It was about 10 months ago that I spent a nice winter afternoon at an east side Subway, just me, my $5 footlong, my notepad and the greatest high school football coach in Tucson history.

I already had a good idea that Jeff Scurran was going to make a quick turnaround at Catalina Foothills, where he'd recently been hired to take over a team that went 0-10 the year before. Foothills has been a pathetic football program, which goes completing against how outstanding the school's other athletic teams have been since opening in the early 1990s.

But after talking with him, and seeing that he still had a lot of pep in those 65-year-old steps, I was absolutely convinced. The Falcons would win a minimum of seven games, and make the playoffs.

I guess I was lowballing Scurran. He won eight games, and has Foothills in the Division III state tournament tonight.

Foothills is the No. 11 seed, which earned it a road trip to Surprise on Phoenix's northwest side to face No. 6 Shadow Ridge (8-2). I know nothing about the opponent other than their nickname is the Stallions, they're making the playoffs for the second year in a row (and in their fourth year of existence) and their coach may or may not be Uncle Rico. So he might be able to throw a football over that mountain.

The Arizona State Roller Derby Championships will be taking place on November 16 and 17 at the Wreckhouse, 1145 E. Valencia Road.

The Furious Truckstop Waitresses (TRD), the VICE Squad (TRD), the Copper Queens (TRD), the Surly Gurlies (AZRD, Phoenix), the Bad News Beaters (AZRD, Phoenix), and the Whiskey Row-llers (NAZRD, Prescott) are going to battle it out for the state title. Tickets are only $10 in advance or $15 at the door on Saturday; no cover on Sunday and children 10 and younger. There will be food trucks, merchandise and derby photo booths.

The featured charity is the Tucson Roller Derby Wreckhouse Improvement Project. It was until recently that the roller derby girls have had their own venue to practice and compete, so every penny earned goes to remodeling the Wreckhouse for future generations. This event marks the end of the tenth official TRD season.

For more information visit the official Tucson Roller Derby website or the Facebook page.

Well, not really.

But that's the message the University of Arizona's athletic department "digital gurus" (as they've been dubbed via the Twitter is conveying in their latest short hype video, "A-Men: Days of Future Glory."

Highlights from the past two seasons — along with some old footage of Tedy Bruschi, the greatest player in UA football history — are enhanced by dialogue straight out of at least one of the X-Men movies. Don't ask me which ones, I don't consider myself enough of a fan to know the difference, other than that I could hear Patrick Stewart as Professor X and, I believe, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.

The verbiage doesn't completely fit with what's shown in the video, it's more meant to point out how important the school feels it is that Saturday night's Homecoming showdown with UCLA has everyone and their UA alum mother there. Hence, the video's hashtag, #BeThere.

Tucson's most recent state champion might miss out on the playoffs this year.

Ironwood Ridge won the Division II championship in 2012, and though it lost nearly every significant contributor to that title team, the Nighthawks got off to a great start this fall with a 5-1 record.

But the Nighthawks (5-4) have lost three straight games and, entering tonight's regular season finale at Casa Grande Vista Grande (3-6), need to win possibly get some help elsewhere in Division II to avoid getting shut out of the postseason. They're currently No. 15 in the rankings, with the top 16 getting in, though the boost from beating Vista Grande might not be enough to hold off teams below them who are facing tougher finale foes.

In fact, Ironwood Ridge could win and still get passed by another local team, Sierra Vista Buena (5-4), which is 17th and could slip into the top 16 with a win over Sunnyside (5-4).

If the Nighthawks were to miss out on the postseason, it would be the first local defending state champion in more than two decades to not get a chance to defend their title.

If you're not aware of what #TeamKaDeem is, it means you've either not been checking your Twitter feed lately or have avoided the University of Arizona athletics department Web site.

Or you're just wondering why there's a pound sign in the front of that word, in which case you should probably click onto the next story on The Range.

#TeamKaDeem is the marketing/PR campaign Arizona has established for Ka'Deem Carey, UA football's uberstar who is once again tearing up opposing defenses with big runs and legs that never seem to stop moving, even after he's got one or four tacklers grabbing onto him.

The campaign actually is in its second incarnation, having first popped up at the end of last season, which saw Carey lead the nation in rushing yards with 1,929 as a sophomore. It was meant to serve as the launching point for a possible Heisman Trophy campaign entering Carey's junior year ... until he decided to have the offseason from hell.

First there was the alleged domestic violence incident with the mother of his then-unborn son, which led to an arrest and criminal charges before the Tucson city prosecutor dropped the case over the summer. Then there were some traffic citations, including driving without proper registration, followed by the staple of all rising athletic stars — the "do you know who I am?" moment when Carey was kicked out of McKale Center during a UA basketball game for sitting where he didn't belong and getting smart with an arena official.

All of that resulted in Carey sitting out Arizona's opener against Northern Arizona, then not playing until the second quarter of the game at UNLV. But since then — literally, from the very moment he hit the field; as his first carry went for an untouched 58-yard touchdown — it's like he'd never missed any time.

Carey's recent exploits including going off for 236 yards against Utah, then rushing for 119 yards and four touchdowns in the win at Colorado. He's again No. 1 in the nation with at 153.3 yards per game, so now it's time to pimp the heck out of him, I guess.

#TeamKaDeem also is being used to track Carey's progress toward the top of Arizona's record books. He's now 550 yards shy of passing Trung Canidate for the Wildcats' all-time leading rusher, while he's five rushing TDs and and six total scores from passing Art Luppino for both of those school career marks.

I know you're sitting at your desk going over the office betting pool. That's one of the benefits of working in a maze of cubicles. Everyone around you likes to gamble money they don't have. I have participated in many pools, and lost.

I don't want you to lose like I did. I'm here to help your gambling addiction and give you a fighting chance. Here's the spread for week 8 thanks to Football Locks:

Date & Time    Favorite   Spread  Underdog Total Money Odds

10/27 1:00 ET San Francisco -16 At Jacksonville 40.5 -$2200 +$1000

10/27 1:00 ET At Detroit -3 Dallas 51 -$175 +$155

10/27 1:00 ET At Philadelphia -5.5 NY Giants 51.5 -$260 +$220

10/27 1:00 ET At Kansas City -7.5 Cleveland 39 -$350 +$290

10/27 1:00 ET At New Orleans -11 Buffalo 49 -$675 +$475

10/27 1:00 ET At New England -6.5 Miami 45.5 -$300 +$250

10/27 4:05 ET At Cincinnati -6.5 NY Jets 41 -$300 +$250

10/27 4:05 ET Pittsburgh -2.5 At Oakland 40.5 -$140 +$120

10/27 4:25 ET At Denver -12 Washington 58.5 -$800 +$600

10/27 4:25 ET At Arizona -2.5 Atlanta 45.5 -$145 +$125

10/27 8:30 ET Green Bay -9 At Minnesota 47.5 -$575 +$425

Monday Night Football Odds

10/28 8:40 ET Seattle -11 At St. Louis 42.5 -$700 +$500

Go big or go home and explain why you spent this month's rent away.

It was some famous person (doesn't really matter who; since I can't really remember right now) who once said, "it ain't how you start, it's how you finish." Or something like that. This is a blog post, rampant historical accuracy is not absolutely necessary.

Anyway, when it comes to sports, there are many documented cases of teams that get off to horrendously bad starts, only to make some adjustments or changes along the way and then, as if on cue from an off-camera director (or the WWE choreographer) flip a switch and make a mad dash of improvement toward the finish line.

With that I give you the 2013 Cienega High School football team.

Left for dead a month ago, the Bobcats (3-5) are smack dab in the middle of the Division II state playoff hunt thanks to wins in their last two games. Cienega sits 20th in the latest power points rankings entering tonight's game at Desert View (1-7), and with a win there and in the regular season finale at Sahuaro (7-1) it may very well end up grabbing a postseason bid.

So, what changed? There's no fancy analytics to explain it, other than that Cienega finally started to score some points. It also helped the Bobcats were no longer facing the best of the best in terms of statewide competition.

The turnaround actually began with a loss, when Cienega fell 63-60 to Sierra Vista Buena, dropping it to 1-5. The 60 points were more than the Bobcats had scored in their previous four games combined, and since then they've scored 42 to beat Sunnyside and 57 in a victory over Nogales.

And because Cienega played such a difficult non-league schedule — its first five opponents are 27-13 — it likely has enough points from the schedule strength portion of the state's ranking system to get into the top 16 with wins tonight and next Friday.

The only catch is, it might need to finish in the top 15 to get in. That's because each section is guaranteed at least one team into the playoffs, and right now Section 4's top-rated team, Yuma Cibola (4-4), sits in 26th place.

Cienega can't worry about any of that, though. All it needs to do is win.

Here's a look at the what other local teams in playoff contention have going tonight:

Division II
No. 1 Salpointe Catholic (8-0) at No. 14 Ironwood Ridge (5-3)
No. 8 Sahuaro (7-1) at No. 18 Sunnyside (5-3)
No. 9 Tucson (7-1) at No. 13 Mountain View (5-3)

Division III
Douglas (2-6) at No. 7 Sabino (6-2)
No. 8 Canyon del Oro (7-1) at Flowing Wells (1-7)
No. 13 Catalina Foothills (6-2) at Marana (4-4)

Division IV
No. 10 Rio Rico (6-2) at No. 21 Walden Grove (4-4)
Santa Rita (3-5) at No. 11 Sahuarita (5-3)
No. 17 Palo Verde (5-4) at No. 8 Safford (6-2)

Division V
Canyon State Academy (6-2) at No. 9 Pusch Ridge Christian (7-1)
No. 16 Benson (5-3) at No. 20 Willcox (4-4)

You remember the Tucson Padres, right?

For some of you—unfortunately, not enough of you—they were the team that gave us something fun to do on the dull, dry, hot summer nights when Tucson is otherwise a desolate wasteland.

But for most of you, the Padres were that club you may or may not have heard of, but certainly weren't going to support because of a laundry list of stupid reasons, including:

* They play in a "bad" area
* It's not the Diamondbacks
* It's not the Arizona Wildcats
* Keep Tucson Shitty

Well, since you didn't support this most recent (and very likely last) local foray into minor league baseball, maybe instead you'd like to see what it looks like when a community actually embraces their local team.

The team formerly known as the T-Pads is officially getting its name around 4:30 p.m., when owners of the club that's now playing in El Paso unveils whether they will be the Aardvarks, Buckaroos, Chihuahuas, Desert Gators or Sun Dogs.

For now, though, here's a glimpse into the mascot's eyes. Literally:

How big a deal is this down by Juarez's northern neighbor? The local paper, the El Paso Times, is set to go live with video from the unveiling event a whole 90 minutes beforehand.

There's even a video on the team's under-construction Web site explaining how the company that was hired to come up with the name, logo and colors (they're called Brandiose, why BTW is an excellent moniker) without actually revealing said name, logo or colors.

Who's running all this, J.J. Abrams?

UPDATE: They settled with the El Paso Chihuahuas.

There are three weeks left in the high school football season, and things are starting to shape up in terms of playoff participants.

And by shape up, I mean ... almost nothing is settled. But a lot of teams are in good shape, assuming they can continue on a positive track.

Of the 17 or so local teams that can safely be considered in playoff contention, only one — Salpointe Catholic — could lay down and take a nap for three weeks and still make the playoffs. The Lancers (7-0) aren't going to do that, though, as they'd like to stay rated No. 1 in the Division II power points in order to assure staying in Southern Arizona for the entirety of the playoffs.

(That's assuming the rumors the AIA plans on playing the D-II and D-III title games at Arizona Stadium on Nov. 29 and 30 are true)

Salpointe's last two regular season games will be good pre-playoff tests, most likely against fellow postseason participants. Then there's tonight's visit from Casa Grande Vista Grande (2-5), a team that has scored 37 points all season and has been outscored 129-0 the last three games.

The running clock will probably start so early the Salpointe sideline watchers will be home by 9 p.m.

Thankfully, a couple of the remaining matchups involving playoff teams are far more competitive.

Division II
Rincon/University (0-7) at No. 7 Tucson High (6-1)
No. 15 Sierra Vista Buena (4-3) at No. 9 Sahuaro (6-1)
No. 16 Mountain View (4-3) at No. 10 Ironwood Ridge (5-2)
Desert View (1-6) at No. 18 Sunnyside (4-3)

Division III
No. 7 Sabino (5-2) at Cholla (1-6)
Marana (4-3) at No. 8 Canyon del Oro (6-1)
No. 15 Catalina Foothills (5-2) at Casa Grande (2-5)

Division IV
No. 11 Rio Rico (5-2) at No. 22 Amphitheater (4-3)
No. 23 Walden Grove (3-4) at No. 14 Palo Verde (5-2)

Division V
No. 9 Pusch Ridge Christian (5-2) at San Carlos (2-4)
No. 16 Benson (4-3) at Tanque Verde (2-5)

University of Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne probably has a lab down in his basement where he spends all hours of the night concocting new and inventive ways to interact with the Wildcat fan base.

His latest endeavor might just be the zaniest, but also possibly one of the most ingenious ways to endear Wildcat Country to the athletic program.

Byrne announced over the weekend, via Twitter and Facebook (duh!!!) and other platforms what he's calling a quintet of ways that UA football fans can feel even closer to the team than just buying season tickets and wearing official gear.

Each home football week (starting with the current one, in advance of Saturday's game against Utah) fans who follow certain guidelines will get the chance to possibly do one of five unique things:

* Roam among the players during the pre-game Wildcat Walk to Arizona Stadium

* Run out onto the field with the team right before kickoff

* Scoop the media and announce Arizona's uniform combination

* Sit in on Rich Rodriguez's postgame press conference

* Compose questions to be asked to RichRod during his weekly radio show

Each of the "experiences," as Byrne is labeling them, requires the use of certain hashtags related to the upcoming game and particular messages or photos posted via Twitter in order to be eligible to win. The winners will be notified via Twitter at various times, such as finding out 30 minutes before kickoff that you'll get the chance to be run over by Ka'Deem Carey as you dodge the pre-game onfield pyrotechnics, or getting word 10 minutes before the game is over that you're headed to the postgame interview tent.

One major caveat to the whole contest, though: you've gotta have a ticket to that week's game. The contest is intended to "reward" loyal UA fans who go to games, not award some random casual fan who just happened to be on Twitter and used the applicable game's hashtag.