On the edge of the waterless Rillito River and in the shadow of the scenic Santa Catalina Mountains, Tucson has its own little beach.
Salpointe Catholic coach Heather Moore-Martin helped bring sand volleyball to the desert, at least at the high school level. The Lancers finished their debut season on Wednesday afternoon at Tucson Racquet and Fitness Club, their home venue.
Although the 3-2 loss to Buckeye Youngker closed out the year, Moore-Martin hopes it’s just the beginning of a new era on Southern Arizona.
“I hope we’re just going to step into sand volleyball and it’s just going to become part of what we do here and it won’t be such a foreign concept,” she said. “It’ll just become more available and the opportunity will be there for girls to experience volleyball in a different way.”
Seventeen schools in Arizona participate in the sport, which runs parallel with the rest of the outdoor spring activities. Each team sends out five teams of two players — think doubles tennis — to play best-of-three matches.
Shoes are optional, for both the players and spectators.
“I just bring my sandals to the court and I’m ready,” freshman Alanna Duarte said.
Duarte partnered with fellow freshman Peyton Lewis as Salpointe’s No. 1 duo, and they finished their season undefeated. They’ve both played indoor volleyball for some time but had never taken the sand until roughly a year ago.
“I think it’ll take off really quickly,” Duarte said. “I hope this starts something big.”
The 5-foot-4-inch Lewis is a setter when she plays the indoor game but does it all on the sand. She said she enjoys getting a chance to attack about 50 percent of the time.
“You have to run faster and it’s not a hard court, you don’t have shoes,” Lewis said “It makes you a lot more athletic and it increases your vertical (leap), which is really helpful.”
Moore-Martin believes the high school game could lead to more college scholarships for players. The UA, Arizona State and Grand Canyon make up three of the nation’s 39 Division I teams.
“We’ve got to give our kids this opportunity,” she said.
Immediately after Salpointe’s match Wednesday, Desert Sand Volleyball — a club team coached by Claire D’Amore — took the same courts for practice.
That, Moore-Martin said, is proof of how popular the Olympic sport has become. She hopes that other local schools in the area will begin to form teams of their own; Catalina Foothills, Sahuaro and Sierra Vista Buena have all shown interest.
Southern Arizona could one day form its own division in sand volleyball. If that happens, Moore-Martin might just get her own little beach on Salpointe’s campus.
“When we had our first sand match here, the very first day, it was one of the best days of my life,” she said. “It was really just so exciting to have those girls out here and to have the parents watching and just to be in this environment, looking at those mountains and blue sky. There’s nothing better.”
Parents want explanation about coach’s absence
Longtime Sahuaro baseball coach Mark Chandler is under investigation and being kept off the field. The reasons why, however, are unclear. Tucson Unified School District will not say what the investigation is for and whether Chandler, who coached the Cougars to the state semifinals a year ago, will be returning.
Parents of current players and some former players showed support of Chandler at Tuesday night’s TUSD board meeting, the Star’s Alexis Huicochea reported. Few details are available: Officials from both Sahuaro and TUSD declined comment.
With so few details available, we can only speculate. Perhaps the issue has to do with Sahuaro’s use of two ineligible players, which the school reported to the Arizona Interscholastic Association and forfeited all its wins as corrective action. But the item on the agenda for next week’s executive board meeting does not mention Chandler.
Dorados have another softball star in the making
Here’s a name to get familiar with over the next four years in Southern Arizona’s softball scene: Ellessa Bonstrom.
Sound familiar? She’s the younger sister of former CDO star Kayla Bonstrom, who now plays at Stanford.
Bonstrom, just a freshman with the Dorados, leads the team with 32 RBIs and 29 runs scored. She’s batting .462. In Tuesday’s game at Ironwood Ridge, she reached base five times. Her three runs scored — and a key triple — proved to be the difference as CDO won 10-7.
Amphi RB Anderson headed to NAIA school in Iowa
Amphitheater senior Dante Anderson, one of the state’s top rushers last season, plans on signing with Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, next week, Panthers coach Jorge Mendivil said.
The 5-foot-9-inch, 200-pound running back gained 1,723 yards rushing and scored 16 touchdowns in 10 games as a senior. His best outing came at Rio Rico, when he rushed for 380 yards and seven scores on 25 carries.
