Higley football ready to make another title run after QB Luke Haugo transfers in

In his first couple of days of spring football after enrolling at Gilbert Higley High School, 6-foot-5, 210-pound sophomore quarterback Luke Haugo had coaches from Tennessee, UNLV, Washington State and Boise State watching him throw.

He already had offers from Oregon, Arizona State and Arizona before throwing a pass to start his sophomore season at Phoenix North last fall.

With sophomore sensation Jamar Malone II moving to Florida to be part of IMG Academy's national team, Haugo figures to lead a talented team back to the 5A final, if the Knights aren't part of the eight-team Open Division state playoffs.

But the Knights likely will have to wait until midseason to see what kind of offense they'll have in the second half of the season when Haugo becomes eligible to play. Under the Arizona Interscholastic Association transfer bylaw, a first-time transfer has to sit the first five games, before becoming eligible.

Last Thursday, Haugo talked to The Republic about how excited he was to already start digging into Noel Mazzone's playbook and learn from him.

"When Jamar left, it opened up," Haugo said. "You've got coach Mazzone, Coach Zubey, the whole coaching staff. I couldn't turn down that opportunity."

Last season, with the former major college offensive coordinator as Higley's OC, the Knights produced two 1,000-yard receivers in Carter Hancock and Dom Esposito and Malone had a breakout year with 4,000 yards and 44 touchdowns passing on their way to their first 5A state championship.

"The past week I've been in the classroom with Coach Mazzone down in his office, throwing plays with his offense with his caliber of schools he's coached at, a ton of Power 5 schools," Haugo said. "I'm really liking the offense so far."

Scottsdale Chaparral had announced shortly after Doug Nisenson was hired as head coach that Mazzone would be the offensive coordinator, the role he served at Higley last season when Malone and his receivers put up off-the-chart numbers.

Higley coach Eddy Zubey told The Republic on Thursday at spring practice that Mazzone still was his offensive coordinator and has been out at spring practice.

He said he was made aware by Mazzone that he was going to be OC at Chaparral, but Zubey was fine with him helping both schools. But Nisenson, who is finishing the spring semester teaching in Colorado, had no idea that he would be sharing his OC. He said he was not OK with that.

"I don't think it's going to be a hard thing, he's retired," Zubey said. "One is in the morning and one is in the afternoon. He makes everybody better."

But the tweet about Mazzone helping both schools created a backlash from Chaparral, which thought it wouldn't be sharing Mazzone with another school.

Mazzone later issued a statement on Twitter, saying, "I apologize for the misunderstanding but I am very excited to be a part of coach Nisenson's staff at Chaparral. Coach Zubey is a good friend who I will always talk ball with."

Zubey said in a text Monday morning when asked if Mazzone was strictly going to work with Chaparral, "Yes, he called at 2:30 on Friday and told me he was going to be at Chap."

However, Nisenson said late Monday morning that he let Mazzone go earlier in the morning. Nisenson, who was planning to coordinate the defense, now has taken over the offense.

How Higley's offense will look next season still likely will have Mazzone's imprint on it.

The Knights feel they can get back into championship mode, even if it's waiting until midseason for Haugo to become eligible.

"It's just getting the younger kids to know and buy into our system," Zubey said. "Not just Xs and Os, but how we practice and how we work. We do have a lot of returning starters back on offense and defense. The offense and defense is pretty much installed. So it's making sure the younger guys coming up understand what it takes to play at a championship level."

Higley has become a quarterback factory. From Spencer Brasch (now at Cal Poly) to Kai Millner (now at Northern Arizona) to Malone and now Haugo, there's no shortage of dynamic playmakers in the last five or so years.

And with two starting wide receivers — Jaden Taylor and Kaden Millner — back to fill the voids of Hancock and Esposito, and with dynamic tailback Dax Hall returning, the Knights feel good about moving the ball. They will likely start out with two sophomore-to-be quarterbacks.

Last year, Taylor and Millner were outside receivers but they could move into slot spots in a four-receivers system.

"It was a big blow (losing Malone)," Taylor said. "We've faced adversity. We picked up Luke at quarterback. We're building now. We're finishing what we started.

"We just want to do it again. I think we're a back-to-back type of team."

Hall figures to play an even bigger role, after he ran for 1,524 yards and 20 TDs and caught 36 passes for 345 yards and four scores.

"I think we'll be good," Hall said. "Just getting up to date with the plays. I'm looking forward to playing for the team and getting wins."

Defense should be solid with Donovan Aidoo, Nijrell Eason and Andrew Zubey back in the secondary and the return of Chansyn Mapa to the secondary after he missed last season with a knee injury. Higley also returns 100-plus-tackle linebacker Jacob Pitts and junior-to-be outside linebacker Kamarion Peete, who had a monstrous game in the 5A championship win over Glendale Cactus.

Higley is in a loaded region that includes Scottsdale Desert Mountain, defending 4A champion American Leadership Gilbert North, Phoenix Horizon, Cave Creek Cactus Shadows and Scottsdale Notre Dame.

More: Desert Mountain QB Brady McDonough, WR Jack Freeburg could be Arizona's best dynamic duo

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter @azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Higley finds QB replacement in Luke Haugo, ready to make title run