Former UA softball All-American Jennie Finch and Monica Abbott combined on a one-hitter Sunday night as Team USA won the championship of the Canada Cup.

The U.S. national team beat Japan 5-0 in Surrey, British Columbia.

Finch threw four hitless innings, striking out four and walking two, before Abbott came in for the final three innings.

Finch appeared in four of Team USA’s 10 games of the tournament, which featured other national teams as well as a few club teams. The United States rarely was challenged, going 10-0 and winning all but two of the games by the mercy rule.

Ex-Wildcat Caitlin Lowe, batting leadoff, hit .448 (13 of 29) with 12 runs and eight RBIs. She also stole four bases.

Tairia Flowers, a graduate of Salpointe Catholic High, hit .647 (11 of 17) with 10 RBIs. Former UA infielder Lovie Jung was 3 of 13.

Ex-Wildcat Alicia Hollowell pitched five innings in two games, winning both and allowing only one hit.

Team USA will play in the KFC World Cup of Softball in Oklahoma City, beginning Thursday.

> Come blog with us at www.tucsoncitizen.com/blogs.

The University of Arizona softball coaches have been selected the Division I staff of the year by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.

The UA coaches – Mike Candrea, assistants Larry Ray and Nancy Evans, volunteer Dave Feinberg and student assistant Alicia Hollowell – will be honored at the NFCA national convention in Las Vegas from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1.

The coaches guided the Wildcats to a 50-14-1 record, the program’s 10th Pac-10 title, 21st consecutive postseason appearance and eighth national championship.

Incoming Arizona softball freshman Brittany Lastrapes earned MVP honors at the Women’s Junior World Championships won by Team USA.

Lastrapes hit .548 in 10 games (17 for 31), with six RBIs, five stolen bases and six walks. She did not strike out. She had two hits Saturday as the U.S. team defeated Japan 3-1 in the championship game in Enschede, Netherlands.

“I can’t explain how I felt when they called my name,” Lastrapes said in a news release. “I was completely in shock, but I was also so excited. I’ve never felt that before.”

Team USA went 10-0 at the tournament, which is held every four years. Japan won in 1999 and 2003.

Lastrapes, a left-handed slap hitter, will be a freshman at UA next season, when she figures to hit at or near the top of the order and hold down an outfield spot. She played left field for Team USA.

Lastrapes and incoming freshman Lauren Schutzler, an outfielder, will help replace the left-handed production and speed lost from four-time All-American Caitlin Lowe.

Incoming Wildcat Lindsey Sisk went 2-0 for Team USA, pitching six innings during pool play. She did not pitch in the three playoff games.

UA outfielder/infielder K’Lee Arredondo was scheduled to play for the U.S., but withdrew to rehab a shoulder injury. Pitcher Kenzie Fowler, who will be a junior at Canyon del Oro High School and has committed to UA, had to withdraw from the team because of surgery to remove life-threatening blood clots in her right arm.

Taryne Mowatt coaches first base during the White House tee ball game Wednesday.

Talk about a photo op: There was Arizona softball player Chelsie Mesa to the immediate right of President Bush. There was Kristie Fox on his left.

The rest of the players from the University of Arizona’s back-to-back national championship softball teams gathered around.

The Wildcats posed Wednesday with the president in the Rose Garden, a little break in the big fella’s day from subpoenas, increased criticism of the Iraq war from his own party, talk of tax incentives on health insurance, immigration issues and all that stuff.

For a few minutes, at least, what mattered for the sports pages was that one snapshot of the state of athletics – the navy-clad Cats and Bush, holding a UA jersey.

The image of a college softball team at a special event at the White House serves as the proverbial thousand words about the journey of women’s sports.

It was 35 years ago last weekend that Title IX forever changed the landscape of college athletics, trickling down to youth sports and flowing up to professional opportunities.

Title IX read thus:

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under an education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

And so colleges had to get with the program and provide opportunities. Just think: As established and beloved as softball is in Tucson, it has been an official NCAA sport only since 1982.

Women’s participation in college athletics has soared from less than 32,000 before Title IX to about 170,000 for the 2005-06 school year, according to the NCAA.

“It’s been a long journey,” said UA senior associate athletic director Rocky LaRose, who was a Wildcat softball player in the mid-1970s.

“I have been a witness to it all and been a benefactor of it all. I arrived on this campus and received one of the first scholarships, and I felt like I had won the lottery.

“The impact of Title IX has been nothing short of phenomenal. These days, we don’t even think twice about the fact our team is going to the White House.”

It wasn’t that way even 10 years ago.

In June 1997, after the Wildcats had won their second consecutive national title and fifth in seven years, softball player Julie Reitan wondered why her program had never been invited to the White House.

The UA men’s basketball team, fresh off its only national title, had been invited.

“It’s sometimes frustrating when we see how people value men’s sports more than women’s,” Reitan said at the time.

Arizona Sen. John McCain wrote a letter to President Bill Clinton on behalf of the softball team.

“Your invitation to an exceptional college-level women’s team would send a message throughout our country about the importance of women athletics and call attention to the excellence women athletes have achieved,” McCain wrote.

An invitation never came.

“It was difficult to tell our softball team that we would have sent them, but they weren’t invited,” LaRose said.

“I remember talking to the White House staff about that when we were back there for basketball.”

Now the White House has a “Champions Day” for college teams, men’s and women’s. Twenty-eight squads were honored earlier this month.

The 2006 UA softball team was supposed to be one of those, but when the Cats went back to back, the White House had a bigger plan.

The 2007 team – as well as seniors from 2006 – were invited to take part in Wednesday’s first-ever softball tee ball game on the South Lawn.

The two-inning game was between Little League teams from Virginia and Maryland. UA pitcher Taryne Mowatt served as the first base coach. Outfielder Caitlin Lowe was the third base coach.

“One reason that we invited the Wildcats to come to honor these girls softball teams is because it’s in the nation’s interest to promote women athletics,” Bush said before the game.

“We’re a big believer in Title IX programs. We think it’s good for America that our women are playing sports. The best way to convince women to play sports is to start early.

“So these champs are here to encourage these young girls to play hard, play often and play good, and one day you may be national champs as well.”

You wonder if the UA players had a message for Bush as they left:

See ya next year.

Wildcat sports: Williams’ shot out of whack, Olson says

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

President Bush visits with UA softball players.

Last talk with daughter leads father to Africa

TOP: Julie Reitan (center) celebrates with her UA teammates in a victory over UCLA in the 1997 season. ABOVE: Pastor Mark Reitan and his wife, Elaine, watch the Arizona softball team play Washington in a game at Hillenbrand Stadium on May 13. Julie was their youngest child. RIGHT: Mark Reitan and four of his "adopted grandchildren" stand outside a Lutheran cathedral in Bukoba, Tanzania, in November 2006. The children (from left) are Arnold, 12, Witness, 10, Juliet, 14, and Gelda, 8.

The life-changing phone call came 10 years ago this morning.

Mark Reitan, a pastor in Lynnwood, Wash., north of Seattle, was showing visitors the Trinity Lutheran Church where he worked. His parents were in town from Tacoma. His wife, Elaine, was at a conference in Oregon.

His son, Micah, called from Arizona with the news.

Julie Reitan, the daughter of Mark and Elaine, a senior-to-be at the University of Arizona, a starting outfielder for the two-time defending national champion UA softball team, an academic superstar, was dead.

Mark had no way to reach Elaine. He called some people who knew where she was, and they drove out to give her the news that her daughter had died.

“Which one?” she asked in a panic.

They didn’t know. Could it be Angie, who was pregnant with her first child? It wasn’t until Elaine got to a phone and called Mark that she found out that Julie, 21 and the youngest of their three children, had died during the night.

But this isn’t about sadness. It’s not about grief.

It’s about how Mark decided to act on the final conversation he had with Julie.

It’s about how Mark and Elaine Reitan lost a daughter and, all these years later, half a world away, in a small, leaky hut in Tanzania, gained five grandchildren.

● ● ●

The memory of Julie Reitan lives on in many ways.

Her uniform number is retired within the Arizona softball program, and her No. 10 hangs on the outfield wall at Hillenbrand Stadium. A group of softball fields at Lincoln Regional Park on the Southeast Side was renamed Julie Reitan Softball Complex.

Charity events have been held in her memory to raise money for diabetes research. Youth softball tournaments have carried her name.

Micah, 35, named his 3-year-old daughter Julia in her honor.

UA softball coach Mike Candrea, during the recruiting process, tells Julie’s story to prospects as an example of how a player can achieve the perfect balance of academics, athletics and spirituality.

“Julie was one who had all that,” Candrea said. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her.”

Julie graduated first in her class at Sahuaro High School in 1994, and her studies at UA included Swahili. She was one of just a few students at the university learning the language. Her interest in African culture was fueled, in part, from Micah’s heritage.

The Reitan family adopted Micah, born in Danang, Vietnam, from an orphanage when he was 14 months old. It was their way to do something positive amid their concern for the war. He is half black, half Vietnamese.

There were other influences on Julie. When Mark was the pastor at Spanish Trail Lutheran Church in Tucson, he brought in speakers from Africa. As a superior track athlete at Sahuaro, many of Julie’s heroes were black.

She was talking with her dad after her junior year at UA, telling him of her wish to someday travel to Africa to do service work and use her growing fluency in Swahili.

“She wanted to know if she could do that and if I would support her,” Mark said. “I was very supportive. In fact, I would have loved to go with her.”

Julie died a week later of hypoglycemia, a complication of her Type I diabetes.

Mark never forgot that final conversation.

“I wanted to go and fulfill her memory,” he said. “I was just waiting, I suppose, for it to work out in our schedule.”

● ● ●

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the young children who attended school at Trinity Lutheran Church sent letters to children who had lost parents in the attacks.

Stephen Bouman, the bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was so impressed that he wrote to Mark, asking to visit so he could thank the children in person.

While there, Bouman saw pictures of Africa and pictures of Julie in Mark’s office. Mark told him his daughter’s story. Bouman said he had been unsuccessfully looking for a pastor to go a sister diocese in Tanzania to teach at a school.

“Would you be willing to go?” Bouman said.

“That would be a perfect fit,” Mark said.

The trip ended up being part of Mark’s already-planned six-month sabbatical in 2004, which started in Germany. While there, Candrea called with horrible news; his wife, Sue, had suddenly died in a Wisconsin airport of a brain aneurysm.

It was just a couple of weeks before the start of the Olympics. Candrea was the coach of the U.S. softball team.

Mark flew back to Tucson to speak at Sue’s memorial service, and later joined Candrea in Athens as the softball team’s chaplain. The U.S. won gold.

The final part of Mark’s sabbatical took him in October and November to Ruhija Lutheran Theological College near a town called Bukoba in the northwest corner of Tanzania, on the western coast of Lake Victoria.

Mark instructed clergy from all over Tanzania on pastoral care-giving skills, so important in a country suffering from an AIDS epidemic. According to a United Nations report, 6.5 percent of the country’s adults were living with HIV in 2005.

A group of HIV-AIDS workers from an organization called HUYAWA – it’s an acronym that translates to “services to children” – then asked Mark if he would visit a family of five orphans. Their parents had died a couple of years earlier of AIDS.

When he arrived, these were the conditions he saw:

“They drank dirty water they got from a stream. They had one pan. They had no dishes, no silverware, no shoes, no change of clothing. They had nothing. No beds. They slept on the dirt floor,” Mark said.

“The roof leaked. They were wet. They had no uniforms for school. They rarely went to school. I don’t know how they did it. . . . And there are thousands and thousands of children like this.”

Of the five orphans, four were girls. When Mark arrived, he was told that one of them – about 11 years old – was out searching for food for the night.

“What is her name?” Mark asked the oldest child, who was about 15 years old.

“Julie,” she answered.

It was like a lightning bolt from heaven.

“It was just as if I melted into the dirt at that moment,” Mark said.

“What I heard God say to me right then was, ‘I know how much you miss your daughter Julie, and I know how much you miss the grandchildren she likely would have given you by now, so I’m giving you these five children to be Julie’s children.

” ‘You take these five kids and be their grandfather.’ ”

Mark’s answer was immediate.

“OK.”

● ● ●

The new Julie in the Reitans’ life is actually Juliet, which is even more appropriate in that it means “Little Julie.” Juliet is 14.

The youngest is Gelda, 8. Another girl, Witness, is 10. Arnold, the only boy, is 12. The oldest sibling, Elliot, “was taken by a man to be a second wife,” Mark said. “That was before I got them all into boarding school.”

The Reitan family, for about $3,000, bought the orphans a new home on the family land.

“It’s very simple,” Mark said.

“Dirt floor. Metal roof. It’s made of brick and concrete. A front room, two bedrooms and a kitchen. We built an outhouse and a water system so that all the water that comes off the metal roof runs into gutters and into a cistern so they would have clean water all the time.

“It works really well.”

The Reitans, through the HUYAWA organization, provide for all the children’s care, including boarding school and clothes. An aunt, discovered after Mark’s initial visit, lives in the house and takes care of the children when they are home.

“They are doing very well,” Mark said. “They are all healthy. They are all HIV-negative. They are learning English.”

Juliet, who had scant schooling, is now at a second- or third-grade level.

“She is working so hard,” Mark said.

“A good education could change their lives completely. I think there are unlimited opportunities for them. I don’t know what all that means, but I’m looking forward to discovering that for myself.”

The best part: They call him “Baba.” It’s Swahili for grandfather.

● ● ●

During the year, Mark keeps up with the children’s progress and sends messages to them through HUYAWA. He has returned to Tanzania every year since 2004. He says the children run into his arms.

When he goes back this November he will bring with him about a dozen people from the congregation at Trinity Lutheran. The parishioners have contributed money to “build many homes and provide lots of resources,” Mark said.

He told the story of a young woman who received HIV medication, helping her become strong to raise her two daughters. When Mark visited, she treated him to fried grasshoppers, a delicacy.

A boy, 16, caring for his four siblings, wouldn’t move into his new house until Mark arrived to bless it.

“He waited a month until I got there,” Mark said.

While doing all this in Julie’s memory, carrying out the vision she never had a chance to complete, the Reitan family also navigates through its grieving process.

“It’s been a great help for me. I really do see these kids as Julie’s kids,” Mark said.

“I think Julie would be very pleased with what we’re doing. It would overjoy her.”

1997 Tucson Citizen file photo

Courtesy of the Reitan family

———

JULIE REITAN: 1976-1997

High school
A star softball and track athlete at Sahuaro, she helped the softball team win two Class 4A state titles and was a co-winner of the Tucson Citizen’s Student Athlete Award in 1994. She ranked first in her graduating class of 374 students.

College
The outfielder helped lead UA to national titles in 1996 and 1997, hitting .462 in the 1996 College World Series. She earned All-Academic honors with a 3.64 grade-point average.

Death
A diabetic, the 21-year-old Reitan died of complications from hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, at her North Side townhome June 27, 1997.

———

TO HELP

For more information on HUYAWA, which cares for orphans in Tanzania, contact Mark Reitan at mark@trinitylutheranchurch.com

President Bush visits with the UA softball team at the White House.

The national champion University of Arizona softball team posed with President George W. Bush on Wednesday in the Rose Garden as part of an event celebrating youth sports.

The Wildcats were invited to the White House to take part in the seventh annual White House Tee Ball game on the South Lawn. UA pitcher Taryne Mowatt served as the first base coach for the game between teams featuring 7-year-old girls. UA outfielder Caitlin Lowe was the third base coach.

“One reason that we invited the Wildcats to come to honor these girls softball teams is because it’s in the nation’s interest to promote women athletics,” Bush said before the game.

“We’re a big believer in Title IX programs. We think it’s good for America that our women are playing sports.

“The best way to convince women to play sports is to start early. So these champs are here to encourage these young girls to play hard, play often, and play good, and one day you may be national champs, as well.”

The Wildcats were invited to this special event after winning their second consecutive Women’s College World Series earlier this month.

The expense for the trip, estimated to be more than $30,000, by UA senior associate athletic director Kathleen “Rocky” LaRose, comes out of the athletic department budget.

“It’s an unexpected but happy budget expense,” she said Monday.

Taryne Mowatt coaches first base during the White House Tee Ball game.

UA softball team signee Brittany Lastrapes is off to a fast start with Team USA at the Junior Women’s World Championships in Enschede, Netherlands.

Lastrapes, who will be afreshman next season, is 5 for 11 through four games, all victories for the U.S. The left-handed slap-hitter has scored six runs, driven in three, walked four times and stolen three bases.

She is playing left field for Team USA and has hit either leadoff or second.

Another UA signee, pitcher Lindsey Sisk, threw two scoreless innings in an 18-0 four-inning victory against Botswana on Sunday.

There are three games in pool play remaining for the U.S. team, whose biggest competition comes from Japan, the two-time defending champion of this event, winning in 1999 and 2003.

UA softball player Stacie Chambers, who was indefinitely suspended in March for a violation of team rules, is expected to be part of the team next season, coach Mike Candrea said Tuesday.

Candrea last month said she would not be back.

Chambers, a left-handed hitter, was expected to be a middle-of-the-order force for the Wildcats as a freshman last season. But she suffered a concussion in a fall tournament when a foul ball off her bat struck her in the mouth. She wasn’t ready for the start of the season in February.

Then she was suspended.

Candrea said Chambers still has to clear some tests related to her concussion, but that “she will be ready to compete.”

Chambers, who hit a state-record 20 home runs in a season at Glendale Cactus High School, would be a welcome addition to a lineup that loses its top three hitters in Caitlin Lowe, Kristie Fox and Chelsie Mesa.

Chambers was a catcher/third baseman in high school.

“She will get an opportunity,” Candrea said. “Now she has to take advantage of it.”

The University of Arizona softball team, after a memorable ride to the national championship earlier this month, soon will have another unforgettable experience.

The Wildcats, after winning their eighth Women’s College World Series title and second in a row, earned a special invitation to the White House, including a meeting with President George W. Bush.

“It’s a moment the kids will never forget,” said UA coach Mike Candrea.

Bush met with 28 national championship teams from 2006 and 2007 on the South Lawn on Monday, but the UA softball team will have a much larger share of the spotlight next Wednesday.

The visit will include participation in an afternoon Tee Ball game on the White House lawn. Pitcher Taryne Mowatt and outfielder Caitlin Lowe will serve as base coaches for a game between 7-year-old girls teams from Virginia and Maryland.

Kristie Fox, Chelsie Mesa, Laine Roth and Callista Balko will be bench coaches.

Bush will officially greet the parties after the game, when a picnic will be held on the South Lawn.

The UA softball program will be making its second trip to the White House. It also did so after the 2001 championship.

“Just going to the White House and meeting the president is something you never forget,” Candrea said.

“One of the highlights for me last time was being able to meet (Supreme Court justice) Sandra Day O’Connor and having her address the group. But just walking around and seeing the White House action, that’s fun. I think it’s going to be even more fun this time.”

Three seniors from the 2006 championship team – Alicia Hollowell, Autumn Champion and Leslie Wolfe – will be among the 40 or so people in the traveling party, which will include athletic director Jim Livengood, senior associate athletic director Rocky LaRose and former UA president Peter Likins.

The 2006 team would have been honored on Monday, but the back-to-back titles earned a special invitation.

The party will arrive in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and take an evening bus tour of the national monuments. Arizona’s congressional delegation is expected to provide a behind-the-scenes tour of the Capitol on Wednesday morning, followed by a White House tour and the Tee Ball game.

Four ex-UA players were selected for the 2007 U.S. national softball team that will play in three events this summer.

The players are pitcher Jennie Finch, infielder Lovie Jung, outfielder Caitlin Lowe and pitcher Alicia Hollowell. Each was on last summer’s national team that won the world championship.

Team USA veteran Tairia Flowers, from Salpointe Catholic High School, also made the team.

The 17-member team will play in the Canada Cup from June 30-July 18, the KFC World Cup of Softball in Oklahoma City from July 12-16 and the Pan American Games from July 23-29.

Thirty-five players took part last week in the selection camp, including current UA catcher Callista Balko, and former Wildcats Kristie Fox, Mackenzie Vandergeest and Toni Mascarenas.

UA coach Mike Candrea will lead Team USA this summer.

The University of Arizona softball team might be short on power hitters in 2008, but one is on the way for 2009 – Perelini Koria from San Pedro (Calif.) High School.

As a junior, Koria was selected as the catcher for the L.A. Times All-Star softball team. She hit .549 last season and tied the California state record with 17 home runs.

She was selected the Torrance Daily Breeze’s player of the year, the first position player to win the award since 1997. Koria helped San Pedro win the L.A. city section championship.

Bubbly pitcher who defined Series is anonymous no more, converts skeptics

"Everywhere I go, everyone is always like 'Congratulations' or 'Great tournament'," says UA pitcher Taryne Mowatt, hoisted by her teammates as she holds the trophy after the Wildcats won the NCAA Women's College World Series.

Taryne Mowatt, superstar. That’s the way of life the newest darling of Arizona softball has had to get used to in the past two weeks.

“Everywhere I go, everyone is always like ‘Congratulations’ or ‘Great tournament’,” said Mowatt, the junior pitcher who led UA to the Women’s College World Series title this month.

“Before, I could go anywhere, and unless I was wearing something softball, nobody would know who I am. Now they’re saying, ‘You’re my hero.’”

That’s because Mowatt, 5 feet 6 inches of heart and determination, defined the World Series, throwing 1,035 pitches across eight games in seven days, with an ERA of 0.47.

With that performance for the ages, she is the Tucson Citizen’s University of Arizona athlete of the year.

“I was really tired through the whole end of the tournament,” Mowatt admitted. “I just felt like I was hanging in there. I wasn’t sore, but I was just sort of heavy. Really heavy.

“During warmups I would have to sit down and take a break. I would talk to our bullpen catcher, Lauren Erb, and say, ‘I don’t know if I can finish this.’ She said, ‘Yes, you can.’

“I know I could, but sometimes it didn’t feel like it.”

Who couldn’t root for her? She received e-mails from fans of vanquished Tennessee who admitted they just weren’t able to cheer against Mowatt and the unflagging persistence of the Wildcats, who won five elimination games, including two to wrest the title from the Vols.

More so than UA’s seven previous national titles in softball, this one really seemed to capture the imagination of the city and make new fans. That’s in large part because of Mowatt’s prowess and bubbly personality.

And everyone loves the story of a player succeeding when everyone figured she couldn’t.

Mowatt was first-team all-Pac-10 and second-team All-American, but she was untested at the World Series as a pitcher. The bottom-line conclusion on her scouting report might have read “good, not great.”

After Arizona beat Cal State Fullerton in the super regionals, Titans coach Michelle Gromacki offered this assessment:

“Taryne gets it done for them,” adding, “I definitely think she is beatable.”

UA coach Mike Candrea, who didn’t have a viable second option at pitcher for the biggest of games, professed to be a bit of a skeptic at the beginning of the season, challenging Mowatt with a “Show me” when she proclaimed she could do whatever it took to lead UA all the way.

Mowatt ended up with a 42-12 record, setting school records for victories, innings (370) and strikeouts (522). Her season ERA was 1.42.

Candrea, after UA won the title with a 5-0 victory, recounted a conversation he had last year with her father, Larry.

“He told me, ‘Hang in with her, and she will give you special moments,’” Candrea said. “I can’t remember seeing a more gritty performance by an athlete.”

It was instant stardom. The final game of the best-of-three championship series was the most-viewed Women’s College Series game, averaging 1.67 million households. ESPN2′s coverage of the championship round averaged 1.36 million households.

For a couple of days, Mowatt was a hot topic on popular internet sports blogs, with pictures of her in party dress posted from her personal pages on sites such as myspace.com. You can imagine some of the inappropriate and other creepy comments that generated.

She eventually deleted those pictures from her site.

“There are some people who have sent me really weird messages,” Mowatt said.

“Some people think they have a right to judge me and my pictures because they have seen me pitch, but they don’t even know me. I just shake them off. It’s like one out of a thousand. The nice messages, I will write the person back and thank them for their support.”

There should be plenty of that next season. With UA going for a third straight national title in Mowatt’s senior season, the Wildcats should challenge the school’s average attendance record of 1,775, set during Jennie Finch’s senior year in 2002.

It should be a whole season of Taryne Mowatt, superstar.

She should be used to it by then.

TOP 10
1. Taryne Mowatt Softball

2. Jake Arnold Track and field

3. Whitney Myers Swimming

4. Preston Guilmet Baseball

5. Lacey Nymeyer Swimming

6. Caitlin Lowe Softball

7. Albert Subirats Swimming

8. Antoine Cason Football

9. Robert Cheseret Cross country

10. Chase Budinger Basketball

Voters: Citizen Sportswriters Steve Rivera and John Moredich, columnist Anthony Gimino and sports editor Mike Chesnick

> Tuesday: story lines for 2007-08

1. TARYNE MOWATT, Jr., softball: The new queen of the diamond.

2. JAKE ARNOLD, Sr., track and field: Won his second consecutive NCAA decathlon title. Named the men’s field athlete of the year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

3. WHITNEY MYERS, Sr., swimming: The Pac-10 nominee for NCAA woman of the year, Myers won the 200 individual medley at the NCAA championships and was second in the 200 fly. She earned six first-team All-America honors at the championship and was a first-team academic All-American.

4. PRESTON GUILMET, So., baseball: The Pac-10 pitcher of the year went 12-2 with a 1.87 ERA, recording the most victories for a UA pitcher in 18 years. His 146 strikeouts in 135 innings were the most by a Wildcat in 45 years.

5. LACEY NYMEYER, Jr., swimming: Among her accomplishments, Nymeyer won the 200 free at the NCAA championships, was second in the 100 free and was part of the 200 free relay team that set American and NCAA records. She was the Pac-10 women’s swimmer of the year.

6. CAITLIN LOWE, Sr., softball: The speedy leadoff hitter capped one of the best careers in NCAA softball history, batting .414 and stealing 49 bases in 50 attempts. Her defense in center field was unmatched, and her nose-first run into the Hillenbrand Stadium fence in pursuit of a fly ball exemplified the passion that the Cats turned into a national title.

7. ALBERT SUBIRATS, Jr., swimming: Fast-rising star became the second man in NCAA history to win two swimming events in one night, finishing first in the 100 fly in NCAA-record time and capturing the 100 back in school-record time. Set four UA records at the NCAA event, including in the 400 free relay.

8. ANTOINE CASON, Jr., football: The all-Pac-10 cornerback made the play of the year for Mike Stoops’ team, returning a fourth-quarter interception 39 yards for a touchdown in a 24-20 victory over No. 8 Cal. He later earned All-America honors in track as part of UA’s 400 relay team, which finished eighth at the NCAA championships.

9. ROBERT CHESERET, Sr., cross country: Was second in the Pac-10 championships (after winning in the two previous seasons) and was an All-American for the third consecutive season with a 10th-place finish at the NCAA championships.

10. CHASE BUDINGER, Fr., basketball: The 6-foot-7 forward earned Pac-10 freshman of the year honors, and his total of 484 points (15.6 per game) was the fifth-best ever for a UA freshman.

Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com

Arnold

Guilmet

Lowe

Cason

Budinger

———

MORE ON THE WILDCATS
Wildcat sports: Zendejas could be crucial for FB team

Shaking out the softball notebook for the remaining notes, quotes and anecdotes from UA’s run this week to its eighth national championship . . .

Judging from questions I got in Oklahoma City at the College World Series and via e-mail, many folks are curious about the status of pitcher Amanda Williams and catcher/infielder Stacie Chambers, who were supposed to be the cornerstones of the 2007 freshman class.

Chambers was, according to a press release, “suspended indefinitely” in early March for undisclosed reasons. UA coach Mike Candrea told me last month she won’t be back.

Williams was academically ineligible after the first semester. Candrea declined to comment on her academic status after the second semester, citing student privacy.

In theory, if she had become eligible after the second semester, she could have been with the team in Oklahoma City. She was not. She was at home in northern California, where she has not returned phone calls from the Citizen this week.

Williams’ mother, Lisa, said Friday that the family did not want to make any statement about Amanda’s future at this time.

Candrea has talked at length in the past couple of years about the nature of today’s athletes, and about how he needs to adjust his style to spend more time with freshmen getting them ready – mentally, emotionally, socially – before they ever hit the practice field.

At the news conference following Wednesday’s national title game, he said the freshman class “really took a lot of energy out of me.”

Candrea added: “I don’t know how to describe it, other than it’s called taking care of business. And if that’s the future, we’ve got problems with young kids.”

Moving on . . .

K’Lee Arredondo is expected to be a valuable member of the U.S. junior national team, which competes in the world championships in the Netherlands later this month.

“All of the girls who have one year of college under their belt will play a huge role,” said Ronnie Isham, director of U.S. softball national teams.

“I’m sure K’Lee has grown a bunch (at the World Series).”

Arredondo, who played left field for UA as a freshman, is expected to move to shortstop next season to take over for Kristie Fox, assistant coach Larry Ray said. Arredondo arrived at UA as an infielder.

Chambers, by the way, was also removed this spring from the junior national team, which will include a pair of incoming UA recruits – pitcher Lindsey Sisk and outfielder Brittany Lastrapes. . . .

Taryne Mowatt’s mother, Suzie, said it is frustrating to her daughter when people make judgments about her looks – the blond hair and giddy personality hides what everyone now knows is the heart of a champion.

“It’s very upsetting to her,” Suzie said after the title game.

“Listen, she has been doing this since she was 4. She has every title there is in softball except for an Olympic gold medal. This is nothing new to us as a family, but now everyone sees it.” . . .

One of the more interesting things I heard in Oklahoma City was assistant coach Nancy Evans telling me how she has learned to not be a “cookie-cutter coach.”

Evans, who just completed her seventh season at UA, handles the pitchers and catchers. During her Wildcat playing days, she was a low-maintenance, just-give-me-the-ball pitcher – the same as Alicia Hollowell was from 2003-06.

Mowatt simply has a different personality.

“It helped me take a step back and say, ‘OK, here’s a challenge and I want to accept that challenge. I want to find out what drives her,’ ” Evans said.

“I’ve done that, but it took a while because she’s so different than I was as a player. But if I’m going to be a good coach, I have to learn the personalities of my pitchers and catchers, and from there make them better.

“If I can do that, it might show I know what I’m talking about.” . . .

Major kudos to Evans’ pitch-calling from the dugout, especially in the championship series against Tennessee.

Mowatt shut out the Vols in the final two games, spanning 17 innings.

“We did make adjustments,” said Tennessee co-head coach Ralph Weekly. “But she never showed us a pattern. When you have a great change-up and you don’t show a pattern, that’s difficult.”

Said Candrea after the title game: “Nancy called a hell of a game.” . . .

Incoming freshman Lauren Schutzler missed almost all of her senior softball season because of a serious ankle injury sustained while playing basketball in December for Notre Dame High in Monterey, Calif.

Her sister, Lindsay, who just completed her eligibility at Tennessee, said Lauren broke her ankle in three places.

“She was driving toward the basket, and a girl came and knocked the ball down, and she stepped on it and just rolled the ankle on the ball,” Lindsay said.

“There was no ligament or tendon damage, but it dislocated and broke, so it looked like that,” she added, turning her right ankle out.

Lindsay had an excellent career at Tennessee, hitting .392 and stealing 39 bases last season. Lauren, like her older sister, is a left-handed, top-of-the-order hitter with good speed.

“She’s a little bigger than me,” Lindsay said, “so hopefully she has a little more pop.”

Lauren, who played shortstop in high school, projects as an outfielder at UA.

Candrea will be missed, but Cats will be solid

UA softball players (front, from left) Laine Roth and seniors Kristie Fox, Caitlin Lowe and Chelsie Mesa show off their NCAA championship trophy outside McKale Center. More than 1,500 inside the arena welcomed back the Wildcats. STORY, 7C

Perhaps I’m still feeling the glow of Arizona’s eighth national championship in softball, but I think the Wildcats will be just fine next season, when the biggest question will be the absence of head coach Mike Candrea.

The last time he took a sabbatical to coach the other team in red, white and blue – our U.S. softball team in 2004 – UA failed to make the College World Series for the only time since 1987.

How much of that was the emotional downer of outfielder Autumn Champion blowing out her knee in regional play, how much of that was the fact Alicia Hollowell was only a sophomore and had yet to prove her pressure pitching chops, how much of that was simply “stuff happens” and how much of that was the lack of Candrea in the dugout . . . well, it’s really hard to say.

It is the opinion here, after 20 years of following the college game, that Candrea is the best in the softball world at what he does, and, although I might be reaching beyond my experience here, I would put him up against any coach, any sport, in any land, when it comes to knowing how to get individuals to play as that celebrated unit known as a team.

So, it’s no knock on Larry Ray and Nancy Evans, the assistants who will be charged with carrying on to try to win Arizona’s ninth national title – and third in a row – to say that things just won’t be the same without Candrea.

Neither will Hillenbrand Stadium be aglow with four-time All-American center fielder Caitlin Lowe, whose quickness made it seem as if one woman could cover the outfield, chalk line to chalk line.

Her best buddy, shortstop Kristie Fox, is gone, too. You had to love the way she played the game, all in-your-face and with a bit of snarl. Candrea said at the World Series, “Kristie Fox doesn’t like anybody.” He meant only on the field, of course.

And then there is the third senior, Chelsie Mesa, whose four national titles – two at Phoenix College and two at Arizona – might seem like she’s just been lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

But her game-saving over-the-shoulder catch against Tennessee in Game 2 of the championship series wasn’t luck, and neither was the way she finally caught up to a Monica Abbott rise ball and deposited it over the right-field fence in Wednesday night’s title game.

Those were the three best hitters Arizona had last season. They will be missed.

OK, so that’s a lot of chatter about what the Cats won’t have.

What they will have starts with Taryne Mowatt, whose 1,035-pitch effort across eight games in seven days produced a World Series single-season résumé that could be described thusly: Best. Ever.

“I’m going to take the summer off from softball,” she said. “I’m going somewhere with a beach.”

Mowatt is the best insurance against UA suffering the same fate as in 2004, because, unlike Hollowell at the time, she already has the ring.

Two, actually, including one in 2006 when her hitting helped support Hollowell’s all-innings pitching.

Mowatt, who said she dearly missed hitting this season – Arizona couldn’t afford the risk of exposing their only top-level pitcher to injury – might get a chance to get back in the batter’s box in 2008 if incoming freshman Lindsey Sisk can help carry some of the pitching load.

More newcomers: Lauren Schutzler and Brittany Lastrapes, both speedy left-handed slap-hitters, were picked from the highest branches of 18-and-under softball. Victoria Kemp, known for her offense, figures to have first crack at second base. Tawny Horton, a lefty who can slap or swing away, will compete for an outfield spot.

On paper, UA will have more depth and versatility than it has had in the past two years. And experience? The Cats have that. Six scholarship players have a pair of national title rings.

Now, they will go for a third without Candrea.

The guy’s great, but it’s doable without him. It’s easy to forget that UA went 53-4 in the 2004 regular season and won the Pac-10 without him.

“It will definitely be different,” Mowatt said. “But I think Coach Ray is a great coach and, obviously, Nancy is a great coach, too. I think they can handle us.”

Three-peat, anyone?

UA NEWCOMERS FOR 2008
There never is much time to enjoy a national title. Assistant coach Larry Ray was scheduled to leave Friday morning to recruit, not only looking at a couple of classes down the road but to see if he can find anyone who can help for next season.

With freshman Amanda Williams academically ineligible, and freshman catcher Stacie Chambers kicked off the team in the spring, Arizona has room to add a player if it wants. Here are UA’s five signees for next season:

> Tawny Horton, OF

> Victoria Kemp, 2B

> Brittany Lastrapes, OF

> Lauren Schutzler, OF

> Lindsey Sisk, P/OF

Note: Outfielder Jessica McNamara, a third-team junior college All-American from Pima Community College, will walk-on, Ray said.

———

POTENTIAL 2008 LINEUP
C Callista Balko Sr.

1B Laine Roth Jr.

2B Victoria Kemp Fr.

3B Jenae Leles Jr.

SS K’Lee Arredondo So.

LF Brittany Lastrapes Fr.

CF Lauren Schutzler Fr.

RF Adrienne Acton Sr.

DP Sam Banister Jr.

P Taryne Mowatt Sr.

Others: INF/P Sarah Akamine, So.; OF Cyndi Duran, Sr.; OF Tawny Horton, Fr.; PR Jill Malina, Jr.; PR Danielle Rodriguez, Sr.; P/OF Lindsey Sisk, Fr.

Game replay primes crowd at McKale

At McKale Center on Thursday before the Wildcats returned from Oklahoma City, Beverly Ginn (left), Joan Weaver and William Johnson cheer a replay of the home run that clinched the championship against Tennessee on Wednesday. The trio have been season ticket holders for at least 12 years. "We haven't missed a game," Ginn says.

Every little girl wants to be a University of Arizona softball star.

At least every little girl among the more than 1,500 fans who greeted the 2007 NCAA national softball championship winners as they returned to Tucson on Thursday afternoon.

It was the eighth national championship for the team, coached by Mike Candrea, and the third back-to-back win.

The crowd watched a replay of Wednesday’s championship game, which the Wildcats won 5-0 over Tennessee, on the giant overhead screen at McKale Center as it awaited the team’s arrival.

The fans cheered during the five-run fifth inning, reveling at every run across home plate.

And some used the replay as a coaching tool.

“Look at her foot. She planted it,” Israel Bojorquez told his daughter, Jasmine, 12, as one of the Wildcats came up to bat.

When she got a hit, Bojorquez told Jasmine, “See, she didn’t even look at the ball. She watched her base coach.”

Jasmine, who plays infield positions for the Blue Angels team, coached by her dad, in Sunnyside Little League, listened intently.

Bojorquez said he brought Jasmine to the celebration to “give her a taste of the atmosphere, see the trophy.”

“See that look on her face,” he told his daughter as K’Lee Arredondo crossed home plate. “That’s the kind of feeling you want.”

It is, she said. And she’d love to have that feeling a few years from now as a Wildcat. “So I’m watching how they’re moving. How they’re hitting and how they’re scooping up the ball,” she said.

Tom Tatterfield wasn’t trying to pick up any tips. The former UA student and Erik Barnard, a UA freshman, said they are avid Caitlin Lowe fans. “She had four singles last night,” said Tatterfield, who wildly twirled a T-shirt in the air at each Lowe highlight from Wednesday’s game.

“The confidence she brings to the team is the biggest thing,” Barnard said.

These accolades were far from the last for the team, which showed up around 3 p.m. with a motorcycle police escort from the airport.

The lights went down, the crowd began chanting, “U of A, U of A,” and the team, led by its seniors – Chelsie Mesa, Kristie Fox and Lowe – entered the arena to “Bear Down, Arizona.”

Gov. Janet Napolitano was there with a proclamation. The mayor was there. So was UA President Robert N. Shelton, who called the Wildcats “an extraordinary team of young women who simply would not accept defeat.”

There was also a White House message: The team was invited to play “T-ball on the South Lawn” later this month.

“Just don’t throw a change-up to the president,” someone told pitcher Taryne Mowatt, a junior and the Women’s College World Series MVP, who pitched every inning of every game in the tournament.

Brothers Jaymison and Garrison Anderson, 9 and 10, respectively, who had painted their hair blue for the homecoming, said they watched every game of the tournament on TV and were impressed with Mowatt and her team.

“What we can learn from girls is never give up,” Garrison said. (Mowatt) showed “it’s not a bad thing” when people say “you throw like a girl.”

Candrea said his players gave “the best team performance I’ve ever seen in my life . . . . They saved their very best softball for this last week. I’m so very proud of them.”

He thanked everyone involved with the team, starting with the groundskeepers and ending with top school officials. “I do this because we need new lights,” he joked.

The team didn’t let lack of sleep or the nerve-racking pace of the past several days in Oklahoma City keep it from enjoying the celebration.

After the speeches and after the team showed off its trophy, many players stayed around to sign autographs, surrounded by mostly little girls.

Mowatt said her right arm was still heavy from her record-breaking 1,035 pitches in the Series, but she was happy. “I knew we could do it, but definitely when it happened it was like, ‘Did that really just happen?’ ”

Lauren Piña, 13, had proof it did. She showed off a cap that had autographs from players, assistant coach Nancy Evans and Candrea.

But it was the ever-humble, ever-grateful Candrea who was in McKale until every single person who wanted his autograph or a picture with him had one.

“I feel like they deserve it,” he said. “That’s the grass roots about softball. Here’s where you give back.”

UA President Robert N. Shelton (left), Gov. Janet Napolitano and Mayor Bob Walkup holler while watching a replay of the championship game at McKale Center.