A day before Sahuaro High School won the 1992 state softball championship, coach Billy Lopez informed his team that he planned to retire from coaching a week later.
No one could’ve blamed Lopez. He had coached the Cougars to state titles in 1988, 1989 and 1991 with a combined 75-9 record. And in addition to teaching a full schedule of Spanish classes, he had been coaching the Cougars’ freshman football team since 1969, as well as coaching Sahuaro’s wrestling team for 20 years.
Why not go out on top?
Lopez’s Cougars won a fourth state softball championship a day later, finishing 26-3.
But if you check the record books you’ll notice that Lopez didn’t retire at all. He coached Sahuaro to Class 4A state softball championships again in 1993 and 2001, the latter of which was his most impressive of six state titles. The ’01 Cougars finished 36-2 during a period softball became Tucson’s most accomplished sport.
The Cougars’ 2001 state champions were loaded. All-State pitcher Courtney Foster was almost unhittable, finishing the season with 15 straight victories, aided by all-city players T.J. Eadus, Pauline Glenn and Helen Smith.
Again, Lopez told his players that the ’01 state championship game against Catalina Foothills would be his last.
“I’m tired,” he said. “I almost quit last year, but I saw the girls we had coming back and I said I will do it one more year. I will definitely miss it.”
But it wasn’t until 2005 that Lopez ended one of the most remarkable coaching performances in Tucson history. After requiring surgery for a knee injury, Lopez, then 66, said he was retiring from coaching and would teach two Spanish classes at Pima College to stay busy.
Softball coach Billy Lopez, pictured with his team in 2000, was elected to the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Sahuaro Cougar Hall of Fame in 1999.
He had gone 425-73 as Sahuaro’s softball coach over 17 seasons. His six state championships speak loudly; iconic Tucson prep softball coaches Kelly Fowler of Canyon del Oro, Eric Tatham of Cienega, Amy Rocha of Salpointe Catholic and Amy Swiderski of CDO all have won three state titles.
Lopez is in a class by himself.
“Billy is pretty much the standard by which you measure success in Tucson high school sports,” said former Sahuaro athletic director Bob Vielledent.
And it went beyond wins and losses. Maren Christensen, the Star’s 2001 player of the year, said Lopez “taught me more about being a good person than he did about softball.”
During the sport’s formative years in Arizona, Sahuaro had won state softball championships in 1984 and 1985 under coach Jim Higgins. When Higgins retired, Lopez took over for what he thought would be a few years until the school found someone with a background in softball.
But that never happened.
Lopez, the 12th of 13 children to immigrants from Zacatecas, Mexico, had been an all-city football receiver at Tucson High in the late 1950s and also a sprinter on the THS track team. He enrolled at NAU, earned a degree and taught for four years at Prescott High School before he got a chance to return home.
A year after Sahuaro High School opened, 1968, Lopez was hired to teach Spanish and coach freshman football. Who could’ve guessed that 37 years later he would retire with six state softball championships in the books?
And he really didn’t retire after his softball days. He began coaching Sahuaro’s girls golf team. He was elected to the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Sahuaro Cougar Hall of Fame in 1999.
After retiring, Lopez reflected on his coaching career. “Success is not a game, it is not winning a state championship,” he told the Star. “I always ask my players, ‘What are you going to be doing 10 years from now?’ That’s what matters.”
