February may be the shortest month, but for sports fans it certainly isn't the cruelest. In just 28 days sports fans have a veritable cornucopia of delightful activities to feast upon: the Super Bowl, the NBA All-Star game, and, locally, high school guys and girls soccer playoffs.

This year we decided to add an extra element to our playoff coverage - the state championship through the eyes of the players. We've asked three local high school playoff teams - Catalina Foothills girls, Pueblo boys and Rincon/University girls - to document their week in pictures. Everything you see here belongs to the players and coaches. They took the pictures, wrote the captions and, we hope, had some fun with it all in the process. We asked the teams to send us new photos every day, so check back soon for the latest from the front lines.


Catalina Foothills girls, updated Feb. 16: Catalina Foothills defeated Flagstaff for the 4A championship Tuesday in Mesa, 8-1.

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Pueblo boys, Feb. 5: Phoenix Moon Valley 1, Pueblo 0: The Skyline Region's top seed advanced by making junior forward Erik Anderson's goal stand up. Anderson scored off a rebound from the box in the 10th minute to put Moon Valley in the semifinals. Pueblo ended the year 10-9-1.

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Rincon/University girls, Feb. 3: Coach Bridget Betterton's girls had a tough road to climb to start the 4A state playoffs, both literally and figuratively. Upon finishing third in the 4A Sonoran region, the Rangers learned they would have to travel to Flagstaff Coconino for the first round. Things got worse when their bus broke down on the way to Flagstaff, but the Rangers rebounded with a 1-0 win in the first round on Wednesday. The Rangers survived in the playoffs until Feb. 3, when a second-half goal doomed them at Cave Creek Cactus Shadows.

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