Greg Hansen's top 10 athletes in Pima College history
- Updated
Softball player Ashley Monceaux, who was a Flowing Wells and Baylor University all-star, tops the list.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Editor’s note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today’s list: top 10 athletes in Pima College history.
Success in Pima College’s athletic program has never been identified by one sport. The Aztecs have been good at everything, especially soccer, softball, track, tennis, baseball and, in recent years, basketball and golf.
Much of that is because PCC has hired skilled coaches from the beginning, triggered by basketball’s Norm Patton and baseball’s Rich Alday and carried on by latter-day winners such as softball’s Stacy Iveson and soccer’s Kendra Veliz.
But because the PCC athletic experience is two years, tops, it has been difficult to identify a ranking legend or two. Now, almost 50 years since Pima debuted its first sports teams, it’s worth a look back.
One of the better stories of an elite Aztec ballplayer began innocently in Mexico City in 1991 when the late Larry Toledo, PCC’s Hall of Fame athletic director, was on a business trip. While in Mexico, he was told that a 6-foot 11-inch basketball player from Rosario, Sinaloa, hoped to attend an American junior college.
Toledo discovered that Horacio Llamas was friends with Pima sophomore basketball player Francisco Gomez. A few weeks later, Llamas rode a bus from Mexico City to Nogales, where Gomez and Aztecs coach Mike Lopez were waiting at the bus terminal.
Two years later, after he lost some weight and learned English, Llamas scored 52 points and grabbed 15 rebounds against NJCAA powerhouse Arizona Western College. He became an All-ACCAC center, averaging 21.4 points and 9.9 rebounds as a sophomore, bettering his freshman statistics of 15.4 points and 7.2 rebounds.
Llamas might not be the best basketball player in Pima history, but he is the only one to make an NBA roster, appearing in 28 games for the Phoenix Suns.
Here’s our list of the Top 10 athletes in Pima College history:
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
It’s difficult to imagine any Pima athlete, any sport, with a more productive two seasons than the Flowing Wells High and Baylor University all-star. Monceaux led the Aztecs to the 2004 NJCAA championship, 70-8 overall, with 79 RBI, as the league’s player of the year. She was better in ’05, hitting .501 with 21 homers and 82 RBI and a 26-5 record as a starting pitcher. She was a first-team NJCAA All-American.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The Aztecs are a perennial national soccer power and part of the reason is that it capitalizes on local talent like Rincon High’s Vu, who was a second team All-American in 2009 with 17 goals, and then a first-team All-American a year later with 15 goals as the Region 1 player of the year.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
His 1984 season might be the best in PCC’s long history of success; the shortstop from Sunnyside hit .492 with 19 home runs and 51 stolen bases. Even better, he had a 44-game hitting streak, stopped only when Central Arizona walked him purposely four times in succession. A year earlier, the Arizona State signee who was drafted by four MLB teams, hit .415 with 14 homers and 39 stolen bases as a first-team NJCAA All-American.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
After moving to Tucson from Cuba — she was born in Tucson — Perez became one of America’s leading triple-jumpers. Her NJCAA records from 2000 still stand after she won three national championships at Pima. She later won the USA Outdoor title in 2003 and competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics for Cuba.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
After leaving Sunnyside, the 6-5 forward averaged 24.2 points as a Pima freshman and 20.6 a year later, the ACCAC player of the year as he broke PCC’s career scoring record and became a second team NJCAA All-American who would start for Arizona two years later.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
When Pima won the 2006 NJCAA national championship, the catcher from Salpointe Catholic High School drove in a national-record 109 runs – 23 more than anyone else in JC softball – and hit .531 with 21 home runs. She won the ACCAC triple crowns.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The Palo Verde High School grad was a first-team NJCAA All-American point guard in 2016 and 2017, leading the Aztecs to the nation’s No. 3 finish as a freshman and to the NJCAA’s No. 1 ranking in ’17.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
After a standout basketball career at Sahuaro High, Levi became an elite-level discus thrower, winning the NJCAA title in 1982 and finishing second in 1981 for the Aztecs before becoming an All-American at Arizona.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The first Aztec to win an NJCAA national title, Urbano, of Sunnyside, won the 1981 championship at 150 pounds before he became a national champion at Arizona State.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
He became the NCAA Division II Player of the Year at Grand Canyon University.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Too many to count: baseball’s Gil Heredia went 15-1 as the Aztecs reached the NJCAA World Series championship game in 1985. Soccer’s Donny Toia, now a regular in the Major Soccer League, was an All-ACCAC standout in 2011. Softball pitcher Yvette Alvarez of Sahuarita pitched and hit PCC to NJCAA finishes of No. 3 and No. 4. Baseball catcher/pitcher Garrett Nago was 11-3 in 1980 as Pima reached the JC World Series; he hit .503 with 50 RBI.
Editor’s note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today’s list: top 10 athletes in Pima College history.
Success in Pima College’s athletic program has never been identified by one sport. The Aztecs have been good at everything, especially soccer, softball, track, tennis, baseball and, in recent years, basketball and golf.
Much of that is because PCC has hired skilled coaches from the beginning, triggered by basketball’s Norm Patton and baseball’s Rich Alday and carried on by latter-day winners such as softball’s Stacy Iveson and soccer’s Kendra Veliz.
But because the PCC athletic experience is two years, tops, it has been difficult to identify a ranking legend or two. Now, almost 50 years since Pima debuted its first sports teams, it’s worth a look back.
One of the better stories of an elite Aztec ballplayer began innocently in Mexico City in 1991 when the late Larry Toledo, PCC’s Hall of Fame athletic director, was on a business trip. While in Mexico, he was told that a 6-foot 11-inch basketball player from Rosario, Sinaloa, hoped to attend an American junior college.
Toledo discovered that Horacio Llamas was friends with Pima sophomore basketball player Francisco Gomez. A few weeks later, Llamas rode a bus from Mexico City to Nogales, where Gomez and Aztecs coach Mike Lopez were waiting at the bus terminal.
Two years later, after he lost some weight and learned English, Llamas scored 52 points and grabbed 15 rebounds against NJCAA powerhouse Arizona Western College. He became an All-ACCAC center, averaging 21.4 points and 9.9 rebounds as a sophomore, bettering his freshman statistics of 15.4 points and 7.2 rebounds.
Llamas might not be the best basketball player in Pima history, but he is the only one to make an NBA roster, appearing in 28 games for the Phoenix Suns.
Here’s our list of the Top 10 athletes in Pima College history:
It’s difficult to imagine any Pima athlete, any sport, with a more productive two seasons than the Flowing Wells High and Baylor University all-star. Monceaux led the Aztecs to the 2004 NJCAA championship, 70-8 overall, with 79 RBI, as the league’s player of the year. She was better in ’05, hitting .501 with 21 homers and 82 RBI and a 26-5 record as a starting pitcher. She was a first-team NJCAA All-American.
The Aztecs are a perennial national soccer power and part of the reason is that it capitalizes on local talent like Rincon High’s Vu, who was a second team All-American in 2009 with 17 goals, and then a first-team All-American a year later with 15 goals as the Region 1 player of the year.
His 1984 season might be the best in PCC’s long history of success; the shortstop from Sunnyside hit .492 with 19 home runs and 51 stolen bases. Even better, he had a 44-game hitting streak, stopped only when Central Arizona walked him purposely four times in succession. A year earlier, the Arizona State signee who was drafted by four MLB teams, hit .415 with 14 homers and 39 stolen bases as a first-team NJCAA All-American.
After moving to Tucson from Cuba — she was born in Tucson — Perez became one of America’s leading triple-jumpers. Her NJCAA records from 2000 still stand after she won three national championships at Pima. She later won the USA Outdoor title in 2003 and competed in the 2004 Athens Olympics for Cuba.
After leaving Sunnyside, the 6-5 forward averaged 24.2 points as a Pima freshman and 20.6 a year later, the ACCAC player of the year as he broke PCC’s career scoring record and became a second team NJCAA All-American who would start for Arizona two years later.
When Pima won the 2006 NJCAA national championship, the catcher from Salpointe Catholic High School drove in a national-record 109 runs – 23 more than anyone else in JC softball – and hit .531 with 21 home runs. She won the ACCAC triple crowns.
The Palo Verde High School grad was a first-team NJCAA All-American point guard in 2016 and 2017, leading the Aztecs to the nation’s No. 3 finish as a freshman and to the NJCAA’s No. 1 ranking in ’17.
After a standout basketball career at Sahuaro High, Levi became an elite-level discus thrower, winning the NJCAA title in 1982 and finishing second in 1981 for the Aztecs before becoming an All-American at Arizona.
The first Aztec to win an NJCAA national title, Urbano, of Sunnyside, won the 1981 championship at 150 pounds before he became a national champion at Arizona State.
He became the NCAA Division II Player of the Year at Grand Canyon University.
Too many to count: baseball’s Gil Heredia went 15-1 as the Aztecs reached the NJCAA World Series championship game in 1985. Soccer’s Donny Toia, now a regular in the Major Soccer League, was an All-ACCAC standout in 2011. Softball pitcher Yvette Alvarez of Sahuarita pitched and hit PCC to NJCAA finishes of No. 3 and No. 4. Baseball catcher/pitcher Garrett Nago was 11-3 in 1980 as Pima reached the JC World Series; he hit .503 with 50 RBI.
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