A little of this and a little of that.......

Busy Mesquite High School athletic director Anthony Scanio will take his business to New York for a nice opportunity there, leaving a massive void at the Gilbert school.

Scanio has been in the forefront of hosting a truckload of athetic events beyond the normal day-to-day stuff at his school over the past several years. Included in that array are girls basketball tournaments (co-host of Highland invitational and state games for small schools), a badminton invitational and regionals, baseball invitational, boys volleyball (state most recently) and state girls volleyball, big and small school state tournament games  just to name a few. Always helpful and forthcoming with info, Scanio was quick on the trigger with text messages and calls to update results of those events. Always above and beyond with those pesky duties, not all are willing to supply.

Best of luck, in your new endeavor, Anthony.

Scanio's successor was named Thursday as the district selected Jason Grantham, the head baseball coach at Red Mountain the last three years. Grantham a teacher at Red Mountain for 11 years and a graduate of Red Mountain, played football and baseball at Red Mountain. He assisted at various levels in football and was the head baseball coach the last three seasons. Grantham won't take long getting reacquainted with his former school as Mesquite and Red Mountain meet in football the second week of the upcoming season.

Still on the subject of Mesquite, new football coach Matt Gracey won't pull in to town for good until mid-June. He faces one of the toughest schedules in the state, especially considering the late start and transition that he's  undertaking. Here is Mesquite's football slate for 2011 --  Highland, Red Mountain, Chandler, Gilbert, Hamilton, Dobson, Chaparral, Desert Vista, Corona del Sol and Deer Valley.

What do a football-girls soccer coach and boys golf-softball coach have in common? Winning state titles in those sports in the same athletic year. Just a couple years back Notre Dame football-girls soccer coach Scot Bemis worked that magic for the Saints (2008-2009). Bemis' football squad edged Santa Rita by four points and his soccer troops nudged Mingus in a shootout. That coaching double play happened a couple weeks ago when Red Mountain's Rich Hamilton notched softball to go with boys golf. Red Mountain's boys golf title was captured by the slim margin of four shots over Desert Vista and and the softball title by a run over Basha. Both were come-from-behind efforts.