Hansen's Sunday Notebook — Tucson 11 will go for gold at Olympics next month
- Updated
Star sports columnist Greg Hansen offers his opinion on recent sports news.
- Greg Hansen
The Tucson 11 for the Rio Olympics:
1. Sage Watson, hurdler, Canada. She grew up in Seven Persons, Alberta, near Medicine Hat. Population: about 200. She transferred from Florida State to Arizona when FSU’s hurdles coach left the school to coach at Georgia. Unfortunately, Watson won’t participate in the opening ceremonies in Rio on Aug. 5 because the Canadian Olympic Committee said it is too taxing for world-class athletes to stand idle in a stadium for a few hours. Watson’s first competition, the 400-meter hurdles, isn’t until 10 days after the opening ceremonies. Bad move.
- Greg Hansen
2. Alejandra Llaneza, golf, Mexico. Since Llaneza left the UA in 2011, she has struggled to be a regular on the LPGA Tour. This year she has earned $23,558, missing six consecutive cuts from February to April. She will represent Mexico; her longtime coach is Rafael Alarcon, who coached UA All-American Lorena Ochoa.
- Greg Hansen
3. Corben Sharrah, BMX, Tucson. When Corben was 10, his father, Jack, a nurse, built him a dirt BMX track in a lot adjacent to the family house near Amphitheater Middle School. Corben won the final of three berths on the U.S. Olympic team last month in stirring fashion, eliminating seven close contenders with a performance for a lifetime.
- Greg Hansen
4. Kevin Cordes, swimming, Arizona. Probably the only medal hopeful of the 11 Tucson-affiliated Olympians. The seven-time NCAA champion at Arizona is generally ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the 100 breast stroke and No. 3 in the 200 breast. He left Tucson last year to train in Singapore for former UA assistant coach Sergio Lopez, the new associate head coach at Auburn.
- Greg Hansen
5. Rafael Quintero, diving, Puerto Rico. The five-time UA All-American began his career as a gymnast in his native Puerto Rico. Some analysts believe he can be a serious medal threat in the 2020 Olympics.
- Greg Hansen
6. Tjasa Oder, swimming, Slovenia. The UA swimmer will participate in the 800 freestyle for her native Slovenia for the second time. She was 25th at the 2012 London Olympics.
- Greg Hansen
7. Bernard Lagat, track, Tucson. In his final tuneup for Rio, Lagat finished third in the Diamond League 5,000 meters Saturday in London, running 13 minutes 14.96 seconds. That was almost 15 seconds faster than Lagat’s stunning victory at the USA Olympic Trials. He is considered one of a handful of runners with a chance to finish behind England’s Mo Farah, the overwhelming 5,000 favorite.
- Greg Hansen
8. Ben Kanute, triathlon, Tucson. He moved from Illinois to attend school (he earned a 2014 degree in physiology at Arizona) and competed for the Tri-Cats, a UA club triathlon team.
- Greg Hansen
9. Brad Tandy, swimming, South Africa. He won the NCAA championship in the 50 freestyle at Arizona in 2014 and is among those favored to reach the Olympic finals (eight swimmers) in the event.
- Greg Hansen
10. Michael Meyer, swimming, South Africa. A three-time All-American at Arizona, Meyer made the South African team in the 400 individual medley. He’s a long shot to reach the semifinals (16 swimmers).
- Greg Hansen
11. Pau Tonnesen, decathlon, Spain. Arizona recruited Tonnesen from Mesa College, a late-bloomer after his high school track days in Tempe. He was second the 2015 NCAA finals and fourth this year. He has dual citizenship because his mother, Pilar, grew up in Spain; Tonnesen himself speaks fluent Spanish. He was 18th in the world championships last summer.
- Greg Hansen
In the last week, an LSU punter, a Montana running back, two Florida receivers, a USC cornerback and Arizona tackle Keenan Walker were either arrested, charged or cited by police in off-field incidents.
A relatively new website, arrestnation.com, has logged the arrests of college football players for the last five years. In that period, Washington State leads the nation with 31 such incidents, followed by Florida State’s 24, Georgia’s 22 and Texas A&M’s 21.
In the Pac-12, Wazzu’s embarrassing total of off-field discipline issues in that period is followed by Colorado’s 12, ASU’s nine and Oregon’s eight.
It’s not just fringe players, either. WSU’s all-league receiver Gabe Marks was arrested in February 2014 on suspicion of assault, frequenting a tavern as a minor, public intoxication and criminal trespass. After sitting out the ’14 season, Marks caught 104 balls for the Cougars last season.
In the Rich Rodriguez years, Arizona players Jordan Poland and Patrick Onwuasor have been dismissed from the team for police-related incidents. More notable players, such as Samajie Grant, Ka’Deem Carey and Jourdon Grandon, served suspensions for behavior-related incidents before returning to play.
The college football offseason is the most anxious time for a coaching staff. Each team has more than 100 players, young men from 18 to 22, spending three months with a lot of free time and not much supervision and no curfew.
Last week, to keep his players occupied, RichRod hired a Navy SEAL instructor to lead the Wildcats in a demanding series of physical exercises, most of it done outside in the heat of the day.
I’m guessing nobody stayed out late that night.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
When Ken Griffey Jr. is inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame on Sunday, he probably won’t mention the first home run he hit as a professional. It came June 18, 1987, against Gil Heredia, a Nogales, Arizona, pitcher who probably had the most remarkable two-year run in Tucson pitching history. Griffey homered off Heredia in the second game of the 1987 Northwest League season; Heredia pitched for the Everett Giants and Griffey, then 17, played for the rival Bellingham Mariners. When they were in the major leagues, Heredia and Griffey faced one another 12 times; Griffey got a single and a double and struck out three times. No homers. Heredia, now the pitching coach for the Diamondbacks’ Triple-A franchise in Reno, went 18-3 at Pima College, pitching the Aztecs to the NJCAA championship game, and 16-3 for Arizona, pitching the Wildcats to the 1986 College World Series title. …
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Pima College men’s basketball coach Brian Peabody won his most important recruiting battle of the offseason last week, signing 6-foot 8-inch Deion James, who left North Carolina A&T after his freshman season. Peabody said James, who averaged 21 points and 12 rebounds at Vail’s Empire High School in 2014-15, can play both forward positions for Pima, and even center. In North Carolina, James averaged just 1.3 points per game.
- Greg Hansen
Tucson High grad Jeremy Harden, who led Pima College to one of its most notable basketball seasons ever, finishing seventh in the NJCAA in 2010, has returned to Tucson after being on the Boise State coaching staff for three years. Harden will be the assistant coach for Matt Vargas at Tohono O’odham Community College. Before leaving Tucson, Harden was the head coach at Immaculate Heart High School for two seasons
Tucson Athlete of the Week: Frank Deutsch (not featured in the photo above) is 73 years old, retired from a career as a home builder and even a musician. He is a two-time cancer survivor, including a recent fight with prostate cancer, which forced him to give up golf for several months. But last Monday at Dell Urich Golf Course, Deutsch, currently a 12-handicap who grew up in Pittsburgh before becoming a Tucsonan, shot a remarkable 2-under-par 68, shooting his age by five years with a remarkable 33-35. It was the best score of Deutsch’s golfing life. Never say never, right?
- Greg Hansen
When former Arizona shooting guard Gabe York signed with Italy’s Vanoli Cremona last week, it put him in the same backcourt with Sean Miller’s top Xavier product, Tu Holloway. It also put him in the same league with Ndudi Ebi, who was Arizona’s top recruit in 2003. Ebi played briefly for the Minnesota Timberwolves and has since played for 16 overseas basketball teams from Egypt to China to Spain and Israel.
- Greg Hansen
If you had a chance to watch incoming 7-foot UA freshman Lauri Markkanen in the European U-20 championships last week, you probably had the same reaction I had: I can’t recall a more talented offensive player entering his UA freshman season. He is a better prospect than former Utah center Jakob Poeltl, with shooting range (and versatility) to 20 feet and the ability to beat a defender off the dribble with either hand. What remains to be seen is if Markkanen will have much freedom in Miller’s offensive structure
- Greg Hansen
In his exhausting July pursuit of recruits during the NCAA’s final evaluation period, Sean Miller benefited by being part of the USA Youth Coaches Clinic in Las Vegas. He spoke to hundreds of AAU and high school coaches last week at UNLV. Others asked to speak included Villanova’s Jay Wright, Providence’s Ed Cooley and the Boston Celtics’ Brad Stevens.
While researching a column in the Star’s Top 100 series on the greatest sports moments in Tucson history, I learned that former UA outfielder Dave Shermet still has the baseball from his epic walk-off home run that triggered Arizona’s 1986 College World Series championship. Shermet hit a bottom-of-the-ninth homer to beat Maine in the 1986 opener, the final blow in overcoming a 7-0 deficit. I asked Shermet if he had the ball. He said he wasn’t sure but would look for it. A day later he said “unbelievable, but I found the ball in a box in the closet.” Shermet, who lives in Laguna Beach, California, spent more than 20 years as a cruise director on some of the world’s largest cruise ships
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
The Arizona High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame last week inducted five new members. None from Tucson. In fact, the group hasn’t inducted a Tucson coach since 2006, when ex-Sahuaro football coach Howard Breinig (pictured above) was rightfully selected. Only 15 coaches in Tucson history are in the Hall of Fame. No Jeff Scurran. No Richard Sanchez. No Bobby DeBerry. No Wolfgang Weber. The logjam of deserving coaches goes on and on. How does this happen? The 15 executive committee members are all from the greater Phoenix area. Sad
- Greg Hansen
The Tucson Roadrunners will not play a preseason exhibition game at the TCC before opening their inaugural season in the American Hockey League, which means there will be no game against the Arizona Coyotes. The Roadrunners will play preseason games at San Jose and Stockton on October 6-7 and are likely to open at the TCC in either of the next two weekends. It would not be good for them to open Friday, Oct. 14, when the UA’s Red-Blue basketball scrimmage will be played at McKale Center.
- Greg Hansen
In figures I obtained for the 2015-16 fiscal year, the Tucson City Golf operation at five courses reduced its yearly net operating deficit to roughly $49,000.
The courses only made a net profit in November, January, February, March and April, with a high of $298,000 in February. Worst month: September, when a monthly-low gross profit of $363,000 was offset by $814,000 in expenses, much of it on the overseeding process.
The most telling number: 226,534 rounds of golf were played in the fiscal year. Three years earlier, 2012-13, when Tucson City Golf ached for change, both in management and upkeep, 224,200 rounds were played.
The game has barely grown even though OB Sports, which operates the five courses, has significantly improved the experience and the conditions at all but the long-suffering Silverbell Golf Course.
- Greg Hansen
The Tucson 11 for the Rio Olympics:
1. Sage Watson, hurdler, Canada. She grew up in Seven Persons, Alberta, near Medicine Hat. Population: about 200. She transferred from Florida State to Arizona when FSU’s hurdles coach left the school to coach at Georgia. Unfortunately, Watson won’t participate in the opening ceremonies in Rio on Aug. 5 because the Canadian Olympic Committee said it is too taxing for world-class athletes to stand idle in a stadium for a few hours. Watson’s first competition, the 400-meter hurdles, isn’t until 10 days after the opening ceremonies. Bad move.
- Greg Hansen
2. Alejandra Llaneza, golf, Mexico. Since Llaneza left the UA in 2011, she has struggled to be a regular on the LPGA Tour. This year she has earned $23,558, missing six consecutive cuts from February to April. She will represent Mexico; her longtime coach is Rafael Alarcon, who coached UA All-American Lorena Ochoa.
- Greg Hansen
3. Corben Sharrah, BMX, Tucson. When Corben was 10, his father, Jack, a nurse, built him a dirt BMX track in a lot adjacent to the family house near Amphitheater Middle School. Corben won the final of three berths on the U.S. Olympic team last month in stirring fashion, eliminating seven close contenders with a performance for a lifetime.
- Greg Hansen
4. Kevin Cordes, swimming, Arizona. Probably the only medal hopeful of the 11 Tucson-affiliated Olympians. The seven-time NCAA champion at Arizona is generally ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the 100 breast stroke and No. 3 in the 200 breast. He left Tucson last year to train in Singapore for former UA assistant coach Sergio Lopez, the new associate head coach at Auburn.
- Greg Hansen
5. Rafael Quintero, diving, Puerto Rico. The five-time UA All-American began his career as a gymnast in his native Puerto Rico. Some analysts believe he can be a serious medal threat in the 2020 Olympics.
- Greg Hansen
7. Bernard Lagat, track, Tucson. In his final tuneup for Rio, Lagat finished third in the Diamond League 5,000 meters Saturday in London, running 13 minutes 14.96 seconds. That was almost 15 seconds faster than Lagat’s stunning victory at the USA Olympic Trials. He is considered one of a handful of runners with a chance to finish behind England’s Mo Farah, the overwhelming 5,000 favorite.
- Greg Hansen
10. Michael Meyer, swimming, South Africa. A three-time All-American at Arizona, Meyer made the South African team in the 400 individual medley. He’s a long shot to reach the semifinals (16 swimmers).
- Greg Hansen
11. Pau Tonnesen, decathlon, Spain. Arizona recruited Tonnesen from Mesa College, a late-bloomer after his high school track days in Tempe. He was second the 2015 NCAA finals and fourth this year. He has dual citizenship because his mother, Pilar, grew up in Spain; Tonnesen himself speaks fluent Spanish. He was 18th in the world championships last summer.
- Greg Hansen
In the last week, an LSU punter, a Montana running back, two Florida receivers, a USC cornerback and Arizona tackle Keenan Walker were either arrested, charged or cited by police in off-field incidents.
A relatively new website, arrestnation.com, has logged the arrests of college football players for the last five years. In that period, Washington State leads the nation with 31 such incidents, followed by Florida State’s 24, Georgia’s 22 and Texas A&M’s 21.
In the Pac-12, Wazzu’s embarrassing total of off-field discipline issues in that period is followed by Colorado’s 12, ASU’s nine and Oregon’s eight.
It’s not just fringe players, either. WSU’s all-league receiver Gabe Marks was arrested in February 2014 on suspicion of assault, frequenting a tavern as a minor, public intoxication and criminal trespass. After sitting out the ’14 season, Marks caught 104 balls for the Cougars last season.
In the Rich Rodriguez years, Arizona players Jordan Poland and Patrick Onwuasor have been dismissed from the team for police-related incidents. More notable players, such as Samajie Grant, Ka’Deem Carey and Jourdon Grandon, served suspensions for behavior-related incidents before returning to play.
The college football offseason is the most anxious time for a coaching staff. Each team has more than 100 players, young men from 18 to 22, spending three months with a lot of free time and not much supervision and no curfew.
Last week, to keep his players occupied, RichRod hired a Navy SEAL instructor to lead the Wildcats in a demanding series of physical exercises, most of it done outside in the heat of the day.
I’m guessing nobody stayed out late that night.
- Greg Hansen
When Ken Griffey Jr. is inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame on Sunday, he probably won’t mention the first home run he hit as a professional. It came June 18, 1987, against Gil Heredia, a Nogales, Arizona, pitcher who probably had the most remarkable two-year run in Tucson pitching history. Griffey homered off Heredia in the second game of the 1987 Northwest League season; Heredia pitched for the Everett Giants and Griffey, then 17, played for the rival Bellingham Mariners. When they were in the major leagues, Heredia and Griffey faced one another 12 times; Griffey got a single and a double and struck out three times. No homers. Heredia, now the pitching coach for the Diamondbacks’ Triple-A franchise in Reno, went 18-3 at Pima College, pitching the Aztecs to the NJCAA championship game, and 16-3 for Arizona, pitching the Wildcats to the 1986 College World Series title. …
- Greg Hansen
Pima College men’s basketball coach Brian Peabody won his most important recruiting battle of the offseason last week, signing 6-foot 8-inch Deion James, who left North Carolina A&T after his freshman season. Peabody said James, who averaged 21 points and 12 rebounds at Vail’s Empire High School in 2014-15, can play both forward positions for Pima, and even center. In North Carolina, James averaged just 1.3 points per game.
- Greg Hansen
Tucson High grad Jeremy Harden, who led Pima College to one of its most notable basketball seasons ever, finishing seventh in the NJCAA in 2010, has returned to Tucson after being on the Boise State coaching staff for three years. Harden will be the assistant coach for Matt Vargas at Tohono O’odham Community College. Before leaving Tucson, Harden was the head coach at Immaculate Heart High School for two seasons
Tucson Athlete of the Week: Frank Deutsch (not featured in the photo above) is 73 years old, retired from a career as a home builder and even a musician. He is a two-time cancer survivor, including a recent fight with prostate cancer, which forced him to give up golf for several months. But last Monday at Dell Urich Golf Course, Deutsch, currently a 12-handicap who grew up in Pittsburgh before becoming a Tucsonan, shot a remarkable 2-under-par 68, shooting his age by five years with a remarkable 33-35. It was the best score of Deutsch’s golfing life. Never say never, right?
- Greg Hansen
When former Arizona shooting guard Gabe York signed with Italy’s Vanoli Cremona last week, it put him in the same backcourt with Sean Miller’s top Xavier product, Tu Holloway. It also put him in the same league with Ndudi Ebi, who was Arizona’s top recruit in 2003. Ebi played briefly for the Minnesota Timberwolves and has since played for 16 overseas basketball teams from Egypt to China to Spain and Israel.
- Greg Hansen
If you had a chance to watch incoming 7-foot UA freshman Lauri Markkanen in the European U-20 championships last week, you probably had the same reaction I had: I can’t recall a more talented offensive player entering his UA freshman season. He is a better prospect than former Utah center Jakob Poeltl, with shooting range (and versatility) to 20 feet and the ability to beat a defender off the dribble with either hand. What remains to be seen is if Markkanen will have much freedom in Miller’s offensive structure
- Greg Hansen
In his exhausting July pursuit of recruits during the NCAA’s final evaluation period, Sean Miller benefited by being part of the USA Youth Coaches Clinic in Las Vegas. He spoke to hundreds of AAU and high school coaches last week at UNLV. Others asked to speak included Villanova’s Jay Wright, Providence’s Ed Cooley and the Boston Celtics’ Brad Stevens.
While researching a column in the Star’s Top 100 series on the greatest sports moments in Tucson history, I learned that former UA outfielder Dave Shermet still has the baseball from his epic walk-off home run that triggered Arizona’s 1986 College World Series championship. Shermet hit a bottom-of-the-ninth homer to beat Maine in the 1986 opener, the final blow in overcoming a 7-0 deficit. I asked Shermet if he had the ball. He said he wasn’t sure but would look for it. A day later he said “unbelievable, but I found the ball in a box in the closet.” Shermet, who lives in Laguna Beach, California, spent more than 20 years as a cruise director on some of the world’s largest cruise ships
- Greg Hansen
The Arizona High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame last week inducted five new members. None from Tucson. In fact, the group hasn’t inducted a Tucson coach since 2006, when ex-Sahuaro football coach Howard Breinig (pictured above) was rightfully selected. Only 15 coaches in Tucson history are in the Hall of Fame. No Jeff Scurran. No Richard Sanchez. No Bobby DeBerry. No Wolfgang Weber. The logjam of deserving coaches goes on and on. How does this happen? The 15 executive committee members are all from the greater Phoenix area. Sad
- Greg Hansen
The Tucson Roadrunners will not play a preseason exhibition game at the TCC before opening their inaugural season in the American Hockey League, which means there will be no game against the Arizona Coyotes. The Roadrunners will play preseason games at San Jose and Stockton on October 6-7 and are likely to open at the TCC in either of the next two weekends. It would not be good for them to open Friday, Oct. 14, when the UA’s Red-Blue basketball scrimmage will be played at McKale Center.
- Greg Hansen
In figures I obtained for the 2015-16 fiscal year, the Tucson City Golf operation at five courses reduced its yearly net operating deficit to roughly $49,000.
The courses only made a net profit in November, January, February, March and April, with a high of $298,000 in February. Worst month: September, when a monthly-low gross profit of $363,000 was offset by $814,000 in expenses, much of it on the overseeding process.
The most telling number: 226,534 rounds of golf were played in the fiscal year. Three years earlier, 2012-13, when Tucson City Golf ached for change, both in management and upkeep, 224,200 rounds were played.
The game has barely grown even though OB Sports, which operates the five courses, has significantly improved the experience and the conditions at all but the long-suffering Silverbell Golf Course.
View this profile on Instagram#ThisIsTucson 🌵 (@this_is_tucson) • Instagram photos and videos
Most viewed stories
-
Cheer on the Wildcats in the Final Four at these local restaurants and bars 🐻⬇️
-
Over 30 fun events happening in Tucson March 27-29!
-
Over 70 fun events happening in Tucson in April 🎡🐰
-
New Eats! 20 new restaurants that opened up in Tucson this winter 🍽️
-
5 basement bars and speakeasies to visit when you want a fun drink and cool AC
-
Bloomfest celebrates palo verde blooms and Tucson culture
-
Vintage band tees take center stage at Tucson’s new shop Almandel
-
Over 40 exciting events to check out this weekend! 🌱
-
OaxaRico opened their first brick-and-mortar, serving up delicious mole and gorditas