Bishop Gorman to play at Phoenix-area stadium

Christopher Drexel

Tuesday, July 29, 2008 | 6:55 p.m.

Bishop Gorman’s football team will play on its biggest stage of the year when it opens the season with a game at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.

The Gaels, Nevada’s reigning 4A state champions, will face Phoenix Brophy Prep, Arizona’s 5A, Division I state champions, at the venue on Aug. 23.

The stadium opened in 2006 and is home to the Arizona Cardinals, the Fiesta Bowl and played host to the New York Giants’ upset of the New England Patriots in January’s Super Bowl. It is the first football stadium in the country to have both a retractable roof and retractable natural grass field.

“The energy in there should be pretty amazing,” Gorman offensive tackle Sam Womack said. “I don’t think there are many high school teams in the country that have played at that kind of stadium. I went there for the NFL Experience during Super Bowl weekend and it’s a big stadium, a big stadium. This game will be at another level.”

The game, dubbed the Barry Sollenberger Classic, has served as a kickoff to the high school football season in Arizona the last two years and is named after an Arizona high school sports historian who died in 2005.

Bishop Gorman coach Bob Altshuler said it was Brophy that asked the Gaels to participate, and the contest was finalized Friday. Brophy captured Arizona’s large school championship at the stadium last December.

“The coaches are excited and the kids are ecstatic about the opportunity to play there and play a very traditionally strong football team,” Altshuler said. “It will give us an indication of where we’re at and where we need to go. Whatever the outcome is, it can only helps us get better because we’re playing a good football team.”

The matchup could be a trial by fire for many of Gorman’s younger players. The Gaels return four starters on defense as well as four offensive linemen and their tight end, but will have to break in almost an entirely new group of skill-position players. Gorman only played five junior varsity games last season.

“It will be very nerve-racking for the first-time varsity guys, but we are pretty much returning our whole line and hopefully we can open up some holes for them,” Womack said. “We lost some stars and Brophy lost some stars, but it should be two powerhouses colliding.”

Because of the game’s early date, Bishop Gorman has received special permission from the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association to start practice on Aug. 4 instead of Aug. 14, when the rest of the teams in the state begin. Gorman and Brophy have already exchanged film of each of their final three games of 2007 to prepare.

The Gaels plan to travel by bus to Phoenix on Aug. 21 and hold two practices at a yet-to-be determined location. They will return to Las Vegas on Aug. 24 before immediately preparing to host Service High from Anchorage, Alaska on Aug. 29.