Hansen's Sunday Notebook: 2022 a record-setting season for Wildcats, Tucsonans in the big leagues

Our longtime columnist checks in with a look at locals in the big leagues, Pueblo's plans to honor Roland LaVetter, and why Tucson's top recruit — in any sport — picked Oklahoma.

Wildcats, locals pack major-league rosters

Baseball players from the UA and Tucson registered big-league milestones this season: the Wildcats produced their 90th major-league ballplayer and high schools from the Tucson metro area sent their 50th player to Major League Baseball.

It was a record year; 18 former UA and Tucson ballplayers were on active MLB rosters, shattering the record of 14 set in 1991 and 1996.

The 18th and final Tucson-connected ballplayer to be activated this season was ex-Wildcats infielder Brandon Dixon, a key player on the UA’s 2012 national championship team. Dixon, who initially played for the Cincinnati Reds in 2018, spent last season playing in Japan. He was signed by San Diego in March and had a productive minor-league season with 23 home runs and a .374 batting average.

Finally, on Sept. 27, Dixon was recalled by the Padres, played in five games and was activated for the ongoing playoffs. It capped quite a journey.

“Two months ago I was considering getting (elbow) surgery and retiring,” the 30-year-old Dixon told San Diego reporters. “To be here, there is nothing left to press about. This is all icing on the cake. Anything I can do to help the team and be a part of this, that’s all I’m trying to do.”

Of the 19 Tucson-connected MLB players this season, only three were regulars when not injured: Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo of Sahuaro High School; Diamondbacks reliever Mark Melancon of the UA; and Pirates shortstop Kevin Newman of the UA. Here’s the list of 18 Tucsonans who helped to set the record of local ballplayers in the majors this season:

Ryan Aguilar, rookie outfielder, UA: Played seven games for the Angels, hitting .136.

Chase Silseth, rookie pitcher, UA: Made seven starts for the Angels with a 6.59 ERA in 29 innings.

J.J. Matijevic, rookie first baseman, UA: Played in 32 games for the Astros, hitting .209.

Cal Stevenson, rookie outfielder, UA: Played in 23 games for Oakland, hitting .167.

Andrew Nardi, rookie pitcher, UA: Pitched 13 innings for the Marlins with a 9.45 ERA.

Donny Sands, rookie catcher, Salpointe Catholic High School: Played four games for the Phillies, and went 0-for-3.

Luis Gonzalez, outfielder, Catalina Foothills High School: Hit. 254 for the Giants in 98 games with four home runs.

Alfonso Rivas, outfielder, UA: Hit .235 in 101 games for the Cubs.

Andre Jackson, pitcher, Cienega High School: Pitched in four games for the Dodgers with a 1.86 ERA in 9 ⅔ innings.

Robert Refsnyder, outfielder, UA: The 2012 College World Series MVP hit .307 for the Red Sox in 57 games.

Bobby Dalbec, first baseman, UA: Hit .212 for the Red Sox in 116 games.

Kevin Newman, shortstop, UA: Hit .274 in 78 games for the Pirates.

Stefen Romero, outfielder, Sunnyside High School: Was recalled and activated by the Dodgers for three days in June but did not play. Otherwise hit .265 for Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Tylor Megill, pitcher, UA: Went 4-2 in 47 innings for the Mets. He joins Dixon as the only Tucson player active for the playoffs.

Mark Melancon, pitcher, UA: Had a rough season, 3-10 with 18 saves and a 4.86 in 62 games as a Diamondbacks reliever.

Kevin Ginkel, pitcher, UA: A middle-innings reliever for the Diamondbacks, Ginkel pitched 28 innings with a 3.49 ERA.

Alex Verdugo, outfielder, Sahuaro: Hit 11 homers and batted .282 in 151 games for Boston.

Brandon Dixon, infielder, UA. Went 3 for 14 in five games with the Padres.

Three other Tucson-connected baseball figures are active in the potsseason. Ex-Wildcat All-American Terry Francona is the manager of the Cleveland Guardians; Casey Candaele, a third baseman on Arizona’s 1980 NCAA championship team, is the bench coach of the Toronto Blue Jays; and Kevin Long, a 1989 All-Pac-10 outfielder at Arizona, is the hitting coach of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Pueblo to honor Roland LaVetter in his gym

A memorial service for Pima County Sports Hall of Fame high school basketball coach Roland LaVetter will be held Saturday at 1 p.m., at the aptly-named LaVetter Gymnasium at Pueblo High School.

LaVetter, who died last week at 82, coached Pueblo to back-to-back state championships in 1977 and 1978. The ’78 season is considered perhaps the single-greatest prep basketball season in Tucson as the Warriors went 28-0.

One of the speakers at Saturday’s service will be Tony Mosley, who averaged a triple-double for the 1978 Warriors. Mosley is now a youth counselor and mental health official in Phoenix. His respect for LaVetter remains such that when he learned of his coach’s death, he drove from a business engagement in Los Angeles to Tucson to help comfort the LaVetter family.

“He wasn’t just a coach, he was like a father to so many of us,” said Mosley. “Most of us didn’t have a father figure in our lives, so ‘Uncle Rollie’ filled that role. He had such an impact on our lives that lasted far beyond the last game we played at Pueblo.”

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I consider LaVetter one of the five leading boys high school basketball coaches in Tucson history, part of a special group with Sahuaro’s Dick McConnell, Tucson’s Bud Doolen and Tony Morales and Santa Rita’s Jim Ferguson.

Steve Robinson proves to be key hire

One of the key transactions Tommy Lloyd made after becoming Arizona’s basketball coach was to hire Steve Robinson as an assistant coach. Robinson’s presence and expertise is invaluable; he was the head coach at Florida State and Tulsa and an assistant on Roy Williams’ staffs at Kansas and North Carolina when the Jayhawks and Tar Heels combined for four national championships. At 64, Robinson brings a lot of the value of a Jim Rosborough, who was the heart and soul of Lute Olson’s Arizona staffs. Last week, Robinson tweeted that he had been blessed to coach “a lot of point guards in my career,” including UA junior Kerr Kriisa. Robinson’s list is big time: He coached PGs Jacque Vaughn, Aaron Miles, Raymond Felton, Kendall Marshall and Ty Lawson, all first-round NBA draft picks, along with NCAA title point guard Joel Berry and Kansas second-round pick Kevin Pritchard. Talk about a valued addition for “Point Guard U.” 

New Cologuard Classic boss a familiar face

The Tucson Conquistadores didn’t have to go far to hire a new executive director to be tournament director of the Cologuard Championship, now in its eighth year as part of PGA Tour Champions. If you were paying attention to high school sports in 2002-03. You probably read about Geoff Hill, a two-sport standout at Rincon High School. Hill scored a Tucson-high 31 goals for coach Roxanne Taylor’s 18-3-1 soccer team in 2003, a state semifinalist. Hill was an all-city selection. Two months earlier he helped Ranger golf standouts Michael Thompson and Pete Quiroz led Red Morrow’s golf team to the 2002 state title. Hill is well qualified to step into the Conquistadores’ role that Pima County Sports Hall of Famer Judy McDermott did with excellence for 25 years. He worked in an official capacity for the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play championships from 2018-19 as well as for the PGA Champions Tour organization from 2014-17.

Gary Williams will be missed

I was heartbroken to hear that Gary Williams, executive director of La Fiesta de los Vaqueros from 1995-2021, died last week. He was only 73. He had so much left to live for. I was fortunate to go to lunch with Williams at the Silver Saddle restaurant before last year’s Tucson Rodeo and I could’ve listened to his rodeo stories all afternoon. He was the face of the Tucson Rodeo for a quarter-century. A memorial will be held for Williams at the Tucson Rodeo Grounds on Jan. 21.

Locals learn how tough golf can be

Here’s how difficult it is to get a spot on the PGA Tour: At the ongoing Shriners Classic in Las Vegas, four Tucson-connected golfers posted outstanding scores in the Monday qualifier. Catalina Foothills 2016 state champion Gavin Cohen, a former Arizona and LMU golfer, and ex-Arizona All-American Ricky Barnes, the 2002 U.S. Amateur champion, shot 7-under-par 65s at the Monday qualifier. That merely tied for fourth place, putting them in a six-way playoff for the final spot in the Shriners Classic. Neither advanced. Cienega High grad David Rauer, an All-American at Pima College in 2015, shot a 66 to miss the playoff by one stroke. And Ted Purdy, a 1996 All-American at Arizona, and a PGA Tour winner, shot a 68 but didn’t get to the playoff. Purdy, 48, should soon be playing on the PGA Tour Champions.

Lancers' hall of fame class includes ex-Cat Brad Hassey

Salpointe Catholic High School inducted its Class of 2022 into the school’s sports hall of fame Friday evening. The Class of ’22 included Arizona’s 2002 All-Pac-10 shortstop Brad Hassey, who went on to play seven years in the minor leagues, including one season in Triple-A with pitcher Pat Mahomes, father of Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. Hassey was a 1998 All-City shortstop at Salpointe before signing with Arizona. Also inducted in Salpointe’s Class of 2022 was Bill Tripp, one of the top football coaches ever produced in Tucson. Tripp, a 1971 UA grad, coached Salpointe to a 21-9 record from 1972-74 before becoming an assistant coach at, among other places, Army, Cal Poly, Nevada, Idaho and Boise State. Tripp was also Canyon del Oro’s head football coach from 1987-88.

Nuggets pick up Zeke Nnaji's option

The Denver Nuggets apparently like what they see in third-year forward Zeke Nnaji, an All-Pac-10 center at Arizona in 2019-20. Last week the Nuggets picked up Nnaji’s contract option for 2023-24 and guaranteed him $4.3 million for that season rather than let him become a free agent. Nnaji was Denver’s seventh man, playing 21 minutes, in Friday’s preseason opener. A year ago he played in just 40 games, averaging 6.6 points per game. His sister, McDonald’s All-American center Maya Nnaji, is battling for a starting job in Adia Barnes’ Arizona preseason training camp.

Dave Cosgrove's research yields new wins number

The NJCAA lists Pima College’s two-time national championship soccer coach Dave Cosgrove with 410 career victories, which is No. 3 among all active NJCAA men’s soccer coaches. That total trails Tyler (Texas) JC coach Steve Clements, 523 victories, and Herkimer (New York) JC coach Pepe Aragon, who has 419 victories. However, because junior-college record keeping hasn’t always been exact, Cosgrove wanted to make sure the NJCAA total was accurate and conducted research last week to get the record exact. He found that he had coached PCC to 399 victories. He coached the No. 5 Aztecs against national power Yavapai College in search of No. 400 on Saturday night.

Cienega's Kelsey Slade commits to Oklahoma

Cienega High School junior gymnast Kelsey Slade is on an official recruiting visit to 2022 NCAA champion Oklahoma this weekend. Slade committed to the Sooners last week, over offers from national powers Utah and Alabama, among others. She is a five-star recruit, the No. 1 overall recruit, any sport, in Tucson in the Class of 2024. Leah Miller, daughter of former Arizona assistant basketball coach Archie Miller, is considered a four-star gymnastics recruit and has committed to LSU. She is attending Salpointe Catholic High School this season while training for coach Regina Mueller-Martin at the Arizona Dynamics gymnastics organization with Slade. Archie Miller is beginning his first season as the head coach at Rhode Island.

My two cents: Time is right for TUSD to combine struggling programs

The condition of high school football in Tucson is such that Friday’s schedule includes 0-7 Catalina, which has been outscored 246-0 and has forfeited two games, against Santa Rita. Unfortunately, Santa Rita recently canceled its season due to a lack of healthy and available players.

Palo Verde, which won a state championship as recently as 2005, has lost five games by a combined score of 297-27, with its only victories over Catalina 60-0 and a forfeit over Santa Rita.

Isn’t it about time for Tucson Unified School District to attempt to get the Arizona Interscholastic Association to combine the enrollment-challenged teams at Palo Verde, Santa Rita and Catalina into one competitive team?

Isn’t that the future of high school football in many inner-cities precincts across the West?