Basha High School football will open the 2026 season against Chandler on Saturday night, Aug. 29, at 7:30 in front of cameras, putting a nationally ranked rematch on the sport’s biggest available stage. The Bears return with 14 seniors committed to Division I colleges and the kind of profile that makes an opener feel bigger than a first game.
That is why the search around Basha vs Chandler football starts now: this is not just a local rivalry game, but a meeting of teams ranked No. 11 and No. 20 nationally, with Basha sitting No. 1 in The Arizona Republic’s preseason 6A rankings and Chandler No. 3. Basha also beat Chandler, 34-7, in last year’s state championship game, and Jake Rogers was at the center of it after going 21 of 27 for 304 yards, adding 37 rushing yards and a touchdown when he stepped in during the playoffs.
Rogers said the rematch should stay in the past. “Really, just put last year in the past,” he said, adding that Basha and Chandler are different teams now and that the game is a different year. That is the edge in this opener: the history is real, but neither side gets points for it on Aug. 29.
McDonald is pushing the same message even as people talk about Basha as a possible all-time great team. Asked whether this group belongs in that conversation, he said, “That’s for you guys to decide,” and added that the team does not talk about it and just wants to work hard. He said these players want to make a legacy for themselves, and that whatever ranking is assigned to them is what it is.
That urgency sits on top of a roster that has been building for years. Jake Hildebrand, Noah Roberts and Anitoni Tahi all started varsity as freshmen, and Basha captured its first Open state title a year later. If this team is going to join the short list of Arizona’s best, the math is simple: it would need to go 13-0 and win a second straight Open Division state title.
That is a tall ask in any season, and especially in one that opens with Chandler on national television. Basha can still turn the talk into something larger, but the first step is the same one every title team has to take: beat the opponent in front of it and keep the rest for later.
