2014-15-aia-football-sollenberger-azpreps-report-highres

By Jose Garcia, aia365.comFollowing in Barry’s FootstepsBarry Sollenberger dedicated his life to preserving the history of Arizona’s high school sports programs and promotingthe state’s athletes.One way he did so was through a popular preseason football magazine Sollenberger launched in 1971, Phoenix MetroFootball Magazine. But when he passed away in 2005 on his 60th birthday, the run of one of the more successful andlongest running high school preseason football magazines in the nation ended.His publishing partner and good friend Dave Kukulski keptSollenberger’s vision alive by distributing a DVD with preseasoninformation. But tracking down more than 200 footballcoaches and high school sports history isn’t easy, and nobodydid it better than Sollenberger, the late Arizona InterscholasticAssociation’s historian.When the AIA and aia365.com decided to recapture the spiritof Sollenberger’s magazine by relaunching it online, namingthe magazine after Sollenberger (on the cover of this magazine)was a no-brainer. It took a group effort to reintroducean Arizona high school football staple that one man,Sollenberger, used to produce.The AIA’s Tayler Coady and Michele Staples sent out thequestionnaires that Valley veteran writers Don Ketchum andLes Wilsey and I used to write about more than 155 footballprograms in the inaugural Sollenberger’s AZ Prep FootballReport. A couple of Sollenberger’s Phoenix Metro Footballpartners, Kukulski and his family and photographer StevePaynter, were also involved, keeping alive a connection toPhoenix Metro Football.New partner Maxpreps.com also provided photos. One ofSollenberger’s former magazine sponsors, Valle Luna MexicanRestaurants, also jumped on board to help reintroducethe magazine.We also would like to thank our new sponsors and ParentHeart Watch state coordinator Shellie Wenhold for helpingthe AIA and aia365.com place defibrillators in Arizona highschools. Helping raise the awareness of getting young athletes’hearts screened will be one of Sollenberger’s AZ PrepReport’s goals.Barry Sollenberger was a talented decathlete at ArcadiaHigh School (Photo courtesy of Sollenberger family).In this magazine, you’ll find an ad for the Anthony Bates Foundation. Bates played football at Mountain Pointe and diedfrom a genetic heart disease when he was 20. Information about where high school athletes can get their heartsscreened is in the ad.Kukulski said Sollenberger would have been proud that his magazine will continue to evolve. This year’s magazinedoesn’t come close to matching what Sollenberger produced.But it’s a start and a great way to continue to honor a man who gave so much to Arizona’s high schools.page 3