Sedona Red Rock Junior/ Senior High School wrapped up its fall sports season on the evening of Nov. 4, with its annual autumn sports awards ceremony honoring middle and high school student-athletes. The season brought a mix of highs and lows, from the boys varsity soccer team’s drive to a state runner-up finish, to the return of the girls soccer program and tackle football and the unfortunate cancellation of the 2025 swim season.
Boys Soccer
▪ Most Valuable Player: Ben Metzger
▪ Most Improved Player: Jean-Carlo Gonzalez
▪ Sportsmanship Award: Ariel Bustos-Landa
Gonzalez “was already an expert at this sport, and he’s so just mentally there,” Head Coach Gavin Shippen said. “He’s a student of the game, and for him to come in as a freshman and grow and be able to play and start every single game for Sedona and the varsity team … he was always there for us.”
Metzger had a dominating season leading to earning MVP status along with the program’s Golden Boot Award.
“Ariel is one of those guys that would try as hard as he could, and he would tackle you as hard as he could, but he’s going to help you get up off the ground after he put you on the ground,” Shippen said.
Football
▪ Most Valuable Player: Steel Sturgeon
▪ Most Improved Player: Paxton Corney
▪ Sportsmanship Award: Vincent Smith
“Paxton … looked at me with the most terrified look of any football player I’ve ever seen,” Head Coach Tony Hauserman said when he told the sophomore that Paxton was going to be quarterback for the back half of the season. “But he stepped up, and by the next game, he was running the triple option in a great way, and I couldn’t be prouder to be [his] coach.”
“Steel was our MVP this year, that was the easy call for our coaches to make, while everybody contributed and worked hard and was brave,” Hauserman said. “Steel showed himself to be a leader throughout the entire season and played through a lot of a lot of tough times, including being thrust in as quarterback after Paxton got hurt, but Steel stepped up, and he did a great job.”
“Vincent did everything he possibly could to help our team finish the season, and I can’t think of a better example of sportsmanship than that,” Hauserman said.
Girls Soccer
“The girls soccer program has been [gone] for a few years, and so this is our first year back in a while, and it was my first year coaching soccer, and it was a dream of mine and I had a lot of fun,” Head Coach Galen Bessette said. “I’d like to extend a huge thank you to the girls for showing up. We didn’t forfeit a single game. We had numbers every single game. We played our whole season, and that’s a huge success … I had a lot of fun, and I’m very excited for the future.”
▪ Most Valuable Player: Jimena Vargas
▪ Most Improved Player: Giselle Wolf
▪ Sportsmanship Award: Clay Hansbrough
“Clay Hansborough, we put her in the hardest position on the field, which is goalkeeper,” Bessette said. “She didn’t back down. She didn’t quit, and just showed great, great positivity throughout the whole season. Jimena’s passion for the game is what made her stand out as the MVP she wanted the most. Gisele Wolf had played in elementary school … but the end of this season she changed completely to a different player. She was much more aggressive and confident, and she was able to run and be a heck of a lot more physical.”
Cross Country
▪ Most Valuable Player: Juni Spielman
▪ Most Improved Player: Sunny Flores
▪ Sportsmanship Award: Chokyi Carstens
Flores pulled off winning his award for the second consecutive year with Head Coach Cody McKesson noting that “Sunny’s always out there, pushing his heart, consistently going to practice and battling out all the time.”
Spielman, a standout freshman, capped off an undefeated 5-0 middle school season by earning the team’s Most Valuable Player award, and looks poised to collect plenty more honors.
Volleyball
Volleyball player awards were announced the following day by Head Coach John Parks who said junior varsity players were also eligible for the awards.
▪ Most Valuable Player: Adalynn Moore
▪ Most Improved Player: Evelyn Quidera
▪ Sportsmanship Award: Salem Perches
Moore picked up the nod for leading the Scorpions across the board in aces, passing, kills and blocks.
“Salem was probably the most positive, energetic [Scorpion] towards both teams the entire season,” Parks said. “She always liked to talk to their teams and get to know them, and was always, positive and cheering for our team, and stayed for all the varsity games and cheered and helped wherever she could, even though she was a JV player, she stayed for all the varsity games to do whatever she could to help the varsity.”
“Evelyn put in a lot of effort to try to get better at every skill, not just this year, but the whole time she played volleyball here at SRRHS and I wanted to recognize her for all the work that she has put in all this time to make herself a pretty good player.” Parks said.
