Due to the new scheduling block and process of acquiring games, the Sollenberger Classic football game will not take place to kick off the 2018 season. Schools from Nevada and New Mexico could not align their schedules with AIA member schools, as they had other commitments.

The AIA plans to have discussions with the neighboring state associations following the 2018 championship season to lay the groundwork to bring the classic back in 2019 and generate the best matchups possible. It is the AIA’s intention to once again have its schools play two games against out-of-state competition and hold them in northern Arizona.

Played almost every year since 2006, the Sollenberger Classic honors the late Barry Sollenberger, who spent his entire career chronicling prep sports in Arizona and some parts of New Mexico. The other time the classic was not played was in 2015.

The annual Sollenberger’s AZ Football Prep Magazine will still be published before the start of the upcoming season.

Sollenberger Classic archive: click here