The scoreboard at Toro Stadium lists all eight state football championships Mesa Mountain View has won over the years.

Nothing out of the ordinary there. Schools good enough to win a state title, especially when you almost need more than two hands to count them, should make it a very prominent item.

As a writer and an English teacher, however, there is one aspect to the list that caught my eye.

After each succeeding year there is a comma. Grammatically correct. No issues there.

But after the last one – 2002 – there is another comma with nothing but blue space after it until the red line at the far edge of the scoreboard.

The comma infers that there is something else to follow on the list. That’s a long pause. Going on 22 campaigns after last season.

When the comma was placed by the designer or administrator at the time, they probably didn’t think anything about it.

After all, the Toros had a run of four-big school state titles in seven seasons (1996, 1997, 1999, 2002) so I am guessing when that comma was placed the thinking was there was another one coming sometime soon.

And yet here it is 2025 and that comma is becoming more pronounced with each passing season.

The Toros almost added to it last year – finishing as the 6A state runner-up. Now, some will say how much does a 6A title mean with The Open removing the top big schools in the 6A playoffs.

That’s a conversation for another day.  

Right now, it is about Mountain View and that prominent comma, and if the Toros can ever add another season that list which dates back to 1978, considering how much the landscape has changed since 2002.

There was a time when Mountain View was the mecca of Arizona high school football.

Rosters were huge, the names were always familiar as the lineage seemingly went on for years. The wins piled up, region titles were commonplace, and state semifinal losses were considered not enough.

Toro Nation was the football program of the elite.

Then expansion happened. The East Valley grew. Families spread out. Schools popped up.

Since Mountain View won its last state title, 81 high schools have opened in Arizona and joined the Arizona Interscholastic Association, with 23 of those residing in the East Valley when Scottsdale and San Tan are lumped into that designation.

Not only that but open enrollment and the transfer rules have created several destination schools with most of those – Basha, Hamilton, Chandler, Mountain Pointe and now possibly Mesa at different times over the years – residing in the East Valley.

Throw in the explosion of charter schools such as the American Leadership Academies since 2009, and you understand why Toro Nation has fallen from its perch.

With that said it was hard to tell that was the case based on the atmosphere at Mountain View Friday night in a 23-22 loss to rival Red Mountain.

It was estimated about 4,500 total fans attended the game, and it was pretty special. It was a Homecoming game against their rival, so the senses were at a tilt.

Whether it was the great smelling burgers on the open flame grill, the section of Toros in the Mesa Sports Hall of Fame just inside the gate, the state-of-the art video scoreboard, or the player entrance through a blow up bull with smoke coming out its nose, it was a terrific scene.

And yet a program with the second largest enrollment in the state  – 3,333 –had a roster of only 51 players on varsity, according to MaxPreps.

So, something is amiss there.

In 2013, the MaxPreps roster listed 107, with 79 in 2016. Since then? There have been seven seasons where the roster has been 50 players or less at Mountain View. There was a time that was unfathomable.

Truth of the matter is it has been shrinking over the last decade. It may be one of the last programs that is truly a neighborhood school that takes pride in a roster made up of players from a feeder system.

“I love wearing this uniform and I am playing with guys I’ve been with since I was 8, 9, 10 years old,” Toros senior linebacker Cannon Raban said. “Other schools can take outsiders all they want. There’s something different about having your boys you’ve played with for years strap on a helmet and compete. There is nothing better that you can ask for.”

There seems to be momentum. There is total buy in by the principal, and the athletic director does a terrific job pushing out social media updates and schedules.

The facilities are on par with other East Valley schools and the support from the community is pretty strong.

Support has never been an issue at Mountain View as the Mesa community has long supported the Toros. (Jason P. Skoda/AZPreps365)And yet it is not a destination program and clearly it is not an overflowing roster like it once was back when coach Jesse Parker, Bernie Busken and Tom Joseph were winning state titles.

There are signs that the program is headed in the right direction. There was last year’s 12 win, runner-up finish that had them on the brink. The Toros played well in the loss in the Brown Rd. game against Red Mountain and will be a 6A contender again this year.

Third-year coach Andy Litten, who won a state title at Horizon, is building off what Joe Germaine did after some down years with the previous two coaches.

“It’s a program that had success before I got here,” Litten said. “I am proud of the kids. They buy in and they are a perfect fit for me. It’s a process and we are not where we need to be with depth. We don’t get a lot of transfers here for whatever reason. It’s a great school and community. If we can get the kids to stay here; we’ll be in good shape.”

There was a time when being in good shape wasn’t enough.

It had to be elite. It was Toro Nation. When there was enough confidence to leave a comma on the scoreboard. Insinuating another championship was near.

As one coach put it Friday night: “It’s not a period. It won’t be the last one.”

Litten is in place to do just that.

“The pressure here is always there,” Litten said. “They expect Mountain View to win and I want to be at a place that has that expectation. The community is really accepting and let you coach their kids hard. They love coaches that care.”