Paula Pyers left Santa Rita High School as the highest-scoring girls basketball player in Arizona history, with 2,082 points, a career record of 87-4, a state championship and the Arizonaβs player of the year award.
She was an achiever, not to be mistaken for overachiever. She was flat-out, get-it-done-and-go-home achiever.
βSometimes Iβm overbearing,β she told the Star during Santa Ritaβs perfect 28-0 run to the 1984 state title. βThere is no excuse for me to miss a foul shot or a jumpshot, and sometimes I think thereβs no excuse for my teammates not to do everything right.β
Girls high school basketball was a formative sport in Arizona in the early 1980s, and Pyers was ready for it. She played endless hours of hoops on her familyβs driveway, much of it against two older brothers β including Jim Pyers, who led the Eaglesβ boys basketball team to the 1979 state title game, leading the state with 24 points per game.
βWhen I got a little bit bloodied and a little bit down,β Pyers said during her induction speech to the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame in 2017, βmy mom stepped in.β
But mostly, Paula Pyers stepped up.
Her Santa Rita team returned just two starters for the 1983-84 season β Pyers and Diane Lindflott β but they didnβt pause to rebuild. Pyers scored 42 points on three occasions as the Eagles routinely won games by scores of 85-19, 81-35 and 86-32. A year earlier, she set Tucsonβs single-game scoring record with 50 points against Pueblo.
In the β80s, girls basketball was a spring sport in Arizona. The season began in March. Why? Because many school districts tried to save money on travel costs and other expenses so they wouldnβt have to rent two buses or hire two bus drivers β or two coaches β to operate a girls and boys basketball program simultaneously.
Indeed, Santa Rita boys basketball coach Dave Lynch coached the Eaglesβ boys and girls basketball programs for seven years. He was in the right place at the right time; the Pyers family became Tucsonβs No. 1 prep basketball family.
A 5-foot-5-inch point guard, Pyers was at her best during the β84 state playoffs, the leading scorer in victories against Tempe McClintock and rival Sabino in the championship game.
βWe were playing in McClintockβs backyard,β said Lynch. βBut once we got to play against Sabino, the fear and anxiety was over. We had played Sabino twice. There was no unknown.β
Lynch, a Chicago native who played college basketball at Xavier, initially moved to Tucson to be a teacher. A state handball champion, he ultimately became a coach when the girls and boys basketball coaching positions at Santa Rita became vacant.
Right time, right place.
Pyers was not offered a scholarship by Arizona in 1984. She signed to play at USC, then a two-time defending NCAA champion, turning down an offer from Army, of all schools. Thatβs because Pyers was an honors student with a vision of success far beyond basketball.
A four-year starter at USC who helped the Trojans to the 1987 Sweet 16, Pyers earned her degree in the schoolβs business entrepreneurship program. She then completed a law degree at SoCalβs Southwestern Law School. After one season of pro basketball in Switzerland, Pyers really stepped it up.
She worked in the front office for the Los Angeles Raiders, worked as a law clerk for the vast IMG sports agency firm and by the late 1990s became the general manager of a pro baseball team, the Mission Viejo Vigilantes, previously the Long Beach Barracudas. Her assistant GM was former Baltimore Orioles All-Star second baseman Bobby Grich.
Pyers ultimately got out of baseball and today is an executive for Apple Inc., in Northern California, the senior director of Appleβs Supply Chain in the consumer economics industry.
βI was fortunate to be at Santa Rita during a period when it had one of Tucsonβs best sports programs,β said Pyers. βCoach Lynch was just perfect.β
And so were the 28-0 Eagles of 1984.
