At the pinnacle of Jason Mohns’ success at Saguaro High, one frequently overlooked common denominator sat quietly in the background, year after year, as the Sabercats hoisted multiple gold balls to add to their on-campus trophy case.
Beyond the star-studded group was often a noticeable lack of depth on the two-deep. While dominating 4A, the high-end, first-team talent, from the trenches to the skill players, often simply overpowered opponents. Saguaro alums, and current NFL players, Christian Kirk, Byron Murphy, Kellee Ringo and Denzel Burke all played both ways under Mohns.
Mohns’ successor, Zak Hill, guided the ‘Cats to a 2023 6A Championship but the program, for a number of different reasons, has fallen on hard times. Roster attrition, differing agendas, and competing in 6A the last four years, exposed all the cracks – both on the field and off.
It’s safe to say the “SagU” era is over and the 2026 football chapter may be remembered for quite some time, but for all the wrong reasons.
The Sabercats have 33 players. Not 33 varsity players, 33 players total in the program. Seven are incoming freshmen, who won’t step into a high school classroom until August 10th.
Tuesday afternoon Saguaro athletic director David Abrams emailed the AD’s of all 10 of Saguaro’s upcoming opponents announcing SHS would only be playing varsity games this season.
The obstacle ahead is a 6A-heavy schedule which features usual powers Desert Mountain, ALA Queen Creek, Pinnacle, Tucson Salpointe, Higley, and Brophy.
So, how did we get here?
From Past to Present
While the talented Hill checked the box as a “big name” and “splashy hire” to replace Mohns, many inside and close to the program knew the former Boise State and ASU offensive coordinator already had one foot out the door and was never the right culture fit in the program. Most of Mohns’ veteran, tight-knit staff returned that year and despite a mid-season dip, Saguaro won five-straight to end the ’23 season, capped with a blowout win over Red Mountain to take the 6A title.
Inevitably, the “popular” choice wasn’t the “right” choice.
Hill left in early 2024 and the dominoes of doom started falling even faster. Assistant Darius Kelly took over as the new head coach, lasting two seasons before being fired last November. Playing with a mostly transfer-depleted roster, he finished with a record of 4-16 in that span. In February, the school announced the hiring of Jason Ronquillo from Yelm High School in Washington. Less than a month later, Ronquillo resigned due to an off-the-field personal issue. He was subsequently replaced by another former Washington prep coach, Butch Goncheroff, in early April.
Over 30 Saguaro players left the program since the end of last season.
The SHS leadership instability off the field has been hit just as hard.
In 2024, an email from then principal Ann Achtziger leaked to staffers in which she spelled out a racial slur when complaining about music being played in the weight room. She retired in the fall of 2025. Earlier that summer, athletic director Matt Harris, who hired both Hill and Kelly, left for the same position at Queen Creek High. His replacement, Luke Ackerson, stepped into the role shortly after, but resigned in December of ’25 after reportedly sending inappropriate social media messages to a female middle school student.
While the poor decisions of a few certainly doesn’t cast a net on the large majority of the dedicated Saguaro faculty and staff, the recent narrative for those high-ranking decision-makers is simply hard to ignore.
“The Saguaro administration has been a repeat offender,” one person close to the situation said off the record. “They’ve (expletive) up so many things, it’s really hard to fathom these continuous missteps.”
Easy Math
Simply put, people fell asleep at the wheel…and now, directly or indirectly, it’s negatively impacting those 33 student-athletes.
The disconnect and apparent communication breakdown between the Saguaro administration and the Scottsdale Unified School District over the last eight months is almost unthinkable. As mentioned, a program – already towards the bottom end of 6A for players – saw a mass exodus and no one was proactive enough to come up with a better, even alternative, solution for 2026…even back in the late spring, early summer?
One assistant coach told me this week, “(Saguaro) showed up to a 7-on-7 tournament this summer with 13 kids.”
Did the parties involved somehow believe the football gods would bless a lower enrollment 4A school (SHS has around 1250 students) with a crop of 30-40 new, ready-to-play “dudes” to plug into the new staffs’ system and be ready to go by the season opener at Desert Mountain? I understand there were moving parts, specifically trying to stabilize the leadership on campus, but this was more than an ample window on the calendar to be proactive, with some level of damage control at a minimum.
A source close to the situation confirmed the AIA was made aware of Sabercats’ depleted roster situation back in the spring and…here we are. Same schedule. Some believe the Open Division format was designed to “knock Saguaro down a peg.” Draw your own conclusions to present day Saguaro football.
The timeline paints a pretty clear picture. From Kelly’s firing to Goncharoff’s hiring, four months passed. Four months of uncertainty for players and their parents. Further muddying the water was Saguaro didn’t have an AD on campus to keep the line of communication open and at least try to connect the dots with some level of intel from the district.
SUSD dragging its feet on approving hires only set the calendar back further and contributed to the current dilemma.
A Massive Mistake
The above failure-filled timeline may have reached a crescendo Tuesday afternoon.
Decision makers, please explain how this makes sense.
How is this “in the best interest” of those 33 players? Respectfully, if there was any sort of high-level talent left, they would have been poached this summer, or left on their own accord by now.
Set your ego and short-sidedness aside for a minute.
PSA: we play big-time high school football here in Arizona.
If Saguaro and the SUSD inexplicably forgot this, look on the wall to the left of the stadium next to the east entrance on campus. Take some time to re-read the names of all 20 (TWENTY!) of your distinguished All-Americans. While you’re there, double check the years of those 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 State Championship seasons, as well.
From purely a roster makeup perspective, 2026 Saguaro is 1989 SMU. Of the Mustangs’ 89 players that season, 73 were freshmen and 38 had never played a single down of major college football.
Saguaro may not be coming off the death penalty, but in many ways, it sure feels like it.
Of course, if Saguaro opted to cancel their varsity season, the layering trickle down effect would have been substantial with several hurdles to navigate.
The 10 scheduled teams would have faced an 11th hour scramble to fill their now open date in Saguaro’s spot. How would that work with 6A power points? How would the AIA take into account in-season rankings and playoff/Open Division seeding if some teams play nine games, compared to 10?
A 5A Saguaro opponent, like rival Chaparral, would have had to find an opponent for Week 2. Further complicating matters is no 5A school has a bye in Week 2. Thus, the Firebirds would have to “play up” and find a 6A team. Now read the previous paragraph and try to solve that Rubik’s Cube from the 5A playoff perspective.
Peel the onion back even more and it would not only hurt one of Sag’s road opponents, but an entire district, as well. In Week 5, the ‘Cats are set to play at Pinnacle, a member of the Paradise Valley School District. In the PVUSD, schools share game day gate proceeds. So, not only would Pinnacle have lost money, so too would Horizon, Paradise Valley, Shadow Mountain, and North Canyon.
(Full transparency, Saguaro not finishing the regular season is still a distinct possibility – which even further clouds the issue).
Lastly, it would have been one less opportunity for AZHS players to compete under the fall lights. Kids who had nothing to do with the incompetence of adults at another school, and possibly, another district.
With all that being said, let’s remind ourselves: what’s in the best interest, and safety, for these Saguaro players?
If they were competing in 4A, like the Sabercats’ highly successful baseball (two state championships in the last three years) and boys basketball (Open Division last season, six-straight playoff appearances) programs, completing a 10-game regular season would be difficult, but at least feasible, considering the two-conference drop in competition.
If SHS opted not to compete in varsity football, all seven current seniors could have transferred to wherever they wanted and been eligible immediately. Sure, we are on the eve of school starting and the timing is far from ideal, but at least guaranteeing those student-athletes the opportunity to be a part of a program for their entire senior year would have been a selfless act of gratitude.
The non-seniors, could have played a 6A JV schedule, allowing those freshmen, sophomores and juniors to compete, grow and master the new system. This would have also allowed Goncharoff and his staff a full year to get acclimated to Arizona high school football, without the elevating weekly concerns of player safety against bigger, faster, deeper varsity opponents as the season progressed.
Goncharoff, who knew full-well what he was getting into, the long-time football support staff who is doing everything in their power to keep the program alive, and every single one of those 33 current players must be commended for embracing this road less traveled head on.
All had a choice. All decided to stay. All deserve a clean slate and level playing field, 4A competition like their peer sports on campus.
There are no “do overs” from the past eight months, but there was an opportunity to learn from those missteps not only for the present but, more importantly, for the future of Saguaro football.
Instead, leadership opted to square peg, round hole an undermanned roster into the teeth of some of Arizona’s best teams.
Adults failing kids.
Shameful.
From a dynasty, to a disaster.
From SagU, to SadU.
“They’ve turned into Coronado,” one high school coach said. “And no one feels sorry for them.”
The post SOS: Save Our Saguaro…Never Mind first appeared on Sports360AZ.