Richard Obert
Richard Obert gives Arizona high school sports deep, consistent coverage, using long familiarity with the beat to turn games and seasons into ongoing storylines. He is the high school sports insider for The Arizona Republic, with a focus on Arizona high school football, Grand Canyon University athletics and the Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers. His reporting blends game results, weekend roundups, schedules and picks, vote-driven player lists and human-interest pieces about athletes and programs, creating a comprehensive view of Arizona’s prep football scene.
Arizona high school football rewind and what we learned
Obert uses “rewind” and “what we learned” formats to gather the biggest storylines from each weekend of Arizona high school football. In pieces such as “Arizona high school football rewind. Liberty, Centennial make statements,” he highlights statement wins and explains why certain results matter beyond the final score.
He follows how teams are “making move up” and how open divisions like the Open and 6A are “wide open at midseason,” showing how positioning and momentum change over the course of the year. Multiple recent roundups titled “What we learned in Arizona high school football games on Oct. 1-2” and “Here’s what we learned in Arizona high school football, Sept. 17-18” frame his coverage around takeaways, giving readers clear conclusions from dense slates of games.
He has been covering high school sports for The Arizona Republic since the 1980s, and he continues to anchor the paper’s high school football coverage with that tenure.
Vote-driven player lists and standout performers
Obert regularly publishes “Vote” packages that invite readers to select top Arizona high school football performers, players and defensive standouts. Recent headlines include “Vote.
Republic’s top 20 Arizona HS football defensive players,” “Vote. Top 20 Arizona high school football players, Sept 17-18,” “Vote. Top Arizona high school football players, Sept. 10-12,” “Vote.
Top 20 Arizona high school football players, Sept. 24-26,” and “Vote. Top Arizona high school football performers, Sept. 3-4.”
Across these pieces he builds selected lists of standout players tied to specific game weekends, keeping attention on emerging stars and big performances as the season unfolds. The recurring “Vote” framing makes audience participation part of his coverage, turning player recognition into an interactive feature rather than a static ranking.
Alongside these player-focused packages, he also produces voting pieces on topics such as the top Arizona high school football stadiums, extending the ballot format to the environments and traditions around the games.
Schedules, picks and the weekly slate
Obert covers the weekly high school football slate through schedule and picks columns that function as a guide to upcoming games.
In articles like “Chaparral, Tempe, highlight HS football schedule. Republic’s picks” and “Basha-Liberty tops Arizona HS football slate. Republic picks winners,” he lays out game schedules and names his predicted favorites. One schedule piece explicitly notes that “The Republic’s Richard Obert picks the favorites in capital letters,” underscoring that these are personal picks attached to his byline.
By combining full schedules with clear predictions, these articles give readers a practical roadmap for following the week’s action while signaling which matchups and teams he views as most consequential.
Human-interest and adversity in prep sports
Beyond scores and rankings, Obert’s work emphasizes the human side of high school sports, including adversity, loss and resilience. His coverage of Deer Valley High football mourning the death of a 16-year-old player shows him reporting on grief and community response within a prep program, not just the impact on the football field. His staff bio describes him as “rooted in telling compelling stories that go beyond the sports arena” and highlights his focus on stories about conquering odds and athletes overcoming adversity.
That emphasis on feel-good and relatable narratives runs through his high school coverage, where teams making a move up and divisions remaining wide open are treated as arcs with emotional stakes, not just standings updates. Alongside his primary high school beat, his role includes coverage of Grand Canyon University athletics and the Arizona Rattlers, extending that storytelling lens to college and professional-adjacent teams connected to the same regional sports ecosystem.
Across these formats, Obert functions as The Arizona Republic’s central guide to Arizona high school football, combining decades on the beat with reporting that keeps players, teams and communities at the center of the story.
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