β’Β Caitlin Leverenz SmithΒ is surely the top female swimmer ever produced by a Tucson high school. The former Sahuaro High student won a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics in the 200 IM, and helped the Cal Bears win 2011 and 2012 NCAA championships. She was the Honda Award winner as the NCAAβs leading female swimmer in 2011-12.
But now, at 33, Leverenz has a higher calling. Last week, she was named to the USA Swimming board of directors. Now living in San Diego, a consultant for Kaiser Permanente, she has served as the Chair of the USA Swimming Athletesβ Advisory Council since its inception in 2021. She earned a Master's degree in business administration from Stanford in 2021.
β’Β CoachΒ Pat Nugentβs Mica Mountain Thunderbolts will play Glendale Thunderbird in the Class 4A football quarterfinals Friday night in Vail. Mica Mountain is 11-0 and seeded No. 4. It certainly isnβt a strange setting for the three men who are most responsible for Mica Mountainβs almost predictable climb to relevance in just its fourth year of existence.
Thunderbolts head coach Nugent has won 164 career games in Tucson, fifth in history. Mica Mountain principalΒ Nemer HasseyΒ coached 151 victories at Sahuaro and Cienega high schools before becoming an administrator. And Mica Mountain assistant principal and athletic directorΒ Jay CamposΒ coached Sahuaro High to 133 victories before becoming an administrator. Thatβs 448 victories for the Mica Mountain high command, all ranking in the top nine among most victories in Tucson prep history.
β’Β TucsonanΒ Terry Francona, hired two weeks ago as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, has reconnected with his long-time baseball partner,Β Brad Mills, a union that goes back to Francona and Millsβ Arizona baseball days, 1978-79. Mills will be Franconaβs bench coach for the Reds in 2025. The two not only played together at Arizona for two years, but also for the Montreal Expos in the early 1980s.
Cincinnati Reds owner Bob Castellini, left, holds up a jersey for manager Terry Francona at a press conference announcing Francona as the new manager of the team, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in Cincinnati.
Mills, 67, coached for Francona when he was manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Guardians before retiring to his ranch in Texas four years ago. One of the first calls Francona made when he chose to come out of retirement was to his old Wildcat teammate.
β’Β Tyler Loopβs 62-yard field goal Friday night against Houston wouldβve tied the long-standing Pac-12 record of 62 yards set in 1991 by Washington StateβsΒ Jason Hanson. The Big 12βs longest field goal is 65 yards by Kansas StateβsΒ Martin GramaticaΒ in 1998. The record for a Power 4 school is 67 yards, shared by ArkansasβΒ Steve RichardsonΒ and TexasβΒ Russell Erxleben, both in 1977.
Itβs easy to predict Loop will be a successful NFL kicker. Hanson was a second-round NFL draft pick and kicked 21 years in the NFL. Gramatica was a third-round draft pick and played nine NFL seasons. Richardson and Erxleben both kicked when tees were allowed. Neither became an NFL kicker, although Erxleben became a prominent NFL punter.
