What a difference a year makes.
May 2020 will be a month remembered by thousands of Southern Arizona high schoolers for its canceled spring sports seasons and tournaments, virtual graduations and dashed dreams.
May 2021, however, looked a whole lot different. For many, it marked the start of a return to normalcy. High school teams and athletes participated in postseason play and seniors celebrated their graduation in a much more traditional— albeit socially distanced — fashion.
Last year, the Star profiled standout Southern Arizona athletes nominated by their high schools about what they missed out on — and what they missed the most — during the pandemic. They spoke of their hopes and dreams for the future despite the various unknowns. Readers’ response to the Star’s “Spring Stars” series was overwhelming.
A year later, the Star checked in with the athletes to see what’s next:
Abraham Valenzuela
When the pandemic hit and spring sports were canceled, Palo Verde junior Abraham Valenzuela was disappointed to have missed out on the chance to defend his Division III title in the 3,200 meters, vowing to come back strong when competition returned.
But by the start of his senior year last fall, Valenzuela was ready to quit running.
“I gave up on everything, including the things I loved the most. It was the worst time of my life,” Valenzuela, 18, said. “The worst thing was using COVID as an excuse of my failure.”
With the support of coach Tim Riley, Valenzuela stuck it out and got his head back in the game in time for cross country season.
“Coach Riley is the main reason I didn’t stop running. Mr. Riley never gave up,” Valenzuela said. “He talked me into staying with it. It was tough, but I finally got over it.”
Valenzuela had a solid cross country season, qualifying for state, and came back even stronger in the spring.
Last month, he set a new personal record at state and retained his title in the 3,200 meters. He also took third place in the 1,600 meters.
Now that his high school career is over, Valenzuela is ready for a fresh start in college. He’s hoping to make a decision by the end of the month as to where he’ll attend school in the fall. He’s considering Pima.
“It would be awesome to run for them and stay close to home,” Valenzuela said, adding he’s still trying to figure out what school will fit him best.
After all the challenges of the past 15 months, Valenzuela is ready to move forward and apply the lessons he’s learned to the rest of his life.
“Coach Riley told us, we all have different stories, but what really makes us different is how we face our problems,” Valenzuela said.
Blaise Biringer was stellar during her freshman season at Ole Miss, starting 55 games and playing in the NCAA Regionals at Hillenbrand Stadium.
Blaise Biringer
Cienega’s Blaise Biringer spent last summer playing club softball with the Suncats club team after the pandemic handed her an early end to her high school career.
Biringer, 19, was named a Premier Girls Fastpitch All-American but was unable to play in the All-American Game due to the coronavirus. Once her club season ended, Biringer worked out every day with hopes of playing for Ole Miss as a true freshman.
That she did, starting 55 games at second base and hitting .357 as the Rebels advanced to the NCAA Regionals in Tucson. Over four postseason games, she went 8 for 16 and scored four runs. The Wildcats emerged from the four-team bracket as the winner.
“But i enjoyed every moment of it, because family and friends came,” Biringer said, adding that it was also a great experience to be able to perform well for a UA softball team that had tried to recruit her.
“This year was very fun and a learning experience,” Biringer said, adding that her biggest challenger over the past 15 months has been “not letting the atmosphere get bigger than it was.”
“I just appreciated the moment rather than letting it get to me,” Biringer said. “I found myself letting the nerves take over, but as the year went on, i became more comfortable and was able to really trust my abilities.”
Biringer is looking forward to a summer with family and friends before heading back to Oxford, Mississippi, in the fall to start preparing for her second year with the Rebels.
Alyssa Lopez
After celebrating the end of her senior year at Canyon del Oro with a virtual graduation, tennis star Alyssa Lopez endured a sweltering Tucson summer before heading to Flagstaff in the fall.
Lopez, 18, spent her first year at Northern Arizona University on campus, but not in the way she imagined.
“This last year has not been easy, and I’m sure every other freshman in college who didn’t have a full senior year or freshman year would agree with me,” Lopez said. “I never imagined my first year in college would be spent in a dorm room with my roommate while doing online courses.”
Alyssa Lopez, 18, plans to play next season at NAU.
To make matters worse, Lopez missed her chance to try out for NAU’s tennis team. She spent the year playing at local courts with friends, which was less than idea.
“This has been hard, physically and emotionally due to not playing on a full team and competing as I was used to in high school,” Lopez said. “However, it’s helped me focus on personal strengths and weaknesses.”
It also allowed her the time to focus on becoming a physical therapist, and she’s on track to graduate a year early.
Loeps hopes to play for the Lumberjacks next year.
While Lopez is used to a challenge — she taught herself to play tennis left-handed after injuring her right shoulder — she still struggled during the pandemic.
“It was scary, the fear of being in a pandemic and not knowing if you could have been exposed is not the greatest feeling,” Lopez said. “I was very lucky to never be sick and to receive a COVID-19 vaccination along with my family and friends. The biggest challenge for me was to have a positive mindset and not let the worries of the world ruin my health.”
Lopez is back home with her parents for the summer, and is working at Heart and Soul Gymnastics, where she coaches young gymnasts and dancers.
Lopez will move into her first apartment when she returns to Flagstaff, and is looking forward to finishing up her undergraduate degree and attending physical therapy school to continue her education.
She says she learned a lot from her shoulder injury, and hopes to channel that experience into a career.
“Since last May, my shoulder has healed and I have been able to play all kinds of sports and enjoy my year at college,” she said. “My goal is to work with kids who suffer sports injuries and help them recover and rejoin the sports they are passionate about, like I did when I hurt my shoulder.”
Former Sierra Vista Buena football and track standout Jesse Avina just competed his first season at Paradise Valley Community College.
Jesse Avina
Sierra Vista Buena multi-sport athlete Jesse Avina found his sky-high plans of joining the Air Force temporarily grounded by the pandemic.
The javelin-throwing, football-playing senior wrapped up his year working as a delivery driver while taking online classes.
A year later, Avina, 18, just completed his first year at Paradise Valley Community College, where he took first place in javelin in May’s NJCAA national championships. The All-American thrower said this past year allowed him to improve his throwing distance from 48 to 61 meters.
“I was able to qualify for the NJCAA National championships on my first throw of the season and continued to improve throughout the season,” Avina said.
Avina is hoping to attract the attention of college scouts and leverage it into a scholarship at a four-year school.
“The past year has been full of blessings and I’m thankful for the people that supported me along the way,” Avina said.
Former Sabino High School standout Sydney Gray played at Nebraska as a true freshman before suffering a knee injury that required surgery. She has been rehabbing daily ever since.
Sydney Gray
Sabino’s Sydney Gray spent last summer honing her softball skills before heading to the University of Nebraska in the fall.
“Once I got to Nebraska, I dove right into college life and began my college softball career,” Gray, 19, said. “We spent the fall preparing and practicing for season and I learned the ways of being a college athlete.”
Gray said she’s had an amazing time and is “beyond grateful” for the opportunities she’s been given.
She spent winter break in Tucson, making up for lost time with family and friends, and returned to Lincoln in January, mentally and physically prepared for the season ahead.
Gray ended up starting at third base for the Huskers, and traveled to Florida twice during the season. However, she suffered a season-ending injury during the last game of the Huskers’ home-opening series.
“I tore my ACL and had a grade two MCL strain. This injury changed my entire season and I went out with a .366 batting average,” Gray said. “Instead of working on my softball skills and figuring out how to best beat teams, I was figuring out what physical therapy was and how I could heal myself best.”
Gray underwent surgery a few weeks after being inured and has been rehabbing daily ever since, trying to get back on the field as soon as possible.
“The past year has taught me a lot of things,” Gray said. “Going to college and excelling in school and softball has definitely been a high. I have loved getting to meet new people, work with amazing coaches, teammates and staff, and ultimately be apart of such a great school.”
Gray said learned a lot about herself while dealing with her injury, and has come to look at things in a different way.
“(I’ve learned) to be so grateful for the things around me,” she said.
Gray is spending the summer in Tucson, working with a physical therapist and continuing to rehab her knee as best she can before returning to Nebraska in the fall and hopefully getting back on the field soon after.
Flowing Wells shooting standout Kaitlyn Rendon has been accepted into the United States Navy Academy Prep School in Rhode Island.
Kaitlyn Rendon
Pre-coronavirus, Kaitlyn Rendon was an active junior at Flowing Wells, managing a jam-packed schedule on two hours of sleep and plenty of caffeine.
The pandemic provided her with extra time and sleep, though it provided Rendon, 18, a whole new set of challenges as she navigated her senior year.
“This past year hasn’t been as great as past years, because of not having certain dates for practice because they would always change,” Rendon said. “But what was exciting was when I attended school more often, it was easier to do my work and get it submitted on time.”
Rendon spent the first few weeks of school doing remote learning, then moved into a hybrid system and started attending class in-person one day a week. She continued to participate in cross country, track and soccer, but says her times weren’t as good as they were in years past.
Rendon is also a sharpshooter for the school’s JROTC program. Shooting returned in October, and in December, Rendon placed first in the season’s first state match. In addition to classes and JROTC, Rendon found time to get a job through the UA and Americorps, working as a Student Thinking Enrichment through Mathematics Mentors program.
Her senior year success didn’t end there.
“I ended up being in the top 10 (No. 8) for my class and I was the JROTC Battalion XO, Rifle Team Captain and the Cross Country Captain,” Rendon said. “I was also in student council as a senior class vice president.”
Rendon ended the year with only one B, saying that AP calculus was a challenging class to take online.
“But I worked through it, because I refused to give up,” she said. “Another challenge was feeling robbed because of barely having any senior events because we weren’t sure on dates or COVID guidelines.”
Rendon was able to ring out her senior year with one celebratory event: Flowing Wells put on a water day for seniors in the days leading up to graduation.
This fall, Rendon will attend the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, Rhode Island. She hopes to ultimately attend the U.S. Naval Academy, and, of course, join its shooting team.
“I can’t wait to explore the east side (of the country) and make my family even more proud,” Rendon said.
Catalina Foothills’ Emily Flowers won her second consecutive state singles tennis championship this spring.
Emily Flowers
The sole sophomore on the 2020 Spring Star roster, Emily Flowers won a state tennis championship as a freshman at Catalina Foothills and dreamed of eventually playing for a Division I college.
Flowers, 17, repeated that achievement last month, when she earned her second state championship, while also helping her team take home another state title.
It’s hard to tell from the outcome, but Flowers said the pandemic presented quite the challenge to her tennis career.
“It made it a lot harder to train and compete, and even made it hard to do school,” Flowers said, adding that outside of tennis, her life over the past year consisted of working hard on her school work.
When tennis tournaments made their recent return, Flowers was ready to hit the road, traveling to Alabama for her first out-of-town competition in more than a year.
“I had a really good tournament, I was able to compete and beat really good players helping my (Universal Tennis Rating) and my national ranking,” Flowers said.
Flowers is looking forward to a busy summer, especially after such an uneventful year. She’ll be taking her game to a variety of courts — both clay and hard — and planning her future beyond high school (although she’s looking forward to one more run at state.)
“I plan to talk to college coaches, meet with them, and even travel to see campuses,” Flowers said. “I’m looking forward to getting to know new people and coaches to help my game and help me continue my tennis career into college.”
Emmanuel Corral, 18, is looking forward to running for Pima College in the fall.
Emmanuel Corral
When spring sports came grinding to a halt last year, Pusch Ridge Christian senior Emmanuel Corral had just found his sweet spot, telling his track coach weeks before that he finally felt like himself. He capped off his high school career unceremoniously, and set out to do the best he could with what he was given when he got started at Pima College in the fall.
Corral, 19, joined the Aztecs’ cross country team, but their season was canceled. Instead, he worked at a local restaurant and took classes online, hoping for a chance to compete for the track team, if the pandemic would allow.Corral got his wish. And then some.
“I had a great track season in the spring. I ended up getting third at regionals in the 3K steeplechase, which was a good accomplishment for me, considering I improved my time by about 40 seconds,” Corral said. “I unfortunately had to stop to tie my spikes twice in my first race, but you learn and get better from those experiences.”
While he flourished on the track, the rest of his life was a little more challenging.
“It was hard mentally, to be honest. Just doing school online, and not knowing what was in store for the year was difficult,” Corral said.
He points to the Aztecs men’s team winning the regional championship for the first time in 35 years as a high point, saying it was a good ending to his first year on the team.
“Besides that, I enjoyed getting to know my new team and folks at the UA, as well,” Corral said.
He’s looking forward to returning to Pima in the fall, with all signs pointing towards a cross country season.
From there?
“Right now, only God knows what I will be doing after this next year,” Corral said.