Sports News Southwest

Yuma, Arizona - Arizona Western College announced today that a top member of Yuma Catholic High School’s football program has officially signed his letter of intent to attend AWC for the 2008-09 school year and play football for the Matadors’ football team this fall. Shamrocks’ wide receiver Brian Badgley officially signed his letter of intent during a press conference on the AWC campus this afternoon. 

Those that might be quick to discount Badgley as a Class 2A player trying to make the jump to the college game are stopped in their tracks very quickly-for several reasons. First, Badgley’s stats as a senior transcended all classifications in the state of Arizona, because Brian’s 1304 receiving yards led the way-not just in Arizona Class 2A football, but on every level from Class 5A on down. Second, his leadership was one of the main reasons why Badgley never experienced a high school football season that didn’t end with a postseason run. That was never more evident than last season, when he did everything first-year Yuma Catholic Head Football Coach Rhett Stallworth asked him to do. Badgley’s 16 receiving touchdowns and 57 receptions were tops in the area, and despite nursing a painful hamstring injury at the end of the regular season, Badgley didn’t let that stop him in the Arizona Class 2A Playoffs. Badgley forgot about the ailment long enough to rack up over 100 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns in Yuma Catholic’s playoff win against San Manuel in November. Third, Badgley’s versatility and leadership also showed on the basketball court, where as a senior under YC Head Boys’ Basketball Coach Brooks Neumann (who is a former longtime AWC Assistant Coach), Badgley helped lead an undersized Shamrocks’ squad to just two games short of the postseason.

But Badgley didn’t just pop up on the scene in 2007. Badgley first burst onto the high school varsity scene as a sophomore, and immediately showed he belonged there. His 267 receiving yards was 2nd-best on the team and 3rd in the Arizona 2A West League in 2005. As a junior, he showed that he had great instincts on both sides of the ball. As a defensive back, he led the team in interceptions with four, yet still had plenty of steam left on offense to lead the team with 839 receiving yards and 7 touchdowns.

Badgley showed his ability to adapt well to new situations last season, helping the Shamrocks to a #1 ranking in the state while still in their first year learning Stallworth’s system. That’s just one of the reasons why Badgley’s new coach thinks that he can adapt to the college level quickly. “Brian comes from a very successful program, and that’s always something that we look at, since when you have those kind of kids from good programs, it’s easier for them to buy into your program because they’re used to making the sacrifices that it takes to win,” said AWC Interim Head Football Coach Jerry Dominguez. “As you can imagine, Brian comes highly recommended by Coach Stallworth. He also did a great job of catching the ball, which will fit into our new offense, and when you can catch the ball as well as he did, adapting to the speed of the college game will come a little easier for him.”

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