Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Hard-nosed Chuck Cecil could help Wildcats re-establish tough-guy brand
- Updated
Star sports columnist Greg Hansen offers his opinion on recent sports news.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Of all the chatter to surface from the Pac-12’s football media session last week, one comment stuck:
“If you’re not at the brand-name schools, you get a master’s in learning how to deal with rejection.”
That was Rich Rodriguez essentially informing the college football world that Arizona is a nobody.
Such news would be a revelation to the late Larry Smith and to Dick Tomey, who for 20 years, 1981-2000, built a reputation — a brand — as the toughest football program in the Pac-10. Over those 20 years, Arizona had the No. 3 record in the league behind Washington and USC.
The Wildcats, often out-manned, and on NCAA probation from 1982-84, took on all comers: They beat a pair of No. 1 teams, played home-and-home series with Miami, Notre Dame, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, overturned the long domination by Arizona State and built an 8-0-1 streak over the Sun Devils. They were the first Pac-10 team smart enough to mine the rich vein of Polynesian football talent, and produced a series of game-changing players from Ricky Hunley to Chuck Cecil to Darryll Lewis to Tedy Bruschi to Chris McAlister, Max Zendejas and the B&E, Byron Evans.
The assistant coaching staffs were flush with rising stars and former head coaches like Chuck Stobart, Jim Young and Homer Smith, men who could’ve coached anywhere.
The brand created by Smith and Tomey ultimately vaporized during the John Mackovic years. Give Mike Stoops credit for building from scratch and becoming a tough out for a few years. But the UA is no longer a tough out in Pac-12 football. It no longer plays the big-name schools regularly. It has become soft.
In my opinion, only three Pac-12 football schools truly have a brand: USC, Stanford and Oregon. But I’ve never heard a coach in any Pac-12 sport, even those at remote Washington State, admit they are not among the chosen few.
It comes off as surrender.
After an offseason of change and uncertainty, RichRod has made a tangible move to restore Arizona’s edge. He hired Cecil to help with defensive analysis and player development.
So many of those who helped build Arizona’s reputation for 20 years — NFL coaches Tom Quinn and Jeff Hammerschmidt, and program-building players from the 1980s like Mike Freeman, Tony Neely, Jim Birmingham, David Adams, Jerry Beasley, John Kaiser and Claudius Wright — all responded with positive feedback on Cecil’s Facebook page.
A lot of people are putting faith in No. 6, believing — hoping — Cecil can help to restore the toughness that he helped establish.
That’s a lot on one man’s plate, especially when that man is 52 years old.
Cecil played his first game for Arizona in October 1984 as a kickoff coverage player against the Oregon Ducks. Cecil volunteered to be what he called the “wedgebuster,” taking on the middle of the Oregon kickoff team.
He told the Star: “I ain’t afraid of no wedge.”
Once again, 33 years later, Chuck Cecil has become a wedgebuster.
At the monthly Tucson City Golf Greens Committee meeting in June, city officials discussed the possibility of selling/closing Silverbell Golf Course.
On Friday, city officials went public with the possibility. They scheduled a “community workshop” to focus on the financial history of Tucson City Golf, specifically Silverbell. The meeting will be held Aug. 10 at 6 p.m. at the Tucson Police Department Westside Service Center, 1310 W. Miracle Mile.
This is not unexpected.
“We’re looking at the entire golf enterprise with an eye toward making it internally solvent,” City Councilman Steve Kozachik said. “While OB Sports is doing a great job turning things around, golf is still struggling to break into the black. A part of the discussion might well include right-sizing, which could involve the sale of a course.”
Almost all of Tucson’s open-to-the-public golf facilities are in financial trouble. Many generate more revenue in March than from mid-May to mid-October combined.
“We have to expect that it’s going to get worse,” Crooked Tree general manager Rich Mueller said.
Mueller is one of the few public golf operators who has found a niche. His facility, on North Thornydale Road, has two years remaining on its contract with Pima County. He hopes to renew the deal. Mueller has a geographical separation from the five city courses that promote steady play, even in the summer.
On Friday afternoons, Crooked Tree often gets 100 to 125 players for a two-man scramble followed by food and drink for just $25 or $35 a player. Even in the heat of the day, 100 golfers arrive. That doesn’t happen at the five city courses. They are ghost towns by 10 a.m. most days.
Crooked Tree, while far from the height of financial prowess, is an exception. This isn’t just the potential end for Silverbell, it’s perhaps the beginning of the end for more Southern Arizona golf courses.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
A public memorial — a celebration of life — for former Amphitheater High School football coach Vern Friedli will be held Aug. 5 at 3 p.m. inside the school’s gymnasium, the George Genung Activity Center.
It seems so appropriate. Friedli, who won a then-Arizona record 331 games over 36 Amphi football seasons, did his student teaching at Amphi in the early 1960s; Genung, the school’s Hall of Fame basketball coach, was Friedli’s supervising teacher.
Delton Orr, one of the players from dominant Panthers teams of the early 1980s, will speak at the service. He is a pastor at Faith Community Church. One of Freidli’s leading players, Ironwood Ridge state championship coach Matt Johnson, will also speak at the service.
On the day before Friedli’s death, at 80, he was visited in a Tucson hospice by former Amphi running back Jon Volpe, the player who probably most defined Friedli’s career. Volpe was a 5-foot -7-inch, never-give-an-inch tailback who was not recruited by Arizona. He went to Stanford and led the Pac-10 in rushing, gaining more than 1,000 yards.
“Jon sat next to Vern in the hospice for five hours one day,” said Sharon Friedli, Vern’s wife. “It was very touching.”
Amphitheater expects a large crowd and will have floor seating as well as handicapped seating and about 1,500 bleacher seats available.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
One of Tucson’s top golf events of August will be the Bob Gaona Memorial tournament, to be played Sunday, Aug. 27 at El Rio Golf Course. That’s the course at which Gaona, a self-taught 1959 state champion at Tucson High School, learned the game en route to the PGA Champions Tour. All proceeds from the event will be plugged into a bank account used expressly for Gaona’s widow, Eva, to pay mortgage and utility bills. The four-person scramble is $100 per person. Entry contact: rspikes@tucsoncitygolf.com
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Gavin Cohen won the 2016 state golf championship at Catalina Foothills High School and then signed a letter-of-intent to be part of Arizona’s incoming freshman class. On Friday at Ventana Canyon Golf Club, Cohen had the round of his young life. He shot an 11-under-par 61 to break the course record, set by former UA golfer Brandon Smith, then a pro at Ventana Canyon. Cohen saved a par on 17 and then came through in the clutch at No. 18, hitting his approach to within 7 feet and making the birdie putt for his 61, surely one of the top 10 or 20 rounds in Tucson history.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Struggling since 2015 to replace second-team All-Pac-12 punter Drew Riggleman, Arizona was able to “flip” Indiana-committed punter Cameron Braaton over the summer. Braaton was a soccer standout in his early teens, working out for the MLS San Jose Earthquakes. But he switched to football last year at ThunderRidge High near Denver and drew attention of a few FBS schools. He punted just 16 times as a high school kicker. …
Arizona’s career home run leader, Katiyana Mauga, went deep three times Friday in a National Pro Fastpitch game for the Scrap Yard Dawgs, a franchise based in Conroe, Texas. Mauga struggled early in the season but raised her batting average to .269 with her three-home-run game, giving her four in two games. Her 2017 UA teammates are struggling in the pros: USSSA Pride infielder Mo Mercado was hitting .182 through Friday and USSSA teammate Mandie Perez was at .214 through 18 starts. Pitcher Danielle O’Toole, who has split her summer between USA Softball and the NPF leagues, has a 4.20 ERA through three pro starts.
Under new general manager Steve Sullivan, the American Hockey League granted the Tucson Roadrunners a much-improved home schedule for 2017-18. If the Roadrunners stay in contention, they have April to themselves as a must-see sports entity in Tucson. They’ll play the defending AHL Calder Cup champions Grand Rapids Griffins at the TCC April 6-7 and finish the regular season April 13-14 at home against the San Diego Gulls. The home schedule also includes first-time-in-Tucson games against the Chicago Wolves (Jan. 26-27) and the Cleveland Monsters (Nov. 3-4). Sounds good.
NAU begins its football training camp Monday, preparing for its season opener at Arizona Stadium on Sept. 2. It’s possible that the Lumberjacks will start a linebacking crew with more Tucson roots than the Wildcats. Senior Byron Evans Jr., son of Arizona’s 1986 Pac-10 defensive player of the year; and Salpointe Catholic state championship linebackers Taylor Powell and Jake Casteel are projected as possible starters for NAU, picked No. 3 in the Big Sky Conference race last week.
The female basketball referee that loudmouth coach/celebrity LaVar Ball had removed from an AAU basketball game Friday in Las Vegas has worked dozens of Pima College women’s basketball games in the ACCAC. Mollie Mueller, who lives in Phoenix, has worked many junior college, small-college and Division I games in the Southwest and Southern California. Said Pima coach Todd Holthaus: “I’ve never had any issues with her.”
One of the most-anticipated games of the coming high school football season will be the way-too-early Aug. 18 opener pitting rising power Marana, 9-3 a year ago, against 9-3 Ironwood Ridge.
Expect every seat to be full at the Marana Tigers football facility.
The Nighthawks, led by 6-5, 260-pound college prospect Brayden Smith, who last week was invited to the made-for-TV Blue-Grey game in Tampa, Florida, on Jan. 6, will engage Andy Litten’s team. Marana is led by junior QB Trenton Bourguet and junior receiver Tariq Jordan, who are among the state’s best at what they do.
Part 1A of the Aug. 18 opening of the high school football season will be a rematch of the 2016 state championship game between Jeff Scurran‘s Catalina Foothills club and the seven-time state champion Scottsdale Saguaro powerhouse, 53-3 the last four seasons.
Scurran agreed to open the season a week early against the state’s most traditional power when he could’ve played a lower division puffball.
“We’ll learn right away what we have and what we don’t have,” said Scurran.
Gulp. Ready or not.
Of all the chatter to surface from the Pac-12’s football media session last week, one comment stuck:
“If you’re not at the brand-name schools, you get a master’s in learning how to deal with rejection.”
That was Rich Rodriguez essentially informing the college football world that Arizona is a nobody.
Such news would be a revelation to the late Larry Smith and to Dick Tomey, who for 20 years, 1981-2000, built a reputation — a brand — as the toughest football program in the Pac-10. Over those 20 years, Arizona had the No. 3 record in the league behind Washington and USC.
The Wildcats, often out-manned, and on NCAA probation from 1982-84, took on all comers: They beat a pair of No. 1 teams, played home-and-home series with Miami, Notre Dame, LSU, Ohio State, Oklahoma, overturned the long domination by Arizona State and built an 8-0-1 streak over the Sun Devils. They were the first Pac-10 team smart enough to mine the rich vein of Polynesian football talent, and produced a series of game-changing players from Ricky Hunley to Chuck Cecil to Darryll Lewis to Tedy Bruschi to Chris McAlister, Max Zendejas and the B&E, Byron Evans.
The assistant coaching staffs were flush with rising stars and former head coaches like Chuck Stobart, Jim Young and Homer Smith, men who could’ve coached anywhere.
The brand created by Smith and Tomey ultimately vaporized during the John Mackovic years. Give Mike Stoops credit for building from scratch and becoming a tough out for a few years. But the UA is no longer a tough out in Pac-12 football. It no longer plays the big-name schools regularly. It has become soft.
In my opinion, only three Pac-12 football schools truly have a brand: USC, Stanford and Oregon. But I’ve never heard a coach in any Pac-12 sport, even those at remote Washington State, admit they are not among the chosen few.
It comes off as surrender.
After an offseason of change and uncertainty, RichRod has made a tangible move to restore Arizona’s edge. He hired Cecil to help with defensive analysis and player development.
So many of those who helped build Arizona’s reputation for 20 years — NFL coaches Tom Quinn and Jeff Hammerschmidt, and program-building players from the 1980s like Mike Freeman, Tony Neely, Jim Birmingham, David Adams, Jerry Beasley, John Kaiser and Claudius Wright — all responded with positive feedback on Cecil’s Facebook page.
A lot of people are putting faith in No. 6, believing — hoping — Cecil can help to restore the toughness that he helped establish.
That’s a lot on one man’s plate, especially when that man is 52 years old.
Cecil played his first game for Arizona in October 1984 as a kickoff coverage player against the Oregon Ducks. Cecil volunteered to be what he called the “wedgebuster,” taking on the middle of the Oregon kickoff team.
He told the Star: “I ain’t afraid of no wedge.”
Once again, 33 years later, Chuck Cecil has become a wedgebuster.
At the monthly Tucson City Golf Greens Committee meeting in June, city officials discussed the possibility of selling/closing Silverbell Golf Course.
On Friday, city officials went public with the possibility. They scheduled a “community workshop” to focus on the financial history of Tucson City Golf, specifically Silverbell. The meeting will be held Aug. 10 at 6 p.m. at the Tucson Police Department Westside Service Center, 1310 W. Miracle Mile.
This is not unexpected.
“We’re looking at the entire golf enterprise with an eye toward making it internally solvent,” City Councilman Steve Kozachik said. “While OB Sports is doing a great job turning things around, golf is still struggling to break into the black. A part of the discussion might well include right-sizing, which could involve the sale of a course.”
Almost all of Tucson’s open-to-the-public golf facilities are in financial trouble. Many generate more revenue in March than from mid-May to mid-October combined.
“We have to expect that it’s going to get worse,” Crooked Tree general manager Rich Mueller said.
Mueller is one of the few public golf operators who has found a niche. His facility, on North Thornydale Road, has two years remaining on its contract with Pima County. He hopes to renew the deal. Mueller has a geographical separation from the five city courses that promote steady play, even in the summer.
On Friday afternoons, Crooked Tree often gets 100 to 125 players for a two-man scramble followed by food and drink for just $25 or $35 a player. Even in the heat of the day, 100 golfers arrive. That doesn’t happen at the five city courses. They are ghost towns by 10 a.m. most days.
Crooked Tree, while far from the height of financial prowess, is an exception. This isn’t just the potential end for Silverbell, it’s perhaps the beginning of the end for more Southern Arizona golf courses.
A public memorial — a celebration of life — for former Amphitheater High School football coach Vern Friedli will be held Aug. 5 at 3 p.m. inside the school’s gymnasium, the George Genung Activity Center.
It seems so appropriate. Friedli, who won a then-Arizona record 331 games over 36 Amphi football seasons, did his student teaching at Amphi in the early 1960s; Genung, the school’s Hall of Fame basketball coach, was Friedli’s supervising teacher.
Delton Orr, one of the players from dominant Panthers teams of the early 1980s, will speak at the service. He is a pastor at Faith Community Church. One of Freidli’s leading players, Ironwood Ridge state championship coach Matt Johnson, will also speak at the service.
On the day before Friedli’s death, at 80, he was visited in a Tucson hospice by former Amphi running back Jon Volpe, the player who probably most defined Friedli’s career. Volpe was a 5-foot -7-inch, never-give-an-inch tailback who was not recruited by Arizona. He went to Stanford and led the Pac-10 in rushing, gaining more than 1,000 yards.
“Jon sat next to Vern in the hospice for five hours one day,” said Sharon Friedli, Vern’s wife. “It was very touching.”
Amphitheater expects a large crowd and will have floor seating as well as handicapped seating and about 1,500 bleacher seats available.
One of Tucson’s top golf events of August will be the Bob Gaona Memorial tournament, to be played Sunday, Aug. 27 at El Rio Golf Course. That’s the course at which Gaona, a self-taught 1959 state champion at Tucson High School, learned the game en route to the PGA Champions Tour. All proceeds from the event will be plugged into a bank account used expressly for Gaona’s widow, Eva, to pay mortgage and utility bills. The four-person scramble is $100 per person. Entry contact: rspikes@tucsoncitygolf.com
Gavin Cohen won the 2016 state golf championship at Catalina Foothills High School and then signed a letter-of-intent to be part of Arizona’s incoming freshman class. On Friday at Ventana Canyon Golf Club, Cohen had the round of his young life. He shot an 11-under-par 61 to break the course record, set by former UA golfer Brandon Smith, then a pro at Ventana Canyon. Cohen saved a par on 17 and then came through in the clutch at No. 18, hitting his approach to within 7 feet and making the birdie putt for his 61, surely one of the top 10 or 20 rounds in Tucson history.
Struggling since 2015 to replace second-team All-Pac-12 punter Drew Riggleman, Arizona was able to “flip” Indiana-committed punter Cameron Braaton over the summer. Braaton was a soccer standout in his early teens, working out for the MLS San Jose Earthquakes. But he switched to football last year at ThunderRidge High near Denver and drew attention of a few FBS schools. He punted just 16 times as a high school kicker. …
Arizona’s career home run leader, Katiyana Mauga, went deep three times Friday in a National Pro Fastpitch game for the Scrap Yard Dawgs, a franchise based in Conroe, Texas. Mauga struggled early in the season but raised her batting average to .269 with her three-home-run game, giving her four in two games. Her 2017 UA teammates are struggling in the pros: USSSA Pride infielder Mo Mercado was hitting .182 through Friday and USSSA teammate Mandie Perez was at .214 through 18 starts. Pitcher Danielle O’Toole, who has split her summer between USA Softball and the NPF leagues, has a 4.20 ERA through three pro starts.
Under new general manager Steve Sullivan, the American Hockey League granted the Tucson Roadrunners a much-improved home schedule for 2017-18. If the Roadrunners stay in contention, they have April to themselves as a must-see sports entity in Tucson. They’ll play the defending AHL Calder Cup champions Grand Rapids Griffins at the TCC April 6-7 and finish the regular season April 13-14 at home against the San Diego Gulls. The home schedule also includes first-time-in-Tucson games against the Chicago Wolves (Jan. 26-27) and the Cleveland Monsters (Nov. 3-4). Sounds good.
NAU begins its football training camp Monday, preparing for its season opener at Arizona Stadium on Sept. 2. It’s possible that the Lumberjacks will start a linebacking crew with more Tucson roots than the Wildcats. Senior Byron Evans Jr., son of Arizona’s 1986 Pac-10 defensive player of the year; and Salpointe Catholic state championship linebackers Taylor Powell and Jake Casteel are projected as possible starters for NAU, picked No. 3 in the Big Sky Conference race last week.
The female basketball referee that loudmouth coach/celebrity LaVar Ball had removed from an AAU basketball game Friday in Las Vegas has worked dozens of Pima College women’s basketball games in the ACCAC. Mollie Mueller, who lives in Phoenix, has worked many junior college, small-college and Division I games in the Southwest and Southern California. Said Pima coach Todd Holthaus: “I’ve never had any issues with her.”
One of the most-anticipated games of the coming high school football season will be the way-too-early Aug. 18 opener pitting rising power Marana, 9-3 a year ago, against 9-3 Ironwood Ridge.
Expect every seat to be full at the Marana Tigers football facility.
The Nighthawks, led by 6-5, 260-pound college prospect Brayden Smith, who last week was invited to the made-for-TV Blue-Grey game in Tampa, Florida, on Jan. 6, will engage Andy Litten’s team. Marana is led by junior QB Trenton Bourguet and junior receiver Tariq Jordan, who are among the state’s best at what they do.
Part 1A of the Aug. 18 opening of the high school football season will be a rematch of the 2016 state championship game between Jeff Scurran‘s Catalina Foothills club and the seven-time state champion Scottsdale Saguaro powerhouse, 53-3 the last four seasons.
Scurran agreed to open the season a week early against the state’s most traditional power when he could’ve played a lower division puffball.
“We’ll learn right away what we have and what we don’t have,” said Scurran.
Gulp. Ready or not.
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