Friday football coverage plans

August 26, 2016 by Jose Garcia, AZPreps365


What do veteran reporters, a former NFL quarterback and a two-time Super Bowl champ with the Steelers have in common?

They’ll be covering high school football Friday for azpreps365.com and its partners, 620 AM and 88.7 FM. The lights come on for the first time state wide to welcome the return of Friday Night Lights, and we’ll be covering the football action from several angles.  

Reporters will recap the big moments of Friday’s action during the Friday Night Wrap Up Show on 620 AM, which kicks off its season Friday at 9:30 p.m. Kevin McCabe and Pablo “The Wizard of the West Side” Rios return this season to host the Friday show.

Another person with a passion for high school sports, James Mello, also returns but as the show’s producer. One person who won’t be back on the show is Michael Carotenuto.

That’s because he’ll be broadcasting some of this season’s marquee games alongside Dan Manucci, a quarterback for the Buffalo Bills in the 1980s. Carotenuto and Manucci will call the Canyon del Oro-Shadow Mountain game Friday.

The man with the Super Bowl bling, Max Starks, and Dave Juday will work the Deer Valley-Williams Field game, which you can also listen to on 88.7 FM.

Juday, a former ESPN broadcaster in Chicago, is now the sports director and account executive for the East Valley Institute of Technology, which runs 88.7 FM.  

After the games Friday, tune in to 620 AM for a recap of some of the big games also. Here’s a list of the games and the reporters that will cover them for 620 AM:

Basha at Pinnacle, Brett Quintyne

Bradshaw Mountain at Cactus, Matt Showalter

Pima at Gilbert Christian, Lee Patterson

Payson at Casteel, Jason Evans

Hamilton at Queen Creek, Andy Luberda

Centennial at Apollo, Jennifer Jimenez

Deer Valley at Williams Field, Steve Cusomano.

On Saturday, look for a report on the Mesa Mountain View-Valley Vista game from azpreps365.com’s Les Willsey. Andy Morales of azpreps365.com will cover the Tempe-Catalina Foothills game, and I’ll be at the Santa Cruz-Paradise Honors game.