– Mica Mountain's 2025 state championship football coach Pat Nugent will change directions in his long coaching career at Flowing Wells, Canyon del Oro, Pima College, Cienega and Mica Mountain to become the athletic director at Tanque Verde High School. Perhaps TVHS should hang a banner on the wall that reads "Home Of State Champions." Nugent joins 14-time state championship tennis coach (Catalina Foothills) Kristie Stevens, who is TVHS's communications director, and principal Amy Swiderski Cislak, who coached Canyon del Oro to three state softball championships, 2007-09. What's more, Stevens' husband, Mark Stevens, coached Catalina Foothills to the 2016 state softball championship, and Cislak's husband, Chad Cislak, pitched Sabino to the 1997 state baseball championships. Talk about a bed of success at Tanque Verde.
Mica Mountain head coach Pat Nugent holds the trophy after his team’s victory in the 4A football state championship on Dec. 6, 2024, in Tempe.
– Rob Refsnyder is the last remaining player on Arizona's 2012 NCAA championship baseball team still active in baseball. Refsnyder, a valued role player, was signed by the Seattle Mariners in the offseason to be a key right-handed bat and versatile outfielder, who can play both corner positions and first base. Refsnyder has played 10 seasons in the big leagues, but he's not too big to return to his alma mater. He left Seattle's spring training site last weekend to attend a Hi Corbett Field memorial service for the UA's 2012 pitching standout James Farris, who died last fall.
– Arizona's 2023-24 Pac-12 basketball player of the year, Caleb Love, was sent to the G League last week despite averaging 11.3 points for the Portland Trail Blazers. Love scored 25 and 27 points in his first two G League games with the Rip City Remix last week. The transaction means the Blazers chose not to rework Love's $565,000-a-year, two-way G League deal and give him a full NBA contract. Why demote a player who has contributed so well? The Blazers have an excess of shooting guards. Who doesn't? Plus, the Blazers are no one's idea of an NBA playoff contender, which enables them to keep Love on hold. The Remix have nine games remaining this season.
– Arizona freshman golfer Sara Vitasek last week shot a record 64 as Arizona finished second in the Westbrook Invitational in Phoenix. How good was that? It was the lowest score in UA women's golf history, beating the low (66) of All-Americans Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa. Vitasek, who opened the season slowly, shooting 81-84-75 last fall in the Folds of Honor Collegiate, followed her 64 with rounds of 76 and 69 to finish 11th overall last week. In 2017, Arizona's Haley Moore, a star of the UA's 2018 NCAA championship team, also shot a 64.
– Former Arizona all-conference catcher Austin Wells is expected to start for the Dominican Republic when the World Baseball Classic begins this week. Wells is the starting catcher for the New York Yankees. His Dominican ancestry comes from his mother's side, Michelle Fernandez Wells. Michelle was a gymnastics standout at Arizona in the early 1990s before twice tearing her ACL and transitioning to a graduate assistant coaching spot. After marrying UA starting outfielder Greg Wells, a key part of Arizona's 1992 Pac-10 championship team, Michelle was hired by the San Diego Padres and then Milwaukee Brewers to be a marketing director. Greg Wells is president of a real estate/investment firm in Las Vegas.
