Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Catalina High keeps positive outlook; Jedd Fisch's recruiting class one for the books

The Star columnist shares why the Trojans can keep their heads up high, how UA football is headed in the right direction and a new villain for Wildcat fans.

Resilient Catalina keeps pushing forward

I walked into the gymnasium at Catalina High School early Friday evening expecting the worst. My mood was somewhere between compassion and apprehension.

A week earlier, the Trojans lost a boys basketball game 76-0 to Sabino. It was the first time in state history, more than 100 years, that a boys basketball team had not scored a point in an official game.

By the time coach Mark Gaxiola’s undersized team lined up for tipoff, I counted 87 fans in the gym, one that used to be overflowing with 3,000 fans as Catalina won the 1963 state championship and finished No. 2 in 1985. Half of those 87 fans were from visiting Empire High School.

I stewed about the possibility that Sabino coach Obie Tann ran up the score on Catalina last week, as Sabercat Weston Haebig scored 45 points. Would any coach, at any level, be that cruel?

But those fears faded when I asked to look at the official scorebook from Sabino’s 76-0 victory. The Sabercats only scored three points in the fourth quarter, choosing not to make it any worse than possible. I was told that only six Catalina players were available for the game due to COVID-19 protocols. Only six were listed in the scorebook.

A referee confirmed that there was a running clock in the fourth quarter, with no stoppages for foul shots or turnovers. Still, I worried that losing a game 76-0 had broken Catalina’s spirit and compromised the experience of playing high school basketball.

All of that began to subside when 10 cheerleaders formed two lines in front of the Catalina bench as Trojans athletic director Timothy Bridges used a microphone to introduce the starting lineups. Music played. Everyone in the bleachers stood to applaud.

Bridges was anything but subdued. On a much smaller scale, it was like the player introductions at an NBA arena in New York or Chicago.

“Starting for the Trojans,’’ he said, doing his best Michael Buffer imitation, “Jesus MAR-QUEEEEZ!’’

Marquez then ran between the cheerleaders, smiling, tapping the pom-poms with his fists.

“Starting for the Trojans, No. 24, Demar Bar-KEEEER!’’ Barker smiled broadly.

Incredibly, or ironically, Catalina scored on its first and second possessions, long 3-pointers by Marquez and Josh King. Players bumped fists, banged chests and acted the same way you’d see Arizona’s Bennedict Mathurin and Kerr Kriisa after a 3-pointer.

What 76-0 loss?

Ultimately, Empire rallied to win 44-36, but it was redemption for the Trojans, who were spirited and encouraged. Even though they remain winless and have been outscored 625-207 this season, they’ve got five more games before a rematch with Sabino on Feb. 11.

Now they really have something to play for, don’t they? If they can hang tough with the Sabercats, score 10 or 20 points, it’ll be somewhat of a victory for an inner-city TUSD school whose declining enrollment and limited athletic resources have resulted in them playing in Class 3A when it would be more fair for them to be in 2A or 1A.

Until Sabino beat Catalina 76-0, the record for fewest points in an Arizona high school boys basketball game was Tucson High’s 44-1 win over Tombstone High in 1926. I found the Star’s report on that 1926 game in the archives. It said that THS coach Syl Paulus encouraged Badger fans to cheer for Tombstone.

The most lopsided game in Tucson history had previously been Tucson High’s 76-3 victory over Nogales in 1946. The defending state champion Badgers led 60-2 after three quarters. The Star wrote: “The crowd switched sides in the second half, groaning each time a Nogales player missed a shot.’’

On Friday, 76 years later, the small crowd at Catalina High School stood and cheered at the end of the loss to Empire. If it’s possible to feel good after a loss, after giving all you’ve got, the Trojans exuded that feeling.

Fisch’s recruiting efforts give UA bright future

Rather than hold a standard Q&A press conference to discuss the UA’s football recruiting class of 2022 in a windowless media room at McKale Center or the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility, as has been the case for more than 40 years, UA coach Jedd Fisch took a different approach.

Doesn’t he always?

Late Friday afternoon, Fisch and UA president Robert Robbins walked into the Rosen Skybox Club on the third floor of the press box facility at Arizona Stadium. Two chefs were preparing dinner for guests. The sun-and-shade view of the Catalina Mountains was something out of a tourism guide. Ten of the UA’s leading recruits from the Class of 2022 were sitting in the lounge, eating, available for interviews.

It seemed like something Alabama or Oregon might do, not a team that was 1-11 last year.

I asked Fisch if the UA’s recruiting class, ranked an unprecedented No. 1 in the Pac-12 by Rivals.com, exceeded his expectations.

“We have a sign in our building that says ‘no one rises for low expectations,’ ‘’ he said, and then seemed to marvel at what has taken place over the last few weeks, saying “they just kept coming ... the way the transfer portal stated snowballing was kind of exciting. It’s something we didn’t predict.’’

Who did?

Fisch detailed the Cincinnati Bengals rise to power in the NFL, from 2-14 to 4-11-1 to Sunday’s AFC championship game. It didn’t seem like an outrageous comparison, either. The Bengals have keyed their surge under franchise quarterback Joe Burrow of LSU; Fisch recently acquired Pac-12 offensive freshman of the year Jayden de Laura, who played in and started 17 games at Washington State.

I asked de Laura if he was daunted by the UA’s 1-11 season and he quickly said “That was last year.’’

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Incoming freshman QB Noah Fifita of Anaheim Servite High, the keystone recruit to a talented incoming group of six Polynesian players, said he is not deterred by a program that has gone 1-23 over the past 2½ seasons.

“We were 4-5 in my first year at Servite,’’ he said. "I saw a rebuild, I’ve been part of a successful rebuild. We were 10-3 this year. I wouldn’t be here unless I thought I’d be part of a winner.’’

Fisch didn’t stop smiling Friday afternoon. His energy and work ethic has paid off, on paper, to the point that he has landed the top recruiting class at Arizona since it joined the Pac-12 in 1978.

UA football still has miles and miles to go to match the classes of 1980-81 and 1989-90, which proved to be the four most productive in modern school history, leading to 20 years of successful football.

But for the first time since, say, 2014, there is reason to think the future is bright.

McKale will be rocking as Graves, Ducks visit

About 10,000 tickets have been sold for Friday’s Arizona-Oregon women’s basketball game at McKale Center. The Wildcats are averaging 7,091 per game and could reach 12,000 or so for the Ducks, given the fallout from Oregon’s heated overtime win over UA in Eugene two weeks ago. Let’s just say UO coach Kelly Graves might surpass ASU’s Bobby Hurley as basketball villain No. 1 in Tucson. Arizona’s All-Pac-12 forward Cate Reese said that the lack of students at women’s games is ”the sad truth.’’ Said Reese about student support: “We’re not the men’s team and sometimes that’s kind of what it comes down to. We need more students, that’s a huge factor. People don’t want to play us here; we need to put an emphasis on getting students to our games.’’

Ducks interested in Lancers' Rushing

The recruiting maneuvering for Salpointe Catholic’s elite defensive end prospect Elijah Rushing is well under way. Rushing, who made 75 tackles and had seven sacks for the Lancers last year, visited Oregon last week. He has also been offered by Arizona, ASU, Washington and Utah. The Ducks took an aggressive step by offering Elijah’s older brother, Salpointe senior safety Cruz Rushing, a preferred walk-on spot last week. He accepted.

Ex-Cat York lighting up G League

Gabe York was a full-time starter at Arizona as a senior, 2015-16, but he didn’t make the all-conference team and wasn’t drafted. At 28, he has emerged. He scored 43 points last week for the NBA G League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants and is averaging 21 per game. York, the UA’s No. 2 scorer behind current UA graduate assistant coach Ryan Anderson in 2015-16, signed a 10-day contract with the Orlando Magic a month ago, but COVID-19 issues prevented him from suiting up. He has gone back to the G League. It’s not exactly an NBA experience. In his 43-point game at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis, the Mad Ants drew 1,210 fans. Capacity: 17,900.

Ketcham's departure a big loss for Arizona

Arizona’s athletic department is losing one of its key figures: Associate athletic director Mike Ketcham, hired to be one of Greg Byrne’s lieutenants in 2010, is leaving to become part of the front office in the UNLV athletic department. Ketcham, former head golf coach at Arkansas and Oregon State, served as the day-to-day supervisor of both Rich Rodriguez’s football program and Sean Miller’s basketball program during his UA days. Can you imagine the book Ketcham could write about what he saw, good and bad? Ketcham will join former UA director of football operations Erick Harper at UNLV; Harper is the new AD at UNLV.

Meade leaves UA for FSU

Also leaving the UA athletic department is Brittany Meade, one of the leading softball figures in Tucson high school history. Meade, an all-city third baseman for Armando Quiroz’s state championship teams at Flowing Wells, became an All-Mountain West Conference infielder at UNLV and a finalist for the 2009 NCAA Woman of the Year award, won by Arizona swimmer Lacey Nymeyer John. Meade left Arizona to become Florida State’s associate AD for facilities and events. She departs one of the most capable facilities/events groups in college sports, an operation that includes Suzy Mason, Mike Hairgrove and Matt Brown. At Arizona, Meade worked chiefly with UA women’s basketball, football and softball.

Memories fading on Tucson's spring training past

I drove by the old spring training headquarters on Ajo Way last week and was surprised to notice a large roadside billboard at the Kino Sports Complex that read: “Tucson Electric Park: Spring Training Home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox.’’ Yes, the paint is fading. Tucson hasn’t conducted spring training baseball since 2010.

Penn State-Iowa showdown has Tucson feel to it

Friday’s wrestling match in Iowa City — No. 1 Penn State vs. No. 2 Iowa — drew more fans, 14,905, than the capacity of McKale Center. The top-ranked Nittany Lions won and two former Sunnyside High School state champions were at the center of the bedlam. Blue Devils senior Roman Bravo-Young remained undefeated at 133 pounds by defeating the NCAA’s third-ranked wrestler, Austin DeSoto. In the first match of the night, Sunnyside’s Jesse Ybarra, in his first season at Iowa, lost to his PSU opponent at 125 pounds. Between them, Bravo-Young and Ybarra won seven state championships at Sunnyside. On a bigger stage, Bravo-Young has thrived. He won the 2021 NCAA championship and is now on a 25-0 streak as he builds toward March’s national finals.

My two cents: Transfer portal finally gives power to athletes

I’m not an involved social media person, but I periodically check Twitter and Facebook. If you have interest in college football, I recommend following the NCAA Transfer portal at @rivalsportal.

It gives you immediate depth on how the game has changed and continues to change. Since August 1, it has confirmed the following:

• FBS 1,925 players from 130 schools have transferred. Or, 14.8 per school. Arizona has signed seven of those transfers.

• FCS: 1,381 players from 129 schools have transferred. Or, 10.7 per school.

• Division II: 1,411 players from 166 schools have transferred., Or 8.5 per school.

Free agency is flourishing in all college sports, not just football. Coaches no longer can dictate the path of a student-athlete’s life. Transfer portal legislation is one of the few things the NCAA has gotten right. But why did it have to take so long?