What is going on in Yuma?

October 2, 2010 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


It was something you had to give a double-take. Did Cibola really beat Basha in football Friday night?

Yes, the Raiders did. Yuma has two unbeaten football teams in town -- 5-0 Cibola (5A-II) and 6-0 Yuma Catholic (2A). And it's October.

That's good news. Yuma has been hit hard by the bad economy the last two years. It's public school football teams don't travel out of town except to face Lake Havasu in region play. They are stuck playing each other for the most part or very close border towns in California.

Cibola beating Skyline a few weeks back likely didn't turn many heads since Skyline is winless this year. But toppling Basha, a team ranked in the top 5 in 5A-I almost universally? That's a feather in the cap of coach Lucky Arvizo and his squad. Arvizo told the Yuma Daily Sun after Friday's 20-14 victory over the Bears that it was the biggest win in Cibola football history. That isn't a coach blowing smoke. That's coming from the heart of a coach in a town that has not had much to cheer about in athletics lately outside of winning a city championship.