AIA 2A football playoffs
San Tan Charter ends Tuba City’s season in second round
Navajo Times | Quentin Jodie
Tuba City junior running back Charles Bright gets ready to stiff-arm a San Tan defender during the second round of the AIA 2A state football playoffs. Bright scored two touchdowns, as Tuba came up short 66-21.
GILBERT, Ariz.
With nothing to lose, the Tuba City football team started off its second-round playoff game on a positive note.
In Tuba’s opening drive, the Warriors marched 75 yards into the end zone as they surprised No. 2 San Tan Charter on Friday night.
That touchdown was one of three scores that Tuba made. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough as San Tan Charter posted a 66-21 win as the second half was played with a running clock.
“Our goal was to make the 2A playoffs and be respectable,” Tuba coach Kalani Simeona said. “In our first year, we wanted to have a winning season, and our second year we wanted to qualify for the state playoffs. The third year was to win that first playoff game, which we did (two weeks ago).
“From there we just kept building off our wins,” he added. “The (18) seniors I had were part of that winning culture and I had to look all the way back to 2002 and there hasn’t been a back-to-back-to-back winning season in Tuba, so that’s almost 25 years since we did that. Who knows how long that’s been going on. It’s a matter of creating a culture where people love each other enough to play hard for one another.”
To read the full article, please see the Nov. 12, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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