Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Byrne, staff worked hard to get 50K for UA opener

Greg Byrne worked the early shift last week, hitting the “Good Morning” TV shows, not succumbing to the notion that an Arizona-UNLV game encumbered by high school football and a getaway holiday weekend would leave 10,000 empty seats.

Under previous administrations, Arizona did what it could not to play at home on Labor Day weekend, which is often box office poison unless you are Alabama or Penn State.

When the UA’s athletic director went home Thursday, Arizona had sold 46,000 tickets. What more could he do?

He had made an unprecedented Ticket To Success summer tour, visiting a myriad of Southern Arizona businesses, from Raytheon, the Arizona Builders’ Alliance and Northwest Medical Center to trendy 21st century firms like Simpleview.

Those at Northwest Medical Center bought 16 season tickets after Byrne’s visit. Normally that number might’ve been zero.

But ticket sales seemed stalled at 46,000 in a city not known for walk-up purchases unless the opponent is USC or Oregon.

But on Friday, Arizona sold 4,000 tickets, boosting opening day attendance to 50,103, creating a big-game environment at Arizona Stadium. Zona Zoo was absolutely packed, at about 8,800. Security people actually had to stop admitting late-arriving Zona Zoo students because every seat was full.

Rich Rodriguez noticed.

“It was as good as I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” the Arizona coach said.

Byrne had mobile ticket sellers, equipped with computer gear, walking all of the tailgate areas on Friday. That’s a first at Arizona. He offered upper deck seats for $10 and end-zone seats for $17. His conference-low $99 season ticket package sold out, filling seats that are usually empty.

“Our platform is that every person, one by one, makes a difference, and that was evident tonight,” Byrne said late Friday. “We got the walk-up crowd we haven’t been getting for a few years.

The six remaining games on Arizona’s home schedule are more appealing than Friday’s opener. From 2004 to 2010, the Wildcats averaged more than 50,000 per season and then, poof, the market cooled.

Now, after a diligent marketing campaign, the UA seems to be in position to make football night at Arizona Stadium the place to be.

On Thursday, ASU drew just 52,133 against Weber State, leaving about 16,000 empty seats at Sun Devil Stadium. That was a negative variable for the nation’s 19th-ranked team, one that enters the season with a big-name quarterback, one whose coach openly talks about championships.

RichRod departed his postgame press conference a few minutes before midnight saying, “it’s another beautiful night in Tucson, Arizona.”

And this time it meant more than just beating up UNLV 58-13.

In June, when almost no one was watching, Sunnyside High School’s boys basketball team almost lived on Interstate 10.

Coach Rob Harrison’s squad went 25-4 playing against Phoenix-area summer league competition, driving more than 2,500 miles (and racking up zero hotel points) in a commitment to challenge for a state championship.

Harrison, who has won 38 games in two Sunnyside seasons, returns four of five starters from a team that took No. 1 playoff seed Salpointe into overtime last season.

Now he is taking it a step further: Sunnyside has scheduled Chartiers Valley High School, a Pittsburgh-area powerhouse coached by Tim McConnell, father of UA senior point guard T.J. McConnell.

Chartiers Valley, 25-3 last year, is led by Matty McConnell, T.J.’s brother, who averaged 22 points a game as a junior, including one game of 45. The Sunnyside game will be played a night before the McConnells and the Colts attend the UA-Michigan game at McKale Center.

Sunnyside hasn’t been a factor in the state tournament since Dwight Rees coached the Blue Devils to a 29-0 state championship in 1993. Harrison appears to be on a similar path.

Desert Christian baseball standout Zach Malis led the Eagles to the state championship in May, a 29-2 season in which Malis hit .636 with an 11-1 pitching record. In his three varsity seasons, Malis has 158 RBIs and 67 extra-base hits, which has attracted college scouts even though Desert Christian plays in Division IV. Malis has ended the suspense; he has accepted a (rare for baseball) full scholarship to play at Grand Canyon University after he completes his high school career in May.

Annie Chandler Grevers is one of the great swimmers in UA history, helping the Wildcats win the 2008 NCAA championship and winning the 2010 national title in the 100-yard breast stroke. She earned her UA degree in journalism, of all things, and served as managing editor of the Tombstone Epitaph, long a UA journalism project. She hasn’t let her writing skills diminish. She wrote the UA football preview in the current issue of Tucson Lifestyle magazine. Good stuff. She is married to UA volunteer swimming coach Matt Grevers, who is one of the world’s top swimmers and a multiple Olympic gold medalist.

Michael Thompson’s fourth year on the PGA Tour is complete. He will not qualify to play in any more events, but by finishing 102nd on the money list ($932,300) he will have full playing privileges for the 2014-15 season, which begins in October. The Rincon/University grad finished No. 13 in putting (strokes gained).

Nathan Lashley, a UA golf standout who completed his eligibility in 2004, had a good finish to his summer pro season. He finished third in the Colorado Open, earning $7,100 and second in last week’s Utah Open, earning $12,000. Now 31, Lashley’s parents and girlfriend were tragically killed in May 2004 in a private plane crash in Wyoming after they had flown to Bend, Oregon, to watch him play in the NCAA tournament.

The New York Jets last week released ex-Sunnyside tailback Michael Smith, a Utah State grad who spent the last two years with Tampa Bay.

The University of Arizona is spending in excess of $600,000 this year to provide additional meals, including a free morning brunch to all of its athletes, including walk-ons, at the Bear Down Kitchen inside the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility. You can imagine how popular it is. Senior golfer Alex McMahon, who won the Arizona Amateur two weeks ago, tweeted “just had my first free breakfast as a student!” Where was that when I was in school living on Cocoa Puffs?

I’m as mystified as anyone that Juron Criner’s NFL career is apparently at an end, stopped after two seasons and just 19 catches for the Oakland Raiders. Criner was a game-breaker, catching 209 passes for 2,859 yards and an Arizona-record 32 touchdowns. One thing about receivers, though, they are in abundance more than at any other position in college and pro football.

UA football coach Rich Rodriguez and offensive line coach Jim Michalczik were unable to watch the 2014 debut of their sons, quarterback Rhett Rodriguez and tight end/lineman Max Michalczik, both sophomore starters at Catalina Foothills on Friday night. They are two of nine sophomores who played significantly for Jeff Scurran’s team. Foothills attempted to switch the game to Thursday night to avoid a conflict with the UA-UNLV game, but Desert View chose to play on Friday. Foothills won 63-0. Scurran’s coaching staff includes former Cal and NAU running back Covaughn DeBoskie-Johnson, older brother of UA freshman receiver Kaelin DeBoskie.

UA baseball coach Andy Lopez attended the New York Yankees’ scout team scrimmage last week at Pima College. He had to like what he saw. The Yankees hired ex-Sahuarita High baseball coach Bryan Huie as a regional scout; he arranged to have the two top pitching prospects in Southern Arizona at the showcase: Salpointe’s Jio Orozco and Sahuarita’s Sati Santa Cruz. Both have committed to Arizona, and both were clocked at 90-plus mph at the scrimmage.

Good news for former 21-year UA softball assistant coach Larry Ray: He is back in coaching full time. Ray left Mike Candrea’s staff after a publicized domestic issue in 2012, spent 2013 as a volunteer coach at Nicholls State and has now been hired as the top assistant coach at Southern Utah University. Ray was also the head coach at Florida for four seasons.

In his second season as a manager of the Grand Junction Rockies, the Colorado Rockies’ rookie league affiliate, ex-Santa Rita baseball/football standout Anthony Sanders was named Pioneer League Manager of the Year on Saturday. The ex-Toronto Blue Jays outfielder, who signed a football scholarship as an Arizona quarterback in 1992, had led Grand Junction to 40 victories through Friday, tied for most in the league.

Abyee Maracigan, one of the top women’s basketball players in Tucson prep history at Flowing Wells, and later an All-American at Pima College, has joined Todd Holthaus’ PCC coaching staff for the 2014-15 season. She is a winner (and also a first grade teacher in the Flowing Wells district) after a college career at Idaho State.

From the Where Are They Now file: Chad Carvin, the Pac-10’s 1997 men’s Swimmer of the Year, and a 12-time Arizona All-American and 2000 Sidney Olympics silver medalist, is still a competitive open water swimmer in Los Angeles. He is in his ninth year as part of the Los Angeles County lifeguard services staff.

I wrote last week that Dave Liggins was the No. 7 all-time transfer in UA football history. After transferring from Cincinnati, Liggins left school in 1980 with 13 interceptions, then second in school history. He is recovering in his Ohio hometown from a kidney transplant. Liggins was defensive MVP of the 1979 Fiesta Bowl.

When Baseball America names its All-Arizona Rookie League team this week, Sahuaro High grad Alex Verdugo will be on it. He completed his first pro season No. 2 in league batting average .349; third in RBI, 33; first in doubles, 14; and second in on-base percentage, .923. He’ll now go to the Dodgers’ Fall Instructional League.

Arizona snapped 94 plays Friday night in setting a school record for yards (787) — and not once did a team operated by a freshman quarterback look lost or out of sync. It never looked winded, even though the game had 166 plays in a stadium that was 93 degrees at kickoff.

There’s a reason for it: Rich Rodriguez, if nothing else, is a master of practice and preparation. If he ever leaves coaching, he could make a fortune as a consultant for time management. I can’t imagine another team more effective.

The coordination and pace of UA’s daily practice sessions are an art. No wonder Arizona looked like it had played a game or two, and UNLV was in first-game mode.

In practice, the Wildcats are often getting four plays in a minute. Quarterbacks, six abreast, throw to receivers simultaneously, as if choreographed to the second. The players get more reps, at much higher speeds.

It’s all synchronized, packaged and memorized.

Scores of college football teams now “play fast,” a style of offense created by RichRod at small-school Glenville State 24 years ago.

But on Friday night at Arizona Stadium, you were watching the master at work.

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