DVUSD has four Arizona Fall Sports Champions:

• Jesselyn Bries, Junior, Sandra Day O’Connor High School captured the state title in Cross Country. She finished with a time of 18 minutes, 3 seconds, which was one of her best times this season.

• Claire Grover, Junior, Boulder Creek High School is the Girls Swim State Champion in the 50-yard Freestyle and 100-yard Breast Stroke. Claire was also the state swim champion last year in the 50-yard freestyle.

• Noah Robinson, Senior, Sandra Day O’Connor finished at 9-under-par 133 to win the Boys State Golf Champion title.

• MacKenzie Whitten, Senior Mountain Ridge High School swung her way to the Division I state championship for badminton.

The Arizona Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Coaches Association honored Boulder Creek High School’s Scott Newell as coach of the year. Scott has been the Swim and Dive coach at Boulder Creek High School for the past six years. Watching his students perform to the best of their abilities and being successful makes all the time and effort worthwhile. Many of his swimmers have earned regional, state and national honors. When he isn’t coaching for BCHS, Scott serves as the aquatics coach for the Community Center in Anthem where the number of kids in the Dolphins swim program has tripled during his time there.

For the second year in a row, Deer Valley High School football standout Joey Ramos has been invited to attend the U.S. Army National Combine at the Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio Texas in January. This year, he’ll be joined by a teammate, Brandon McCrea. Brandon and Joey will join the nation’s top high school football underclassmen for this honored tradition. Being invited to this combine recognizes these 18 young men as two of the top players in the country for their graduating class. The U.S. Army National Combine boasts an impressive list of alumni featuring several current and former NFL players.