Football group honors the real coach K. That and more for Friday, brought to you by the Arcadia Tavern.

1. Honored: Larry Kentera, long-time defensive coach at Arizona State University, will accept the Pete Altieri Lifetime Achievement Coaching Award on Saturday, March 6 at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort National Football Foundation Valley of the Sun Chapter 29th Annual Scholar-Athlete Banquet. The foundation will also honor the seven living founders of the Fiesta Bowl, Shaw Courage Award winner Darius Leopaul of Central High School, chapter leadership award winner Nikki Balich-Cammarata, and 41 scholar-athlete student football players.

The event begins at 5 p.m. with a reception and collectibles auction. The dinner and awards program will take place inside starting at 7 p.m. Individual tickets are priced at $75, with tables of 10 available at $750. Higher priced luxury seating locations also are available.

Guests are requested to wear business attire. Questions will be answered and reservations taken by calling (602) 320-4839 or (602) 502-6493.

2. Great players: Kentera coached the Arizona State defense under head coach Frank Kush from 1966 to 1978, an era when the Sun Devils were best known for their high octane offenses. Kentera developed quite a few defensive stars, including Bob Bruenig, Curly Culp, Michael Haynes, Al Harris and Ron Pritchard, all of whom were All-America or Pro Bowl players.

3. Developing coaches: In 1985, Kentera was named as head coach of Northern Arizona. Four on his assistants became head coaches in the NFL: Bill Callahan of the Oakland Raiders, Brad Childress of the Minnesota Vikings, Marty Mornhinweg of the Detroit Lions and Andy Reid of the Philadelphia Eagles.

4. Developing football nation: Five years ago, the U.S. government agency USAID asked Kentera to help organize and development American-style football in Serbia, a section of the former Yugoslav Republic. The number of teams in Serbia has grown from three to 22 since 2005. “It won’t be too long before American colleges could think about looking to recruit there,” he said.

The List for Thursday:

1. Change of time: All ASU’s remaining Sunday baseball home games, with the exception of the March 14 game with Auburn which will remain at 1 p.m., will begin at 12:30 p.m. at Packard Stadium. The Sunday game time changes will begin with this Sunday’s game with Towson.

2. Weather: The forecast from AccuWeather.com call for half an inch of rain on Saturday and a dry Sunday. So we don’t know how many outdoor events will be affected. Some fields still may be damp from last weekend.

3. Surprise: Only nine Major League Baseball teams saw an increase in attendance last season. The two leaders in that category were the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers, which share spring training facilities at the Surprise Complex.

The List for Wednesday:

1. Mat dynasty? Corona del Sol won its second straight 5A-I team wrestling title on Saturday, edging Mesa at Tempe High School. It took the school’s first coach, Dave Vibber, 30 years to win one. Jim Martinez succeeded him and picked up where Vibber left off. Of course, the Aztecs will have to go a little way to catch Sunnyside from Tucson. The Blue Devils won their 12th straight state title, taking the 5A-II crown.

2. New direction: Basha football coach Tim McBurney, who started the program in 2002, got the ax last week. On the face it, this is kind of a surprise. McBurney’s Bears made the playoffs every year since 2005, when the school first became eligible. Last season the Bears went 8-4 and losing in overtime in the 5A-I quarterfinals. Expectations were high, so that was a bit of a disappointment.

McBurney told azcentral that he was asked to resign, declined and was fired. Basha Principal Ken James wrote in an e-mail that the school wanted to go in another direction. Will that direction be up?

3. Hamilton envy? Basha’s record doesn’t seem too shabby. But when another school in the district, Hamilton, is the two-time defending state champion and the most dominant program in the state over the past decade, making the playoffs doesn’t seem nearly enough. It is sort of how a tract house that looks like a mansion in one neighborhood might look like a starter home in another.

4. Add McBurney: McBurney is a Hall of Fame coach. He won a 4A state title in 1996 at Tempe High School, his alma mater —and mine. His last season at Tempe in 2001, he took the Buffaloes to the 4A state semifinals. The team had 26 players. This was before 4A split into 4A-I and 4A-II, so the Buffaloes were playing against larger schools. I went to a playoff game that season, and I was surprised to hear some parents sniping about the coaching.

Tempe hasn’t done much of significance in football since.

Three stars of the week, brought to you by Arcadia Tavern.

1. Reyes Cortez of Maryvale won the 135-pound 5A-I wrestling title and became a three-time state champion.

2. Derek Felton of Corona del Sol won the 171-pound 5A-I championship, his second state title. He was state runner-up twice.

3. Former Basha star Sam Parlich, now with Arizona State, threw her second two-hit shutout.

(Previous Lists, click here!)