While Centennial football brings in another marquee opponent this fall, Liberty is also getting into the game of scheduling out-of-state opponents in 2018.

The Coyotes will host Las Vegas megapower Bishop Gorman on Aug. 31. The Gaels are now a fixture in the national top 20 and have eclipsed their Nevada competition so thoroughly that they regularly schedule out-of-state heavyweights for all four of their non-region games.

Centennial now qualifies as a team with a national profile, having nearly defeated Long Beach Poly at home in 2015, and having stunned Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas 12-0 last fall.

"With the rise of our national exposure we have had a lot of teams reach out wanting to play us and travel to their place and such. This time around we had a lot of opportunities from all over the country," Centennial athletic director Brett Palmer stated in an email. "Coach Taylor always wants to play the best and when Gorman reached out it was a no brainer. Coach (Kenny) Sanchez does an amazing job up there and I think their success speaks for itself."

The Coyotes have only made one trip out of Arizona in their history. And that 2009 season opener against Reno McQueen at the University of Nevada was part of the Sollenberger Classic and funded by the AIA.

Because of the financial, academic and logistical burdens, Coach Richard Taylor has been in favor of getting big names to visit Centennial. In future years, a trip to another state may be possible.

"We are still discussing the possibility of going out of state next year. Going out of state is huge responsibility not only financially but logistically. We have always said that if we can get a team to travel to us than we will take it. Our biggest thing is that kids don’t miss school and we get to have a home game vs. a top team," Palmer stated.

On Sept. 14, Liberty will become the second Peoria Unified School District school to host a team from another state, when San Jose (Calif.) Leland visits.

Cactus is the only other PUSD school to play a team from another state, having traveled to suburban Los Angeles to face Bakersfield in 2012 during one of the annual day-long football festivals in Southern California.

After a couple seasons of batting around the idea, coach Mark Smith and athletic director Aaron Coughanour decided to go for it.

"Coach Smith and I have spoken about this for the last couple of years. There is quite a bit more that goes into planning and bringing in an out of state opponent versus scheduling a local opponent. Local opponents are scheduled through our region reps and out of state opponents are scheduled by the school," Coughanour stated in an email. "We have been open to traveling if it was the right situation."

While Leland — which finished 11-2 last season, like Liberty — may not be instantly familiar, the Chargers have a poignant tie to football in the Valley.