Tucson’s all-city baseball team of 1980 included future major leaguers Tom Pagnozzi of Rincon, Mark Carreon of Salpointe Catholilc and Jim Olander and Sam Khalifa of Sahuaro, although some argued that Sunnyside third baseman David Page, who hit .539, or Sahuaro home run king Wes Kent were better.
The ‘80 all-city club was so deep in talent that after Arizona won that year’s College World Series, Wildcats coach Jerry Kindall offered scholarships to three Canyon del Oro players: first baseman Dave Cooper and the double-play combination of Murray Hicks and Phil Wright.
All three Dorados played key roles on CDO’s 1979 state championship team, the genesis of what would become Tucson’s leading high school baseball school of the last 45 years.
From 1994-2001, CDO became something of a major-league baseball factory, producing big-league players Colin Porter, Jason Stanford, Shelley Duncan, Chris Duncan, Brian Anderson, Ian Kinsler and Scott Hairston.
The most common denominator in the production and development of CDO’s remarkable baseball history was Wright, who played shortstop, batted third in the lineup, and hit a game-changing double in the 1979 state title game against Douglas High School.
Wright was only 24 in the spring of 1986, an assistant coach at NAIA national power Emporia State of Kansas, when he got a phone call from the CDO athletic department.
“Do you have any interest in returning to Tucson to be the head coach at CDO?” he was asked.
Wright eagerly accepted. He replaced his ‘79 state championship coach Roger Werbylo, who had also led the Dorados to the 1984 state title and had left to become the head coach at Pima College. At 24, Wright was one of the youngest head coaches ever at one of Tucson’s big schools.
Let’s just say it turned out to be a good decision for both sides.
CDO’s Jason Felix slides into third base during the 1994 season.
Twelve years later, Wright retired from his CDO post. He had gone 248-101 and won 1994 and 1997 state titles. There is often a debate about which of CDO’s state baseball championships was the most impressive — was it Kent Winslow’s 31-5 club of 2005 or maybe Keith Francis’ 33-2 team of 2015? – but the debate always seems to detour to Wright’s ‘94 Dorados, who launched the unprecedented Tucson-to-the-big leagues highway.
CDO was so good in 1994 that it all but toyed with state playoff opponents, beating Phoenix Brophy Prep 26-4 in the semifinals and rolling over Glendale Deer Valley 11-5 in the championship game. It beat its last three playoff opponents by a combined score of 46-11.
“It’s almost like a dream,” Wright said after the game. “We had such high expectations put on us. There was so much pressure.”
In midseason, 1994, CDO played in the national Upper Deck Classic in California and went 3-1. Now, almost three decades later, Wright is somewhat awed by the talent on his ‘94 club.
We had 12 future college players,’’ he says, and to make sure there is no exaggeration, he lists all 12:
Arizona signed outfielder Russ Brown, who hit .419, future All-Pac-10 outfielder Colin Porter, who hit .382, and pitcher Chet Henderson.
ASU signed catcher Greg Halvorson, Kansas signed all-city MVP third baseman Nick Frank and all-city shortstop Andy Juday, New Mexico State signed first baseman Mike Marvel and pitcher Jay Gospodarek, who had gone 12-0, Charlotte signed soon-to-be big-league pitcher Jason Stanford, second baseman Jason Felix signed with New Mexico coach Rich Alday, Jason Lewis, now the head softball coach at Nicholls State, played at Louisiana-Monroe, Harvard signed pitcher Brad Wilford, and Centenary signed DH/catcher Kyle Crookes.
After leaving CDO, Wright moved to the greater Chicago area to teach and coach softball and baseball. He returned to Tucson a few years ago.
Phil Wright led CDO to the Class 5A state title in 1994.
“The local talent was really good when I coached here,” he says. “Tucson High, Amphi, Sunnyside and Salpointe were all great. Sabino and Foothills were getting really good. We all made each other better.
“We really upgraded the schedule to travel to Phoenix and play great programs. I thought it was important for our kids to be road warriors and understand we had to be prepared to play the big boys on the road if we were going to get the big prize come May. It was an incredible era in Tucson.
“We built it into one of the greatest runs of baseball talent from any one school not only in Tucson but certainly in Arizona, and during that stretch, as good as anyone nationwide.”
Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at 520-573-4362 or ghansen@tucson.com. On Twitter: @ghansen711
