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By Nick Kosmider
Herald/Review
FLAGSTAFF — When Preston Saunders stepped off Loveless Field for the final time as a senior in 2003, he did so as one of the most prolific receivers in Buena High School history.
On Saturday he will begin his last season as a college football player on a slightly larger stage.
 Northern Arizona receiver and former Buena High star Preston Saunders hauls in a catch during a game last season. Saturday night, Saunders begins his senior season when the Lumberjacks take on 16th-ranked Arizona State. (Dean Hendrickson/NAU Media Relations) |
Saunders, who is entering his senior season as a wide receiver for the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, will travel with his team to Tempe on Saturday to take on No. 15 Arizona State.
“I am very excited to go play there,” Saunders said. “It’s a great atmosphere there; the fans are always crazy so it should be a lot of fun.”
Saunders was a two-year captain as a member of the Buena football team and finished his high school career with 83 receptions for 1,600 yards and 20 touchdowns.
His 44 receptions as a senior at Buena are a school record and he also tied a record for touchdowns in a single game with four.
Though he is in Flagstaff now, Saunders’ football journey has made him well-traveled.
After graduating from Buena in 2004 he attended New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, N.M., and had 15 catches for 200 yards and two touchdowns as a freshman.
Despite a productive first season, on the field Saunders was not long for Highlands. After his freshman year, the school dropped his major of criminal justice so he left.
Still hungry to play football, Saunders landed at Pima Community college in Tucson, but his experience there was not a good one.
A little more than half way through the season, Pima canceled the remainder of its season after losing many players to academic ineligibility.
“That was a really rough season for me,” Saunders said. “We had a lot of players and coaches quitting and it was just a bad situation.”
Faced with another setback, Saunders still had no thoughts of not being on a football field. Luckily for him, former NAU offensive coordinator Keeth Matheny liked what he saw and invited the receiver to Flagstaff.
After redshirting in 2006, Saunders saw action in 10 games last season for the Lumberjacks. He expects to be an integral part of the NAU passing attack this season.
“I have grown a lot since I got to NAU,” Saunders said. “It was hard at first to come here and start over, but we have grown as a team.”
He said he has made great strides as blocker and that his hands are much better than they were when he got to NAU.
Football has not been Saunders’ only priority during his time at Northern Arizona. Last May he graduated with his criminal justice degree.
“If the football thing doesn’t work out I plan to go into law enforcement; maybe working with the DEA or an agency like that,” he said.
His degree in hand, Saunders is excited for the upcoming season and his team’s potential.
He said his team has sights on a Big Sky Conference title.
“Our goal is to win the big one.”
With the persistence that he has shown throughout his college career, it would seem an ending only all too appropriate.
