4A East Sky Breakdown

Nick Rock August 12, 2022 @ 05:09 PM

<p>The 4A East Sky features numerous teams that have potential to make a deep run in the playoffs. Here's a quick breakdown of the toughest region in 4A: </p>   <p></p>   <h2>Poston Butte</h2>   <p>Poston butte comes off a close 2021 state championship loss to Casa Grande and will have to regroup and have some newer faces step up. They lose a handful of key players in Octavious Joe and Amari Gilmore. They'll return the big body pass catcher [player_tooltip player_id='110108' first='Connor' last='Lopez'] who flashes some solid potential within that 6'4" frame, along with standout defensive players [player_tooltip player_id='110100' first='Bobby' last='Gaitan'] and Caden Rodriguez. Poston Butte is going to have a big test in the region alone, but they are a very well coached football team so it'll be interesting as we move forward. </p>   <p></p>   <h2>Apache Junction </h2>   <p>I've been talking about Apache Junction quite a bit lately, as they have some serious sleeper talent over there. They come off a solid 7-3 season with a 1st round playoff loss vs Lee Williams, and will retain a ton of talent, providing them with loads of potential to emerge as a dangerous team in 4A. QB [player_tooltip player_id='110115' first='Gavin' last='Limongello'] holds impressive playmaker ability along with numerous others in that AJ offense, as they could be a team to put up 35+ points every week. Definitely a team that is capable of making a run in the playoffs, barring they play well enough in their region as all 5 teams in the East Sky are 2021 playoff teams. </p>   <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://twitter.com/ProspectorFB/status/1557902478791692288?s=20&t=qLEJ-VSk7IFKuArmuhExAg </div></figure>   <h2>ALA- Gilbert North </h2>   <p>ALAGN makes the jump from 3A to 4A after being a consistent competitor in 3A throughout the past years. They retain a good amount of key players which includes one of the nastiest duos in the state with QB [player_tooltip player_id='110157' first='Adam' last='Damante'] and WR [player_tooltip player_id='115533' first='Brandon' last='Phelps']. They're another well coached team with the potential to go toe to toe with anyone in 4A, and probably most teams in 5A as well. Overall a very talented squad with tons of potential as they are super well rounded in all phases of the game. </p>   <p></p>   <h2>Snowflake </h2>   <p>Snowflake also makes the jump from 3A to 4A, and enters the season after back to back 3A state championship wins. Snowflake is a small, northern Arizona town that breathes football. They're always an old school, tough mentality team that will play anybody anywhere, and have had some really explosive and physical players the past few years. They do lose a huge leader in QB Caden Cantrell, and will have to have some new faces step up and put themselves on the map. I know they're excited up there to bump up against better compeition, and they'll be an interesting team to follow throughout the year. </p>   <p></p>   <h2>Ben Franklin </h2>   <p>Ben Franklin will have the biggest challange compeiting with these 4. However, they still come off a 6-5 season and a playoff appearence with all of their losses coming against some really tough programs. They showed a major improvement last year with that 6-5 record, after coming off a dissapointing 1-6 season from 2020. The trajectory of that program is definitely trending upward, and they'll need 2023 standout [player_tooltip player_id='214118' first='Dawson' last='Smith'] to have another big year. </p>

The 4A East Sky features numerous teams that have potential to make a deep run in the playoffs. Here's a quick breakdown of the toughest region in 4A: