Monday, Nov. 8, 2004 | 9:16 a.m.
Sierra Vista football coach Ben Johnson resigned for personal reasons this weekend.
Johnson, who was 13-17 in three seasons with the Mountain Lions, said his resignation was effective following the Mountain Lions' 26-14 first-round playoff loss at No. 4 Cheyenne. The Mountain Lions had the best record in the Southwest Division for most of this season, but injuries plagued their lineup through the late season, and Sierra Vista closed having lost three of four games.
"There's lots of things that happen -- I don't want to talk about them all," Johnson said. "The end of the season was a little tough. We went through a lot of things together."
Johnson said he plans to return to coaching locally, but does not have a timeframe. Attempts to reach Sierra Vista administration on Sunday were unsuccessful.
Northwest top seed Palo Verde beat Southwest regular-season champion Bishop Gorman in straight sets 25-21, 25-20, 25-18 to claim the Sunset Region championship.
The state tournaments begin Friday at Galena High School, south of Reno. Silverado will face Northern champion Galena at 6:45 p.m., and Northern runner-up Douglas will face Palo Verde at 8:15 p.m.
In the 3A South tournament at Overton on Friday, Pahrump Valley defeated Faith Lutheran in five games to advance to the state tournament.
Silverado defeated Green Valley in two overtimes to claim the Sunrise title. Bonanza and Green Valley will play a play-in game Tuesday night at Bettye Wilson. The winner of that game will face the title winner from the other Southern Nevada region at 10 a.m. Friday, and the title winner from the same region as the play-in winner will face Northern champion Carson at 12:30 p.m.
In the 3A South tournaments at Bettye Wilson, Pahrump Valley beat White Pine 2-0 on Saturday for the boys' title. Faith Lutheran beat Boulder City 1-0 to take the 3A South girls' title.
Silverado's Nick Schenk was the top boys' southern finisher and Palo Verde's Ashley Wimmer finished second to lead the southern girls.
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