Greg Hansen: Tucson's Immaculate Heart posts nearly spotless record with just five players

Almost every day during the winter of my senior year in high school, I would read all the stories in the Logan Herald-Journal’s two-page sports section. Once or twice a week I would see this headline:

CRANNEY SCORES 41

Or something close.

Preston High School is a small school just across the Idaho border from my hometown in Logan, Utah, yet Preston’s Doug Cranney got as much publicity in the Herald-Journal as anyone in those years, Wilt Chamberlain and any Utah State Aggie included.

CRANNEY BURIES MINICO

CRANNEY HITS GAME-WINNER

Since my school, Logan High, reached the Utah state championship game that year, getting much playing time, or even a spot on the roster, was exceedingly difficult. I used to think how much fun it would have been to go to a smaller school like Preston, and get your name in the paper, or score 20 against, say, Soda Springs or Blackfoot High School.

How tough could it be at a small school? Doug Cranney probably wasn’t any better than me.

A year later I was playing in an intramural game at Utah State and the Sigma Nus were lighting us up. Some guy scored what seemed to be 40 or 50 points and I wondered why he wasn’t playing for the Aggies or some other college.

Who is that guy, I asked?

“Doug Cranney.”

So when I walked into the Immaculate Heart High School gymnasium Tuesday night, I had suitable respect for the Class 1A Knights and their 20-3 season record, which included victories over Class 5A Carl Hayden, 3A Santa Rita and 2A Willcox.

I knew that Tom Danehy’s team had gone 24-5 a year ago, and that it was so dominant it had won games 33-1 and 62-4 — yes, 33-1 and 62-4 — and that it steamrolled Class 3A Catalina High 37-12.

I knew that Danehy’s two leading players, Emily Haynes and Grace Aroz, were the 2018 version of my old Doug Cranney.

But what really drew me to Tuesday’s game is that Immaculate Heart has just five players on the girls varsity roster.

Emily Haynes and her sister Catie. Therese Martin and her sister Sarah. And Aroz.

“Before the game, one of the referees asked me where the rest of our team was,” Emily said after a 57-12 victory over the Academy of Tucson. “I said ‘this is all of us.’”

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The Knights do not have a junior varsity team — the school only has 57 students — from which to fortify the roster. But to be accurate, two freshmen suited up Tuesday night and sat next to Danehy on the bench.

“I don’t want to run them off. I wouldn’t run anybody off,” said Danehy. “But they just joined us after Christmas. They are not varsity players. They are just getting started.”

So it remains the Knights’ Iron Five against the world, and the girls have embraced it.

“When we first learned we would only have five, it was like, ‘Whoa,’” said Aros. “But it works. We’ve got really good chemistry. We all know what each other is thinking.”

Even at the Class 1A level, you don’t just show up in November, roll the basketball onto the court and see how it goes. The Knights practiced five days a week from 9 a.m. to noon in June and played the travel ball circuit in Tucson and Phoenix the way 6A and 5A teams do.

“We take it seriously,” said Haynes, who is a point guard with skills to play at a much higher level. “We played (Class 5A) McClintock in a really close game (losing 36-31). We all take pride in this because Immaculate Heart hasn’t been good in sports for a long time. We think we’re better than last year.”

The only banner that hangs on a wall at the Immaculate Heart gymnasium is for the 2017 Knights girls basketball team, the Class 1A South champions. It is the only division title in school history, any sport.

Getting a second one will be difficult because Sells Baboquivari is also in the 1A South. The Warriors are 18-2 and will play at Immaculate Heart next week.

“Senior Day,” said Danehy. “Big game.”

How far can any team go with just five varsity players?

Nobody has fouled out in a conference game, although Haynes fouled out in a tournament showdown with 2A Scottsdale Prep. She has twice gone to halftime with four fouls, but says “when that happens, I just tell myself to buckle down. We can’t afford to lose anyone.”

A year ago, the Knights had 12 varsity players. Everything was routine at practice, But because the Iron Five Knights don’t have enough players to scrimmage this year, they often play the school’s boys team.

“Class 1A basketball is like NASCAR,” said Danehy. “It’s boring for 90 minutes and then, boom, you play a Native American team. And then it’s boring for another 90 minutes and, boom, you play a Mormon school. Those schools, the Native Americans and those with Mormon-based enrollments, take high school basketball very seriously.

“We will be seeing them next month in the playoffs.”

So far this season, the Iron Five has gone on the road to win in Elfrida, Willcox, Hayden, Bowie and Patagonia and other out-of-the-way precincts. You might think they will soon wear down.

“Actually, it’s fun to go on road trips in the van,” Aroz said with a smile. “With only five girls on the team, you get a whole row to yourself.”