By Jon Johnson
THATCHER – A year of hard work culminated with a top-notch season ending short in the 3A State Semifinals after a few lousy ball bounces. However, four Thatcher Eagles have been recognized for their excellence by making the 3A All-Conference teams.
Fellow 3A South member Tucson Pusch Ridge took home Coach of the Year for Kent Middleton and Conference Player of the Year for its dual-threat quarterback, Jacob Newborn. Conference Offensive Player of the Year went to Ayden Williams of ALA-Ironwood, and Conference Defensive Player of the Year went to JJ Brutus of ALA-West Foothills.
3A All-Conference 1st Team
Brigham Rasmussen – Defensive Lineman
The heart and soul of any truly dominant defense is its defensive line – those who control the line of scrimmage control the game.
Thatcher does this well on offense, and Rasmussen led the way on defense by controlling the line. Rasmussen finished his senior season with 55 tackles (27 solo—8 for loss) and 3 sacks.
Kody Bingham – Running Backs
What Rasmussen was to the defense, Bingham was to the offense as its stalwart running back.
Bingham led the Eagles’ rushing attack and averaged 97.4 yards rushing per game to finish with 1,169 yards on 118 carries with 15 rushing TDs. Bingham also caught four touchdown passes to lead the team in scoring with 19 total TDs.
Bingham also did duty on kickoff and punt returns, bumping his overall total yardage gained the past year to 1,633 yards – or about 136.1 yards per game.
3A All-Conference 2nd Team
Tristun Brown – Defensive Utility/Flex Player
Defenses need player intangibles who are flexible to perform a variety of tasks. For Thatcher, that player was Tristun Brown, who tied with Ryan Jones to average the most tackles per game for the team with 10.2 per game. While he is recognized for his defense, like most of Thatcher’s players, Brown plays both offense and defense and also put in a solid year running the ball. He finished with 10 total TDs, second on the team behind Bingham.
Brett Jones – Linebacker
While the front line of defense is the defensive line, the signal caller—the block-shedding, quarterback-harassing, running back-destroyer—and the extreme heart and soul of the defense are its middle linebackers. In Thatcher, Brett Jones was molded out of the defenders of the 1970s, like Jack Lambert, who was the heart of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Steel Curtain defense.
In 10 games, Jones registered 77 total tackles (51 solo and 8 for loss with 2 sacks and 1 INT.
Honorable Mention
Isaiah Cook – Morenci, Marcus Lucero – Morenci, Xavier Owens – Safford, Ryan Jones – Thatcher
