It didn’t take long for Desert Christian High School to find a fitting perspective after winning three consecutive state baseball championships from 2013-15.
A few minutes after completing a 31-1 season in 2015 — capping a remarkable 86-7 streak over three years — all-city pitcher/first baseman Zach Malis said: “It’s the end of an era, the completion of a legacy.”
It doesn’t matter if a high school team plays in Division I or Division IV, as Desert Christian did. Winning three consecutive state baseball championships isn’t just getting hot, getting a few breaks or playing inferior competition.
The last Arizona small school to win three consecutive baseball titles was Wilcox, 1999-2001.
In the 2015 season, coach Grant Hopkins’ club beat upper-division opponents Flowing Wells, Walden Grove and Tanque Verde, as well as teams from New Mexico, Idaho and Phoenix in a mid-season tournament. The Eagles’ only loss was to Taft High School of Lincoln City, Oregon, a Class 3A school with more than double Desert Christian’s enrollment.
The previous Tucson baseball team to win three consecutive state championships was Tucson High, which did so from 1950-52 and 1954-56.
“I was very blessed with that group of kids,” Hopkins says now. “The ‘15 team was a generational team. Especially given the fact the school was only about 150 kids and 75 boys at the school. The team only had 13 baseball players.”
Hopkins had the “right” 13 players.
Malis, who spent the last two seasons playing in the Detroit Tigers minor league system after hitting .302 in a productive career at Grand Canyon University, hit .569, .636 and .515 over the Eagles’ three state championships. As a pitcher, he was 29-3.
Andrew Edwards, who is now in his third year in the New York Mets’ minor-league system, playing in Double-A, was 25-2 as a pitcher and also hit over .400 all three seasons. After Desert Christian, he played at New Mexico State.
Both Malis and Edwards were chosen to the Star’s 2015 all-city team, which featured players from 5A to 1A. Malis had 186 RBIs in his three state championship seasons, which is believed to be a state record at any level.
Zach Malis played in the Detroit Tigers' system before returning to Tucson.
Hopkins, a Tucson native whose high school baseball career ended when he seriously injured his pitching arm in a 1990 car accident, requiring four surgeries, earned a degree from NAU and returned to Tucson. He is a financial advisor.
He became the head coach at his alma mater in 2007, paying dues for six seasons and going 89-73. By 2013, the Eagles were loaded. They won the ‘13 state title with a 26-4 record, won again in ‘14 with a 29-2 record and again in ‘15 with a 31-1 record.
Desert Christian outscored opponents by an average of 13-1 in the 2015 season.
It wasn’t just Malis and Edwards. Camron White hit .462 with 20 stolen bases, Jacob Rosson hit .414 and his brother, Zach, hit .431. Brett Grabosch hit .365. The Eagles didn’t overpower teams; they hit just six home runs. They won with pitching, fielding and timely hitting more than power.
Malis left the Detroit Tigers’ system last year, he moved back to Tucson and is now a manager at Amazon. He is married with a baby.
Hopkins retired from Desert Christian after the 2016 season, when his team went 25-6 and reached the state semifinals.
“The fact I still get to see (my championship players) as often as I do is also a blessing,” says Hopkins. “I was also very fortunate I got to win two championships with my son, Daulton, in 2013 and 2014.”
Hopkins didn’t lose the coaching bug when he left Desert Christian six years ago. He was an assistant coach on Sabino’s 2019 state championship team. He returned to Desert Christian to help coach in 2020 and 2021.
“Assistant coaching fits my lifestyle much better now,” he says.
