These are heady days for the Salpointe Catholic football team. The Lancers’ cadre of highly prized recruits has meant a revolving door of Power 5 conference coaches passing through lately.
By the time Salpointe Catholic football coach Dennis Bene arrived on campus Tuesday morning, assistant football coaches from Texas, Notre Dame, Northwestern and LSU were in the school’s weight room, watching four prospects work out.
By noon, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh arrived at Salpointe. Two days later, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was at the school. On Friday, ASU head coach Herm Edwards met with Bene and Salpointe’s top prospects. Cal head coach Justin Wilcox was there. So was Stanford’s lead assistant coach, Duane Akina.
This week, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly will be at Salpointe.
It is a time like no other in the history of Tucson high school football.
“It’s unprecedented,” Bene said. “Almost all the SEC schools have had coaches here. UCLA, Utah, Tennessee, Indiana, USC, Washington — they’ve been here.”
Even the smaller schools, like Wabash and Idaho, have visited Salpointe to eyeball players who helped Bene go 26-2 the last two seasons.
Most of the Power 5 conference coaches are in Tucson to watch running back Bijan Robinson, defensive back Lathan Ransom and offensive linemen Bruno Fina and Jonah Miller.
“It’s a blessing,” said Bene, “but at the same time even the kids can get a bit overwhelmed. We’ve had to set parameters so it is not disruptive. It has worked out well.”
Robinson and Ransom have been offered scholarships by virtually every Top 25 school in the country. Of late, Fina has been discovered. Much like his father, former Arizona and longtime NFL standout John Fina, Bruno has become a legit Division I prospect late in his Salpointe career.
“Bruno’s got a 4.0 GPA and now he’s got some great film from his junior year that the coaches have seen,” said Bene. “He’s got to get a little bigger, like his dad, and he’ll be a slam-dunk.”
SCLancerNation - Welcome to Salpointe Coach Harbaugh and Michigan football! pic.twitter.com/fPLTDhc1Ph
— LancerNation (@SCLancerNation) January 22, 2019
Only one program in Tucson history, coach Ollie Mayfield’s back-to-back state championship teams of Tucson High School in 1970-71, had as many Division I prospects simultaneously.
But this isn’t the first time big-name head coaches have flown to Tucson to scout top prospects.
In the early winter of 1967, Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty, whose team was coming off 10-1 and 9-0-1 seasons, ranked No. 1 both seasons, flew to Tucson to recruit THS lineman Bill Dawson. At the same time, Houston head coach Bill Yeoman, whose program was at the start of a 15-year run as a Top 25 school, flew to Tucson to see Dawson.
And although Dawson chose Michigan State over Arizona, Texas, USC and even Harvard, he was tempted to choose Houston because Yeoman sat in Dawson’s living room and showed the family a film of the then-wondrous Astrodome, where UH played home games.
In my research, I’d say Robinson and Ransom rank with Dawson, Sahuaro lineman Mike Ciasca and Amphitheater halfback Michael Bates as the most highly-recruited Tucson football players ever.
In the spring of 1990, Ciasca visited Michigan and had offers from USC, UCLA, Florida State, ASU and Arizona, among others. He was a first-team Parade All-American, a 6-foot 6-inch 290-pound five-star prospect sought by everybody.
Ultimately, Ciasca chose Arizona saying “the big factor were staying home and playing in front of the home crowd and helping to build a tradition at Arizona.”
Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out well. Ciasca started seven UA games in 1992 and 1993 but a series of injuries ended his career.
As with all recruiting, it’s a business of uncertainty. As it turns out, the best college player from Sahuaro’s 1989 team wasn’t Ciasca — it was kicker Steve McLaughlin, who signed with Arizona and in 1994 became a first-team All-American and winner of the Lou Groza Award.
