Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Tucson's Big Four has new identity

Not long ago, choosing the Southern Arizona high school football Coach of the Year was an uncomplicated process.

One of the Big Four would dominate the ballot: Howard Breinig at Sahuaro; Jeff Scurran at Sabino; Vern Friedli at Amphi; or Richard Sanchez at Sunnyside.

But the game has evolved in the last decade, and the suburban schools and their coaches, notably Ironwood Ridge’s Matt Johnson and Cienega’s Nemer Hassey, have joined Salpointe Catholic’s Dennis Bene in a clear shift of power.

The TUSD schools don’t have resources or the numbers to consistently compete with those blessed by such community support. But it doesn’t mean that skilled coaching can’t make up some of the deficit.

This year, you could surely vote Johnson and Hassey as Coach of the Year, 1A and 1B in any order, and you wouldn’t get much complaint. But this is one season the so-called small schools made up some ground. Here’s how I would vote:

1. Brandon Sanders, Pueblo. In his first year as Pueblo’s head coach, Sanders’ Warriors finished 7-3. It was Pueblo’s first winning season since 2002 and best record since 7-3 in 1999.

2. Mark Brunenkant, Flowing Wells. With only 33 players on his roster — Ironwood Ridge, by comparison, has 71 — Brunenkant went 7-3, rallying a program that had gone 3-17 the last two seasons.

3. Scott McKee, Sahuaro. The Cougars’ 9-1 regular-season record is the best at the school since 1995.

The others? Hassey long ago established himself as one of the state’s top coaches. In his final year as Cienega’s coach, Hassey was coming off his first non-winning season in 16 years. His only loss was a season-opening 17-7 setback at Ironwood Ridge. Hassey’s coaching acumen can be seen in senior QB Adriell Alvarado, who threw just one interception in 199 attempts.

Johnson, who coached Ironwood Ridge to the 2012 state championship, combined to beat power schools Cienega, Salpointe, Mountain View and CDO by a cumulative 79 points. The Nighthawks’ only loss was to 9-1 Peoria Liberty.

Given Hassey’s retirement, the new Big Four in Southern Arizona football is a tough call. Johnson and Bene are in, and it would be difficult not to include Sahuarita’s David Rodriguez, who has gone 34-8 after inheriting an 0-10 Mustangs team.

And it would be unwise not to think Scurran, who coached a sophomore-laden Catalina Foothills club to a 7-3 record with only 37 players, won’t be back on top in 2015.

Phil Mickelson won the Tucson Open in 1991, 1995 and 1996 but as the years went by, he became more known for bypassing the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at Dove Mountain in 2012, 2013 and 2014. He was back in town Saturday, debuting as the new owner of the Stone Canyon Club, an exclusive facility in the Tortolita Mountains that, in my opinion, is the top golf course in Southern Arizona. Mickelson saved Stone Canyon from serious financial woes. Want to join? It requires a $12,000 deposit. To his credit, Mickelson kept Mike Russell and Brent Newcomb on staff to run the daily operations at Stone Canyon.

Tucson Country Club golf pro Michael Haywood is one of three people on the final ballot to become Secretary of the Professional Golfers Association of America. The person elected to that position would then become President of the PGA in 2017. Ring a bell? PGA president Ted Bishop was forced to resign from his position last week after controversial social media posts connected to Ian Poulter. Haywood faces stiff competition to win the Nov. 28 election from 114 PGA voters. Suzy Whaley, a prominent pro from Connecticut who in 2003 became the first female in 50 years to qualify for a PGA Tour event, the Greater Hartford Open, is also on the ballot.

Jim Ferguson, who coached Santa Rita High School to state basketball championships in 1999 and 2009, was inducted into the Sahuaro High School Hall of Fame last week. He was Sahuaro’s point guard on its 1970 state title team and remains the only man to coach and play for a state basketball title team in Tucson the last 50 years. Unfortunately, his Sahuaro coach and mentor Dick McConnell, recovering from a hip injury, was not able to attend the ceremony.

After the AIA suspended Mountain View High School football coach Bam McRae for the year’s final game, MVHS released a one paragraph statement with no apology to senior Demetrius Flannigan, a University of Arizona verbal commit. It said, basically, “we move on.” The AIA found that McRae had improperly recruited Flannigan from Tucson High. Where’s the public apology to the student-athlete who paid the price for McRae’s irresponsible action?

It was good to see former Arizona athletic director Jim Livengood back at McKale Center last week. Among other things, he was given a tour of the new football and basketball facilities by his successor, Greg Byrne. Livengood had a good run at Arizona, 1994-2009 but was victimized by Lute Olson’s messy departure and the failure of former UA president Robert Shelton to support him in the crisis. A lot of people have forgotten that it was Livengood, not Byrne, who hired Sean Miller. Livengood, who maintains a home in Tucson, works as a consultant for college athletic departments.

The shelf life and value of the AP’s first basketball poll of the season is limited. A year ago, Kentucky opened No. 1 with eventual national champ UConn at No. 19 and Wisconsin at No. 20.

In Arizona’s four Final Four seasons, it opened No. 17 in 1987-88; No. 18 in 1993-94; No. 19 in 1996-97; and No. 1 in 2000-01.

The puzzling NBA career of former Arizona All-American Derrick Williams continues. The No. 2 overall pick in the 2011 draft did not get off the bench for the Sacramento Kings in Friday’s game against Portland — he is not injured — and played just 13 minutes in the Kings’ opener. Williams is being paid $6.3 million this year and is guaranteed $8.3 million next year.

Regina Mueller-Martin, one of the top gymnastics coaches in Arizona, will have two of her pupils sign letters-of-intent on Nov. 12. Catalina Foothills senior Corinne Belkoff will sign with Arizona State; Sahuaro senior Natasha Trejo will sign with BYU. Mueller-Martin, who operates Arizona Dynamics Gymnastics center in Tucson, earlier sent Amphi’s Kassandra Lopez to NCAA gymnastics power Utah.

CDO grad Ian Kinsler of the Detroit Tigers and Sabino grad J.J. Hardy of the Baltimore Orioles will learn Tuesday night if they are 2014 Gold Glove winners. ESPN2 will broadcast a special on baseball’s defensive awards at 5 p.m. Hardy, a back-to-back winner, had a .978 fielding percentage and just 13 errors in 141 games this season. White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez, one of three finalists, also had a .978 fielding percentage, with 15 errors. Kinsler, who has not won a Gold Glove, had his finest defensive year at second base: a .988 percentage with just nine errors in 160 games. That’s remarkable. But Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia is almost untouchable — he committed just two errors all season.

Pima College women’s basketball coach Todd Holthaus has the Aztecs, always a tough out, ranked No. 8 in the NJCAA Division II preseason poll. Last week, Holthaus had long-time UA assistant coach Jim Rosborough on campus to teach Pima the 1-3-1 zone defense that Arizona used in the 1990s.

UA baseball coach Andy Lopez has 10 more days until letters of intent are signed. He has six known commitments, among them local pitchers Jio Orozco of Salpointe and Sati Santa Cruz of Sahuarita. Lopez also has commitments from Max Wotell of Waxhaw, N.C., a top 100 prospect who was part of the USA Baseball 18-U team this summer, and lefty pitching standout Garvin Alston of Phoenix Mountain Pointe, whose father, also named Garvin Alston, is a pitching coach in the Oakland Athletics’ system. Alston is the starting QB of Mountain Pointe’s 8-2 football powerhouse, last year’s Division I state champions.

After playing in five preseason games for the San Antonio Spurs, Palo Verde grad Bryce Cotton was assigned to the D-League’s Austin Spurs. Cotton averaged 4.8 points and 1.4 points for San Antonio.

Pac-12 Arizona will televise a one-hour special on the 1986 Arizona-ASU football game — the Chuck Cecil, 106-yard interception game, won 34-17 by Arizona — Tuesday at 11 p.m. The game will be replayed periodically over the next two months. The Pac-12 was unable to interview Cecil or James DeBow for the “Classic.” DeBow’s tackle of ASU fullback Channing Williams at the 1-yard line remains one of the hallmark plays in UA football history.

For the first time, I had the opportunity to watch UA freshman Gabi Stoian, in Friday’s 2-1 soccer victory over Utah. She might be the top freshman on campus. Stoian scored both UA goals Friday, which gives her 12 for the season, second overall in the Pac-12. Do you realize how difficult it is to score 12 goals in the uber- talented Pac-12? The UA’s record is 19, set by former Salpointe Catholic star Mallory Miller in 2005, a record I thought was untouchable. Now Stoian is inching closer with two regular-season games and a potential NCAA playoff berth remaining.

The difference between a Top 10 NJCAA softball program and one of Arizona’s level in NCAA Division I was on display Tuesday night at Hillenbrand Stadium. As good as PCC coach Armando Quiroz’s team has been in recent years, Arizona swept Pima by a cumulative 23-2 in two games. No Arizona batter struck out in 56 plate appearances.

New Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale is in great demand in Tucson. Last week, he was a guest speaker at one of the UA’s final fall softball practices. He also has agreed to be an instructor at The Hills Baseball Club clinic Dec. 20-21 at Mehl Park. He’ll be joined by the Who’s Who of Tucson baseball: George Arias, Jack Howell, Terry Francona, Shelley Duncan and Jerry Stitt. The clinic, open to boys ages 8-16, will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Contact Blake Eager: 481-5792.

Pima College men’s basketball coach Brian Peabody, entering his second year in his second stint at the school, opens the season at home Monday at 7 p.m. against Planet Academy. Peabody’s busy off-season included driving his club to Hermosillo, Mexico, to play two exhibition games last week.

When you’ve won eight NCAA softball championships and an Olympic softball gold medal, you can sometimes become too self-important to laugh at yourself.

But that’s not the case with UA softball coach Mike Candrea.

On Friday, Halloween, Candrea dressed in a giant, yellow M&M’s costume, complete with a yellow fedora, and visited kids at Diamond Children’s Hospital.

He accompanied the UA softball team, also dressed in Halloween gear, room to room, helping to put smiles on the faces of some desperately ill children.

Candrea’s teams have been champions for 25 years. On Friday, it was plain (and peanuts) that it starts at the top.

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