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All-Star Game. Photo Courtesy Lana Hatfield.
Copper Area News
Five recent graduates from area high schools and Ray football head coach Willie Jordan were participants in the Division VI All-Star Football game, which took place at Duncan High School on June 13.
Ray’s Destry Yocum, Superior’s Richard Ochoa and Matthew Zavala, and Hayden’s Jacob Manriquez and Gabe Mariscal were invited to the annual All-Star game.
Yocum, Zavala, Manriquez, and Mariscal were AIA All-Division VI selections as seniors. Ochoa was named All-Section IV.
“It was great and I loved it,” Yocum said about playing in the final game of his high school career. “I played with a lot of the guys that I played against while I was playing for Ray and I was able to meet all of them, talk to them, and now I’m friends with a lot of them. It was stiffer competition, so I liked it. I had a blast.”
Players selected for the game were split into teams on the day of the game – Red Team and Blue Team. Yocum, a member of the Blue Team, started at quarterback and middle linebacker in what turned out to be a close game as the Red Team squeaked out a two-point victory, 36 – 34.
Most players who participated in the All-Star game were multi-sport athletes at their respective schools and received postseason recognition for their efforts in each sport. Zavala, for example, was even named the Male Athlete of the Year at Superior.
Yocum, who will attend Central Arizona College in the fall to study Engineering, was named All-Division IV First Team and the Section VI Player of the Year as a member of the Bearcats’ state runner up baseball team.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything different,” Yocum said about his entire athletic experience as a Bearcat. “It all played out the way I would’ve asked for and nothing would have been better than it was.”
Andrew Luberda began writing for Copper Area News Publishers (CANP) in February 2013 after working 15 years in Healthcare Financial Management. Andy covers sports for 11 high schools. His stories are published in Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner and Superior Sun, in addition to the San Tan Valley Daily PRSS and CopperArea websites. Additionally, he has written human interest stories and business profiles. In May 2012, he earned an AAS in Sports Management at Central Arizona College before graduating with a BS in Communication from Arizona State University in 2014. He and his wife, Kelli, have three sons – AJ, Kyle, and Kade.
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