Day 33 – Santa Fe, New Mexico to Flagstaff, Arizona

BernalilloBernalillo High School, home of the Spartans.
gamestrat high school football sideline instant replay

It’s a perfect circle as we are now just two days away from returning home from our Sea to Shining Sea…and Beyond Tour.

We are spending the night in Flagstaff, Arizona, which is where we spent our first night back on October 29th. We’ve experienced a lot, but tonight around 11 P.M., we knew we were getting closer to our Los Angeles-area home when a 4.7 magnitude earthquake rumbled the Hilton Garden Inn. Yes, nothing says California like a good old earthquake!

The quake was centered north of Sedona, Arizona, which is about 30 miles from Flagstaff.

Aside from the shake-rattle-and-roll, Sunday was an uneventful 383 mile drive with only one stop for a high school football field – Bernalillo High School, outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  As you see from the photo above, it was just a drive by taken from an Interstate 25 exit ramp.

The Spartans are a 5A team that finished 2-8 this past season under first year head coach Trent Spencer.

New Mexico has already crowned three state champs – Escalante (2A), Melrose (8-Man) and Hondo Valley (6-Man).

The remaining four championships will be decided this weekend – in 6A Mayfield will play Rio Rancho, Artesia takes-on Belen for the 5A crown, Cobre faces Ruidoso in 4A and in 3A Clayton meets Estancia.

Artesia will be going after its 28th state championship, which is the most in New Mexico.  The Bulldogs most famous alum is Landry Jones, who is now a quarterback for the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers.  Jones led the Bulldogs to two straight 4A titles.

Play Football

nfl play football

About the Author

Jeff Fisher
Jeff is an award-winning journalist and expert in the field of high school sports, underscored with his appearance on CNBC in 2010 to talk about the big business of high school football in America.Jeff turned to his passion for high school football into an entrepreneurial venture called High School Football America, a digital media company focused on producing original high school sports content for radio, television and the internet.Jeff is co-founder and editor-in-chief of High School Football America, a partner with NFL Play Football.