Sabino High School

Sabino High School is located in Tucson, Arizona. It resides on Tucson's northeast side in the community, at 5000 N. Bowes Road. Its current principal is Valerie Payne. It educates about 1,300 students from grades 9–12; graduating classes usually consist of 300–350. It has a staff of 117.

Origin

The school was established in 1972 with 32 teachers. The founding principal was John Mallamo. Originally the school had grades 7 through 12, however, in 1983, Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) decided to only have grades 9–12 on campus. The first graduating class was in 1974, and contained a total of 8 students. Early students often rode horses to school, which went with the southwestern lifestyle of the surrounding area. The school's building is also identical to Santa Rita and Sahuaro High Schools located in southeast Tucson. All three schools were established during the rapid growth of Tucson's east side in the 1960s and 1970s. The school is named after nearby Sabino Canyon.

Sports

Although Sabino is a relatively new school, it has a rich sports tradition, mainly in the sport of football. Apart from football Sabino has also won team state championships in baseball (1997), men's (2003) and women's soccer (1996,2008), swimming and diving, cross country (2007), and track and field, and individual state titles in wrestling and tennis.Fact|date=February 2007

Sabino has garnered a reputation in the local marching band community for fielding highly entertaining productions which showcase intriguing musical repertoire and a high level of energetic musicality in the areas of percussion, winds, and color guard (flag spinning). Through the years, the band has consistently been considered by fans, teachers, and instructors, as one of the premiere bands in Tucson and in the state of Arizona. The band has regularly won state titles and often travels out of Arizona to compete with the top bands from around the country. Sabino's mascot is the Sabercat.

Football

Sabino football has been the driving force of the school's athletic program and the primary source of notoriety. They have also appeared in 6 state title games. Fact|date=February 2007 The program has produced many college football players, and multiple NFL players, such as, Zach Baker, Jeff Popovich, Brad Wood, Cole Ford, Joe Lamphear and Mike Saffer. Known as the "Team of the 90s" and "The Program", Sabino enjoyed an unprecedented level of success from 1990–1999.

Early years

Sabino struggled through its first two decades. Coached by Don Holley in their first varsity seasons, The Sabercats struggled for wins, culminating with an 0–20 record in Coach Holley's last two seasons. Those struggles were soon forgotten with the arrival of Arizona High School coaching legend Ollie Mayfield, who had led perennial state championship contenders at Tucson High School. Mayfield instilled a sense of pride and commitment that spurred Sabino to its first playoff duel, with powerhouse Phoenix Washington, in 1978. Mayfield continued with his successes in 1979, again moving the team into the playoffs with a first round win against Tucson Salpointe, eventually losing in the quarterfinals to the Mesa Jackrabbits in a hard fought game at Mesa Westwood High School. Those teams generated several All-Star, All-City and All-State selections, thus creating the foundation for those who would follow. Mayfield had set Sabino well on the path of its winning ways with 3 year totals of 23 wins and 12 losses, the latter being primarily attributed to his first season.

1990s

The arrival of coach Jeff Scurran marked the beginning of an era and set in motion the transformation of Sabino into a football powerhouse. This transformation was sometimes literal, as seen with the 1989 alteration of the auto repair garage (a classroom for a popular Sabino course) into an 10,000 square foot state-of-the-art strength and conditioning facility (See Keys to Success). Many saw this investment as a sign that the school and community was ready to commit to winning.

With heightened expectations, the Scurran-led Sabercats went on to play the state title game at Sun Devil Stadium in 1990, 1992, 1997, 1998, and 1999 winning the 4A championship in 1990, 1992, and 1998.Fact|date=May 2007 Making the playoffs in all but one year (1991), the team never lost a first round playoff game.Fact|date=May 2007 They advanced to the state semifinals in 1993, 1995, and 1996 and lost in the state quarterfinals in 1994.Fact|date=May 2007 Sabino challenged out-of-state competition annually and traveled to play top teams in Connecticut, Ohio, Hawaii, California, Utah and Montana.Fact|date=May 2007 In 1999, because of Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) enrollment regulations, the athletic program was required to join the 5A ranks.Fact|date=May 2007 That year they became the first team in state history to move up a class and make the state title game in the same year.Fact|date=May 2007 This quieted many critics who believed that Sabino could not compete with the larger 5A schools. Once Sabino moved from the 4A ranks Chaparral High School (Scottsdale, Arizona) became the dominant team in the division, winning two consecutive 4A state titles, and at the same time winning 28 games in a row.Fact|date=May 2007

Rivalry with Sahuaro

During Sabino's decade of dominance the Sabercats renewed their rivalry with fellow east side neighbor Tucson Sahuaro. The Cougars of Sahuaro were one of the best teams in 4-A year in and out, even winning the state championship in 1994.Fact|date=May 2007 In 1996 the game was moved to the Thursday before opening day. Labeled "The Desert Kickoff Classic", it was the first Arizona varsity game played every year, and regularly drew the largest regular season crowd of the year.Fact|date=May 2007

In 1997 Sabino steamrolled their way into the state quarterfinals with a 12–0 record.Fact|date=May 2007 Sahuaro on the other hand had to claw their way to the quarters, making it there with an 8–4 record. The two teams met on a late October Friday night at standing room only Rincon High School. Earlier in the year Sabino clobbered the Cougars 38–7, adding even more hype on the biggest quarterfinal game Tucson had ever hosted. The cougars came out quickly building a 14–0 lead, however, Sabino came back to tie the game at half 28–28. In the third quarter Sabino's first play from scrimmage resulted in a 75 yard touchdown run, putting the Sabercats up 35–28. Sahuaro fought back to tie it once more at 35, but eventually ran out of steam in the 4th quarter losing 49–35 at the end.Fact|date=May 2007

Rebuilding

After their dominance in the 1990s, Sabino began a new decade with a new coach. Doug Holland, a long time assistant under Scurran, led the 5-A Sabercats to a respectable 7-3 record, however the team missed the playoffs for the first time in 9 years. 2000 also marked the end of the Sabercats conference winning streak at 42 games in a row. Holland stepped down after one season and the Sabercats were left without a coach. In 2001, Gary Buer was hired to take over and rebuild Sabino's program. After two seasons, Buer left the Sabercats to build a new college football program at a small, private liberal arts college in Virginia. Since then, Sabino has moved back to 4-A, and under head coach Jay Campos, brought the program back to elite level status. In 2005 they made it back to the state title game for the first time in 6 years but lost to Glendale Cactus. In 2006 while compiling a 12–2 record, the Sabercats again reached the state championship game but fell to Scottsdale Sagauro at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Records

Local bands

Sabino often allows local Tucson bands to play in their courtyard during the 35 minute lunch block. On February 19, 2007, a group of Sabino students won a radio contest to have the band Cartel (band) play a free concert in the school auditorium for the students. The radio contest, in which listeners called in and answered questions to earn points for their school, was hosted by 93.7 KRQQ.

External links

* [http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/Sabino Official website]
* [http://www.sabinoband.com/ Sabino Band]