Salpointe Catholic soccer whiz Leo Gutierrez last week was named Arizona鈥檚 Gatorade Player of the Year, and remains a contender for national player of the year. Gutierrez scored a state-record 173 goals for the Lancers, helping them to four consecutive state championships. What鈥檚 odd about Gutierrez鈥檚 selection is that he is the seventh Salpointe player to be the Arizona Gatorade Player of the Year dating to the award鈥檚 inception, 1986. Odd? All seven are Lancers who played for Wolfgang Weber: Trong Nguyen, 1987; David Veliz, 1991; Ryan Patrick, 1993; Scott Leber, 1997; Corey Sipos, 2003; Luis Lanz, 2006. Gutierrez plans to play at Pima College for Dave Cosgrove in the fall.
Salpointe鈥檚 Leo Gutierrez signals a teammate after a give-and-go went awry in the first half against Sunnyside in the state鈥檚 Open Division second-round playoff game at Salpointe High School on Feb. 14.
鈥 Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita, who was invited to participate in the famous Manning Brothers Passing Camp later this month in Louisiana, will apparently be reconnected with the man he beat out as the UA鈥檚 No. 1 quarterback in 2023, Jayden de Laura, who is listed as a 鈥渃amp counselor鈥 for the Manning camp. De Laura, who transferred from Arizona to Texas State in 2024 but did not play, is active again. He is the starting quarterback for the Vegas Knight Hawks, an indoor arena team that plays in the same league as the 大象APPSugar Skulls. The Sugar Skulls and Knight Hawks are scheduled to meet June 29 at the 大象APPArena. Last week, de Laura threw four touchdown passes in a 63-43 victory over the Northern Arizona Wranglers in Prescott.
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鈥 Pima College baseball coach/athletic director Ken Jacome worked both jobs in the 2024-25 season, a first-year experiment of sorts. How did it work out? Pima College set a school record with a 214-49 record in its seven team sports, or 81% success. How good is that? Salpointe Catholic, the local pace-setter for high school sports success, was 169-44, or 78%, in the same seven boys/girls sports. Pima College chancellor Jeffrey P. Nasse, has approved Jacome to work both jobs full time going forward.
鈥 The changing landscape of college sports is being felt in the Big 12, at Colorado. Buffaloes athletic director Rick George last week laid off assistant track coaches Casey and Lindsey Malone, who had been CU鈥檚 throws coaches for men and women 鈥 shot put, javelin, discus 鈥 and isn鈥檛 going to replace them. Instead, CU will put its resources into distance running, at which it has been a national contender. It makes you wonder if new Arizona track coach Andrew Dubs, hired away from Virginia Tech, might try something similar. Anything goes now, right? Arizona athletic director Desire茅 Reed-Francois got a strong recommendation to hire Dubs by Virginia Tech AD Whit Babcock, who is one of Reed-Francois鈥 mentors. She worked for him at Virginia Tech from 2014-17. Arizona had seven assistant track/field coaches this season, with a total income of $457,000. Harvey鈥檚 salary was $165,000.
鈥 When Jeff Scurran coached Sabino High School to state football championships in 1990, 1992 and 1998, I often mentioned to him how the playing surface on the Sabercats鈥 campus was as hard as cement, with little grass, below the standards for Sabino or any TUSD schools. Unfortunately, the school district did little to improve those conditions over the years. Alas, TUSD this summer is installing artificial turf at both Pueblo and Sabino high schools, at a cost of almost $4 million. Long overdue. Safety standards will now be much better for Sabercat and Warrior football players.
The 大象APP鈥檚 top high school athletes, coaches and moments of the 2024-25 season
