwood Ridge in a 5A Southern fracas. On Monday, Nighthawks coach Matt Johnson said that stadium capacity at Ironwood Ridge is 3,000. Those who are fortunate to get a seat may recognize the principals involved.
Johnson is 96-50 in his coaching career, with a state championship.
Cienega’s Pat Nugent is 103-49, having coached CDO to the 2007 state title game.
Or, if you prefer, you can squeeze into Salpointe’s Ed Doherty Stadium to watch 7-1 Catalina Foothills play 6-2 Salpointe for the 4A Kino championship. No introductions are necessary.
Catalina Foothills is coached by Jeff Scurran, who is 210-54-1 in his days as a prep coach in Tucson. State titles? Three. Salpointe is coached by Dennis Bene, who is 155-39 at the school, winner of the 2013 state championship.
Nugent, Johnson, Bene and Scurran have a combined record of 564-192-1. That’s a winning percentage of 74.6 percent. They know what it is to play in and win a Big Game.
That’s what makes the Desert View-Marana game so intriguing. Bonillas and Litten started from the bottom. They are a combined 40-56.
Neither has won the Big One. Neither has been part of the Big One.
Neither team has done better than 7-4 dating to 1988.
That will all change about 9 Friday night. High Hope Lane will become Big Dreams Lane for either the Tigers or Jaguars.
It will be worth the long wait.
