In the first round of the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament, exactly one year ago today, the wildly disappointing Arizona Wildcats had pulled out a wildly disappointing seven-point victory over the last-place Washington Huskies. (The Cats, with their three freshman stars, had been a sexy pi…
TEMPE – Gloves are popping. Bats are cracking. And gates are opening.
PHOENIX – High school athletes will not be required to wear masks during spring sports competition and neither will winter sports athletes during playoffs, the Arizona Interscholastic Association Executive Board voted Tuesday
Nobody should have had to go through what the high-school seniors of the classes of 2020 and 2021 have had to endure. Last year’s seniors were cruising along. The athletes in the class had finished up the winter seasons of basketball or soccer or wrestling. Some of them (and others) were tur…
Four senior student-athletes from Pusch Ridge Christian Academy recently signed letters of intent in early February to continue their athletic and academic futures at several colleges west of the Mississippi River.
It’s 5:20 on a Tuesday afternoon, just 10 minutes before the tipoff of the first game of the year for the Amphi girls basketball team. It’s three months to the day from when official practice for winter sports was original scheduled to begin and more than two months later than when the first…
PHOENIX – Apprehensive Arizona parents of high school athletes can rest easier now.
In the movie “Modern Romance,” writer/director/actor Albert Brooks plays an especially neurotic nebbish who is actually lucky in love, but doesn’t have enough sense to realize it. He over-thinks everything and, in the process, drives away the woman who is perfect for him. In the uncomfortabl…
It was a cold, gray day in March of 1975. The Cochise College baseball team, of which I was a member, headed for Tucson to take on the Pima College Aztecs. (Back in those days, there was a strictly enforced 55 mph speed limit on the Interstate and it took FOREVER to get anywhere for games.) …
After initially canceling the winter sports season last week, the Arizona Interscholastic Association voted 5-4 vote reverse course and reinstate the Arizona high school winter sports season at a special executive board meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 12.
The Arizona Interscholastic Association's executive board voted 5-4 to cancel the upcoming high school winter sports season during a Jan. 7 special session.
Every now and then, Tucson football fans have the melancholy experience of watching a homegrown talent strutting his stuff at a college other than the University of Arizona. We watched Jon Volpe lead Stanford in rushing. We were thrilled watching Riki Gray (Ellison) play linebacker at USC. A…
Government and business leaders in the Town of Marana are concerned about the Pima County Board of Supervisors recent 3-2 vote to implement a mandatory curfew as virus rates rise in Southern Arizona.
We here at The Explorer/Marana News have everything we could ever want or need, so we’re channeling all of our holiday energy into making Christmas wishes for others. Our Christmas wishes are:
While most people, including the sad and unfortunate members of the high-school graduating class of 2021, will look back on this year as the WORST EVER, there were a couple bright spots. With meticulous planning, a strict adherence to protocols, and, certainly, a good measure of luck, Pusch …
The 1979 Amphi High football team went undefeated for the entire season. They needed a stifling 15-0 win over powerhouse Sunnyside to reach the state playoffs and a gutsy goal-line stand in the final two minutes of a 7-0 semifinal win over Apollo to reach the state title game. Amphi cruised …
After Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry asked public schools to stop fall athletic activities, many districts are doing so.
SAN CLEMENTE, California – High school athletes can’t play competitively this fall semester due to California’s pandemic restrictions, so some elite players are traveling to Arizona and other states to maintain their skills and continue developing a scouting profile for colleges.
The Arizona Interscholastic Association’s executive board voted during a special meeting Thursday to postpone the start of the high school winter sports season until Jan. 5 in response to rising COVID-19 rates across the state.
Newton’s Second Law of Motion states that Force = Mass times Acceleration. When Sean Roebuck was a 150-pound linebacker for the Marana Tigers back in the 1990s, he instinctively understood that principle. “I wasn’t very big,” he explains, “but if I ran at people really fast, I could take the…
PHOENIX – The Arizona Interscholastic Association recommended postponing the start of winter high school sports such as basketball, wrestling and soccer to its executive board Monday, possibly pushing the start of those sports into January.
GILBERT – With several schools experiencing outbreaks of COVID-19 during the high school football season, social media has served as a platform for those pointing fingers at programs that appear to have stands packed with fans, many without face coverings.
PHOENIX – After a one-year absence because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Native American Basketball Invitational will return in July, showcasing indigenous basketball players from across the U.S., Canada and New Zealand at venues around the Valley.
PHOENIX – Many high school seniors competing in fall sports have aspirations to play in college. For those in states where sports are on pause because of the COVID-19 pandemic, that goal might be difficult to reach if they don’t already have offers.
A swarm of players wearing color-coded shirts are racing through a series of timed obstacles on a blustery afternoon. The men are asked to perform a series of tasks designed to test different athletic skills.
For the seventh year in a row, the man they call “Bam” is spending the summer months guiding a mass of young football players through a litany of conditioning drills on the fields of Mountain View High School.
Jeff Scurran tucks a full head of silver hair beneath his trademark white Nike visor on a blustery late May evening. The larger-than-life figure in Arizona high school football looks out over a practice field tucked between two softball diamonds at Catalina Foothills High School.
A swarm of players line up on a parched practice field on a cloudless summer afternoon in the shadows of the imposing rockfaces of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
Two-dozen players wearing a duke’s mix of practice pennies race around the parched practice field at Ironwood Ridge on a blistering mid-May afternoon.
A cacophony of whistles screech across the turf football field at Marana High School last Tuesday afternoon as a horde of teenagers’ sprint through drills.
Cats nearing College World Series
Local athletes from Canyon del Oro and Ironwood Ridge dotted the AIA’s All-Region teams for boys volleyball, with Dorado Jack Call winning Player of the Year in the 5A Kino region. Nighthawk athletes Justin Miller and Jrue Jantz were co-players of the year in the 5A Sonoran region.
The Oro Valley Wolverines High School lacrosse team capped off a memorable year with a win of Phoenix-based Desert Mountain earlier this month, in the Division II state championship game.
AJ Kaiser stung a belt-high fastball deep into an overcast sky last Tuesday afternoon, cutting through a gale force headwind for a two-run home run.
Track and field stars from across the state converged on Mesa Community College over the weekend for the AIA State Track Championships.
The young men of the Marana football squad have a new leader in Louie Ramirez, who’s set to bring a deep well of knowledge to the back-to-back section champions.
CDO, Marana finish top-five in girls track
The Marana Tigers have a new football coach, in 25-year-old Northern Arizona University Graduate Assistant Louie Ramirez.
Sarah Whaley has worked at Marana High School for four years, moving into her current role as dean of students and athletic director two years ago. She previously served as a girls basketball and volleyball coach at Marana. She previously worked as an English teacher and girls basketball and…
(As of Monday, April 9)
Boston’s Gourmet Pizza, Marana (5825 W. Arizona Pavilions Drive) is hosting an event this Thursday, March 29 to benefit Marana Tigers Baseball. Boston’s Pizza pledges to donate a portion of its food sales between 4 and 8 p.m. to the Marana Tigers Baseball Boosters.
The Northwest High School teams had some great performances this year in track and field. There were a number of state champions and both individuals and teams who capped off great seasons at state.
The Pima Community College baseball program has its new coach and it is a familiar face.Rich Alday has agreed to come back to lead the Aztecs as their head coach. Alday started the Pima baseball program and racked up a record of 496-220 in his 16-year career from 1974-1989. He took the Aztec…
The CDO baseball team fell 5-3 in the 4A state semi-finals. Nogales jumped out to a 5-0 lead but saw the Dorados climb back into the game in the sixth. Kiko Romero led off the inning with a triple and scored to batters later on a Derrick Calvillo single. With two on Brian Romero hit the team…
The CDO softball team beat Sunrise Mountain 4-2 to win their ninth softball state title in school history.
The Canyon Del Oro softball team is back in familiar ground, playing for a state title. The Dorados will play Sunrise Mountain on Tuesday for a chance to win their ninth state championship.
The CDO baseball team advanced to the 4A semifinals with a 21-2 win over Coconino. The No. 4 Dorados will face No. 1 Nogales on Wednesday, May 10, for a spot in the championship game.
The No. 4 Canyon Del Oro baseball team rallied from a 5-1 deficit in the final inning to beat No. 13 Apache Junction 6-5 in the first round of the 4A Baseball State Championships.
The Pusch Ridge softball team saw their season come to an in in heartbreaking fashion, with a 4-3 walk-off loss in extra innings to Safford.
Northwest baseball and softball teams are having an excellent postseason. At press time four of the seven teams were still alive and all seven qualified for the state playoffs, either qualifying outright or winning a regional play-in game.
All four Northwest teams advanced in their respective baseball and softball regional playoff games on Wednesday.
