{"id":333233,"date":"2023-09-23T01:18:06","date_gmt":"2023-09-23T01:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=333233"},"modified":"2023-09-23T02:00:09","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T02:00:09","slug":"2026-quarterback-marcel-jones-transfers-to-saguaro-ineligible-for-rest-of-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=333233","title":{"rendered":"2026 quarterback Marcel Jones transfers to Saguaro, ineligible for rest of season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Marcel Jones entered his sophomore season as one of the more intriguing players in Arizona high school football. According to\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/burncitysports.com\/2023\/09\/07\/sophomore-qb-for-chaparral-has-two-d1-offers-including-asu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Burn City Sports<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, he led Chaparral&#8217;s (Scottsdale, Ariz.) freshman team last year to an undefeated season, scoring 40 total touchdowns and completing almost 85% of his passes. He also received at least two Div. I offers during his freshman year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Arizona Republic wrote in a\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/sports\/high-school\/2023\/05\/04\/fab-50-the-arizona-republics-top-2026-high-school-football-prospects\/70185150007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">season preview<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0that Jones &#8220;might have been the most dynamic player at the freshman level last year when the Firebirds&#8217; freshman team blew out everybody they played. Runs, passes and makes people miss. Expect him to have a monster sophomore season on the varsity.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">But that sophomore season has come to an end. Jones has transferred from Chaparral High School after four games, moving to cross-town Saguaro High School.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">He will not be eligible for the rest of the season, according to the Republic. With the move, he finishes his sophomore season with 687 passing yards at a 55.5% completion rate and 200 rushing yards on 40 attempts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Why the sudden change?<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Jones&#8217; father, Cedric, told the\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/sports\/high-school\/2023\/09\/22\/scottsdale-chaparral-football-losing-qb-marcel-jones-in-move-to-saguaro\/70929912007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Arizona Republic<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0that the move was related to his belief that the Chaparral football booster club &#8220;isn&#8217;t transparent about how its funds are spent&#8221; and did not have proper oversight, reporter Richard Obert wrote. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Chaparral principal Joshua Painter told the Republic that Scottsdale Unified School District is &#8220;committed to reviewing the complaint and determining whether an investigation is warranted.&#8221; Club boost president Casey Porter added that he &#8220;does not see any substantiation to that claim.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">There was also speculation that the decision came after the coaching staff opened up a competition for the starting quarterback job this week, which Cedric Jones strongly rejected as the rationale for the move.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Read the Republic article\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/sports\/high-school\/2023\/09\/22\/scottsdale-chaparral-football-losing-qb-marcel-jones-in-move-to-saguaro\/70929912007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">here<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0for a comprehensive overview of the news.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Marcel Jones&#8217; transfer is the latest change for a team that has undergone a transformation over the last year. <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Chaparral was highlighted in\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/high-school\/2022\/09\/27\/arizona-high-school-football-daily-cover\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Sports Illustrated&#8217;s<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0September 2022 feature about Arizona&#8217;s open enrollment policy and its effect on the state&#8217;s high school football scene, and the opening paragraph highlighted the school&#8217;s desire to take down the historically dominant Saguaro program. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">However, over the last several months, there have been a variety of departures in the program, including five members of the freshman team that moved to Mountain Pointe (Ahwatukee, Ariz.) and the resignation of head coach Brent Barnes, who accepted a job to coach Yukon High School in Oklahoma, a state in which he had previously lived and coached.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Jones&#8217; departure removes what had been a promising piece of Chaparral&#8217;s future. His dominant freshman season led him to be considered the\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/sports\/high-school\/2023\/05\/04\/fab-50-the-arizona-republics-top-2026-high-school-football-prospects\/70185150007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">top quarterback<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0in Arizona&#8217;s class of 2026, and in January, he picked up offers from Arizona State University and UNLV.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Now, he is off to Saguaro, where he will learn under first-year head coach Zak Hill, who has previously served roles as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at ASU and Boise State. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The high school football world will wait until his junior year to see the progress made.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Marcel Jones, a highly touted sophomore quarterback, has transferred from Chaparral to cross-town powerhouse Saguaro.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":286601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=333233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":333234,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333233\/revisions\/333234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/286601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=333233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=333233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=333233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}