Hansen's Notebook: Can Jeff Scurran turn Rio Rico into a high school football power? Don't bet against it.

The Star's longtime columnist on another Jeff Scurran latest attempt to build another Southern Arizona high school football power ... UA great Sean Elliott looking good, feeling good 24 years after undergoing a kidney transplant ... Ex-Cat Bobby Dalbec's Triple-A power surge ... Locals Nico Montanez and Turner Washington at track and field worlds ... how good Tommy Lloyd's balanced, uptempo, maybe 10-deep Arizona roster really looks ... and more.

In his 50th coaching season, Scurran only looking forward at Rio Rico

For Act VI in his Southern Arizona high school coaching career, 76-year-old Jeff Scurran willingly stepped into a most daunting situation. It was almost predictable.

The Rio Rico High School Hawks had a 52-game losing streak from 2000-06. They followed that by going 2-48. Winning seasons this century? One: 2014. All-time playoff wins? Zip.

And yet, as Scurran begins the 50th year of his Hall of Fame coaching career, none of that matters. Interest in Rio Rico's football program is such that it has 105 players, up from 41 a year ago.

“We might not have enough jerseys to give the appropriate numbers to those on the varsity," says Scurran. “A receiver might have to wear a lineman's number. Something like that."

Predictably, Scurran, a master rebuilder, has not been deterred. How could he be? His career includes leading once dead-in-the-water programs at Santa Rita and Catalina Foothills to state championship games.

Yet those pieces of football magic might've paled compared to Scurran's start-up of the Pima College football team 20 years ago, beating the nation's No. 1 NJCAA team in PCC's first-ever game.

“There's no magic in this," says Scurran, who is in his 39th year of high school coaching and 26th in Southern Arizona, a three-time state championship coach at Sabino High School, 1990-98. “We've put in the work and made the commitment to be a winning team. I don't care what happened here in the past."

In the age of open enrollment — high school's version of the NCAA's transfer portal — Scurran has not benefited from what is essentially free agency.

“Who's going to transfer here?" he asks. “Are you going to drive down from Tucson? It's a beautiful drive but still a long drive. Transportation is a bear."

Yet it's not inconceivable that when Rio Rico kicks off Scurran's second season Friday against Casa Grande Vista Grande, the long-suffering Hawks could be the favorite in the Class 4A Gila division against Amphi, Rincon/University, Empire, Sahuarita, Cholla and Douglas.

My suggestion: Don't bet against him.

Scurran's 50-year career began decades ago at a middle school in downtown Atlanta, progressed to Nevada, Oregon and moved to Tucson in the mid-’80s when Scurran became the head coach at Canyon del Oro. He has coached pro teams in Germany and Italy. His work continues. At 76, he has helped Rio Rico raise money for and construct perhaps the top prep football facility in Southern Arizona.

“This 50-year milestone is important to me," he says. “There are a lot of reasons to get out of coaching and only a few to stick with it. I find fulfillment with what I do off the field as much as what we do as a football team.

“Sports keep our kids off the mean streets and I believe that working with these young men — I'm a special counselor for career advancement here — has been a formula for changing their lives. After 50 years, that gives me as much joy as anything else."

Scurran isn't likely to stay in coaching long enough to surpass the longevity records of Tucson coaches Wolfgang Weber (41 years as Salpointe's soccer coach), Dick McConnell (40 years as Sahuaro's basketball coach) Vern Friedli (36 years as Amphi's football coach) and Doc Van Horne (35 years as Tucson High's track coach), among others.

But at a school that has gone 48-194 in football this century — about two wins per season — he should put Rio Rico on an unprecedented trajectory for success no matter how long Act VI lasts.

Fan-fave Elliott, kidney still going strong — 24 years later

In March 2000, I traveled to the Alamodome in San Antonio to watch the greatest victory of Sean Elliott’s epic basketball career. I remember it like yesterday.

Eight months after he underwent surgery for a kidney transplant (donated by his older brother, Noel Elliott), the two-time NBA All-Star returned to the San Antonio Spurs lineup, scoring two points in 12 minutes. The loud and sustained ovations from 26,078 fans gave me chills.

This week is the 24th anniversary of Elliott's kidney transplant, documented expertly in a piece last week by San Antonio reporter Ken Rodriguez, a former Tucson Citizen writer. Rodriguez reported that the usual lifespan of a transplanted kidney lasts 15 to 25 years.

Said Elliott, a two-time NBA All-Star and the NCAA Player of the Year at Arizona in 1989: “I plan for this kidney to last forever."

“Today, Sean looks like he stepped off the cover of Men's Health magazine," wrote Rodriguez. “ He's 55 but could pass for 35. Boyish grin. Youthful features. He feels the aches and pain of age and 12 bruising NBA seasons, but he says his kidney function is strong and he eats meals prepared by his wife Claudia, a dietician. "

After he retired in 2001, Elliott was hired by NBC and later by ESPN/ABC as an NBA and college basketball analyst. He subsequently found a calling as the Spurs TV and radio analyst, at which he has worked for 19 seasons.

“I'm able to live life to the fullest," said Elliott. “I don't plan on slowing down."

Ex-Cat Dalbec challenging Arias' 25-year-old record

Bobby Dalbec, Arizona's 2016 All-American third baseman/pitcher, is challenging a Tucson-centric home run record that once seemed unassailable.

Dalbec has hit 30 home runs for Triple-A Worcester of the International League, a Boston affiliate. At 28, Dalbec, who is signed with the Red Sox through 2026, has only managed 12 at-bats with the big-league Red Sox despite his robust power-hitting. That's a sign that Boston has probably labeled him a “tweener," a talent somewhere between Triple-A and MLB, even though he hit 25 homers at Boston in 2021. His career MLB batting average is .221.

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While trying to reset his career, Dalbec is closing in on a once untouchable record: the most home runs hit by a Tucson/UA ballplayer in the minor leagues. In 1998, Pueblo High, Pima College and UA grad George Arias hit 36 home runs for Las Vegas of the Pacific Coast League.

Dalbec has 31 games remaining at Worcester to break Arias' record, and also surpass the 34 homers CDO and Arizona slugger Shelley Duncan hit for Triple-A Trenton, New Jersey, in 2005.

Dalbec has already topped the 26 home runs hit by UA 1989 All-American catcher Alan Zinter at Triple-A Pawtucket and 26 set by Santa Rita grad Anthony Sanders for the Double-A Knoxville club of 1997.

Short stuff: Race of Montanez's life, Purdy's Champions call, Kerr family's good month

• Tucson's Nico Montanez will run in the race of his life next Sunday at the World Track and Field Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Montana, who turns 30 next month, is one of four Americans to qualify for the marathon championships. A graduate of St. Augustine High School and an All-American at BYU in 2016, Montanez finished third in the USA Half-Marathon championships last year. ... 

The other Tucsonan in the World Championships is CDO grad Turner Washington, a multiple NCAA champion at Arizona State. Washington is competing in the qualifying rounds of the discus this weekend. The finals are Sunday. ...

• The most encouraging sports story of the week in Tucson was surely when 1996 Arizona All-American golfer Ted Purdy qualified for the ongoing PGA Tour Champions event, the Shaw Charity Classic.

Purdy, who earned $7.4 million on the PGA Tour, winning the 2004 Byron Nelson Classic, turned 50 last Tuesday. Bingo. That's the magic number to play on the Champions Tour. Purdy then shot a 69 in the qualifying event, tying for the last spot. He won a playoff, beating, among others, Arizona's 1989 NCAA golfer of the year Robert Gamez. Quite a birthday present.

Purdy, who lives at Tucson Country Club and played in exactly 300 PGA Tour events, plans to go through the Champions Tour Qualifying Championship in November in an attempt to earn full privileges on Tour in 2024. ...

• Steve Kerr has had a good month. Last week, his son, Nick Kerr, was promoted to be head coach of the Golden State Warriors' G League team, the Santa Cruz Warriors. Nick, 30, played collegiately at Cal and San Diego and spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach with Santa Cruz.

Beyond that, Steve Kerr, head coach of Team USA at the ongoing FIBA World Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, was able to spend a week in training camp earlier in the month in Malaga, Spain, site of one of the enduring memories of his career.

In 1986, Kerr spent a week in Malaga on Lute Olson’s gold medal world championship team. It was there that Kerr climbed to prominence in basketball, becoming a sixth man for Team USA, sharing time with North Carolina's Kenny Smith and Wake Forest's Muggsy Bogues in the backcourt rotation.

A week later, in Madrid, Kerr tore his ACL in the world semifinals against Brazil, which actually was a most “fortunate" injury, prolonging his Arizona career a year, through 1988, when the Wildcats were ranked No. 1 and played in the Final Four.

“I've got a lot of great memories about Malaga and Spain, even though I was injured," Kerr told Spanish reporters earlier this month. “It all turned out good."

My two cents: Mideast exhibition wins show Cats are balanced, uptempo and maybe 10 deep

The IQ of Tucson college basketball fans is among the best in the nation. They've seen so much superior basketball the last 40 years that they know a potential powerhouse at first glance.

Those who watched any or all of Arizona's three exhibition games in the Middle East last week surely came away with a similar reaction: WOW.

Tommy Lloyd's third Arizona team is loaded, maybe 10 deep, with all the positive elements: size, shooting, versatility and an uptempo pace that is every bit as fast as Lloyd's first two UA teams.

My impressions?

Senior forward Keshad Johnson, a transfer from San Diego State, is a dynamic player with a follow-me presence.

Sophomore guard Jaden Bradley, a transfer from Alabama, could start at any school in the nation — at point guard or shooting guard. He can be a defensive demon.

Senior wing Caleb Love, a transfer from North Carolina, is a feared scorer, inside and outside.

Freshman center Motiejus Krivas won't need much, if any, break-in time. He outscored fellow center Oumar Ballo 47-42 over three games, blocked five shots (Ballo: none) and out-shot Ballo afield, 16 of 19 to 10 of 16.

Freshman wing guard K.J. Lewis has a make-things-happen motor. He won't be a garbage-time player.

Add those new faces, plus uber-talented freshman wing shooter Paulius Murauskas, and it surely comprises the nation's top recruiting class.

And then there's Pelle Larsson, Kylan Boswell and improving sophomores Henri Veesaar and Filip Borovicanin.

Mick Cronin and UCLA, you've been warned. Your last season in the Pac-12 will likely run through McKale Center.