Citizen Staff Report
The remodeled Pima County Sports Hall of Fame will be showcased Saturday.
Refreshments will be served from 1 to 8 p.m. for the reopening at La Placita Village, 110 S. Church Ave., Suite 6120.
Citizen Staff Report
Freelance
SIMPSON COLUMN
Corky Simpson
Of all the doors of economic opportunity open to star athletes, the girlie-magazine market must be the most curious.
Former University of Arizona swimming sensation Amanda Beard has advanced the debate – I’m not sure in which direction – about women’s place in sports by dropping her Speedo for the cover spread in Playboy.
She may have banked a million bucks, or whatever the flesh journal is paying these days to its marquee strippers.
But assuming, long term, that her career is not in nudie magazines, was it worth it?
Does it matter that Amanda may have disappointed a worshipping sports public by baring her behind and other parts?
A lot of parents must be shaking their heads in the negative example she has set for a few million kiddies.
As a seven-time Olympic medalist, swimming to glory at the Summer Games of 1996, 2000 and 2004, and with plans to compete next year in Beijing, Amanda became the idol for little girls all over the country.
She showed them what can be achieved by combining talent, hard work and dedication.
But what is she showing them, beyond the obvious, by cavorting in her birthday suit for Playboy?
In the 2004 Olympics, Beard won the gold in the 200 meter breaststroke, and the silver in the 200 meter individual medley and 400 meter medley relay.
In 2000 she won the bronze in the 200 meter breaststroke.
Back in 1996, a mere 14 years old, she was the darling of the Atlanta Olympics where she picked up a gold medal in the 400 meter medley relay and won the silver in the 100 and 200 meter breaststroke.
At the University of Arizona, Beard was the NCAA champion in 2001 in the 200 meter breaststroke.
Maybe we should be careful about judging too quickly.
Maybe social rules on things such as modesty no longer apply to emancipated female superstar-athletes.
Old-fashioned ideas about athletes as wholesome, all-American girls and boys-next-door may no longer apply.
Winning the hearts of sports fans perhaps no longer carries with it any responsibility to live up to a certain moral image.
In which case, it wouldn’t matter if a beautiful athletic queen took on the role of come-hither seductress for some slick skin-magazine.
Propriety changes its roles constantly.
This isn’t the 1930s and Amanda isn’t Sally Rand or Gypsy Rose Lee, a couple of strippers who were looked down up by pillars of a different society.
Besides, male athletes have traditionally had the opportunity to step off the playing field or court, or climb out of the pool into lucrative paydays in movies, business, politics and such.
Maybe Amanda can charm her way off the pages of Playboy into greater success as a model and eventually onto the silver screen, where her experience at peeling off her clothes would come in handy. Who knows?
And who cares if people lose respect for Amanda the athlete?
Sometime back, reviewing her athletic career, she said, “I’ve received so many opportunities because of swimming – opportunities that a lot of people don’t get. I feel so blessed to have been able to experience what I’ve experienced.
“It’s been a wonderful life, and in a lot of ways, I think the best is yet to come.”
I agree. Amanda is a charming, intelligent and beautiful young lady and surely the best of her life is yet to come.
But as charming, intelligent and beautiful as she is, she wouldn’t have gotten a second glance – let alone a first-team cover spread from Playboy – had she not first made a name for herself in sports.
Her appearance on the pages of a publication that glorifies lust trivializes the incredible effort and hard work this young lady has put in to become one of the world’s best athletes.
So, OK. It’s her life.
But it’s the public’s respect for Amanda that will determine her future success.
Retired columnist Corky Simpson writes every Saturday for the Citizen.
Citizen Staff Writer
ANTHONY GIMINO
agimino@tucsoncitizen.com
Arizona softball pitcher Taryne Mowatt has priceless memories from ESPY-related activities – the parties, the red carpet, the hob-knobbing – but she couldn’t keep all the goodies.
Well, she did pick up two very nice trophies from the ESPN award show – for top female collegiate athlete and overall top female athlete.
But in order to protect her NCAA eligibility, she was unable to accept a gift basket full of thousands of dollars worth of products and services that were given to athletes and presenters.
“Oh no, I didn’t get anything like that. I had to be really careful,” Mowatt said Friday afternoon after returning from the Los Angeles area.
“I didn’t get the goodie bag. But I heard it was really cool. Other people told me there was a bunch of good stuff, some expensive stuff.
“I just hope I can go again next year when my eligibility is done and I can get all that stuff.”
Mowatt, a senior next season, said she was in contact with the athletic department’s compliance office before she left to make sure she didn’t commit any “extra benefits” violations.
“There wasn’t anybody watching me like a hawk,” she said, “but I didn’t do anything I shouldn’t have.”
Mowatt arrived at the ESPY festivities Tuesday, attending a party that night hosted by Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who won the best male athlete award.
Yes, she can be quite a name-dropper now.
“My favorite person was Ashley Judd,” Mowatt said. “She was just really nice and really cool. We talked for a little bit.”
NBA star Shaquille O’Neal was staring at her from the front row as she nervously gave her acceptance speech.
“I thought I was going to pass out. I couldn’t even breathe,” she said.
Hockey great Wayne Gretzky made a point to go up and talk to her. She joked with actress and Catalina High School graduate Kate Walsh, who butchered both of Mowatt’s names when she presented an award and then uttered an expletive likely to be edited out.
Mowatt needled Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, who helped present her award.
Manning, a University of Tennessee alum, had called Vols pitcher Monica Abbott to offer encouragement before the Women’s College World Series. Mowatt and Arizona then beat Tennessee in the best-of-three championship series.
“I was like, ‘Where was my call?’ ” Mowatt said. “He just laughed. Later, when we were talking to reporters, he said, ‘She did beat my big Orange.’ ”
Amid some of the Hollywood A-listers and greats from the sports world, Mowatt said she did feel like quite the glamour girl, even if she could do without the paparazzi.
“The camera people are ruthless,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Over here! Over here!’ They were taking hundreds of photos, and I was like, ‘My eyes are starting to water. I can’t keep smiling this long.’ ”
Not only was there the party after the show, there was the after-after party, hosted by NBA star LeBron James and talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel.
“That night, I didn’t go to bed until 4:30,” Mowatt said.
Priceless memories, indeed.
She said she will watch the show on Sunday night. Then it’s on to summer school Monday and working out again to get ready for next season.
Sigh.
“Back to reality,” Mowatt said.
‘LOCAL’ ESPY WINNERS
2007: Taryne Mowatt, UA softball, best female athlete; best collegiate athlete, 2007
Multiple years: Annika Sorenstam, ex-UA golfer, eight ESPYs, including 2006 best female athlete
2006: Tedy Bruschi, ex-UA football star, comeback athlete of year
2002: Diamondbacks, Game 7 World Series win over Yankees, top sports game
ESPYs on TV
• 6 p.m., Sunday, ESPN (taped)
Citizen Staff Writer
GIMINO COLUMN
The University of Arizona’s Taryne Mowatt, upon being selected the
female athlete of the year at the ESPY awards Wednesday night, used a
most appropriate choice of words.
She described the honor as “surreal.”
The University of Arizona might have never had a more instant,
surprising superstar than Mowatt, who across the span of seven days,
eight games and 1,035 pitches at the Women’s College World Series,
transformed herself from inconsistent, mostly anonymous college
softball pitcher to national sports celebrity. She also won female
college athlete of the year.
“Wow,” UA assistant coach Larry Ray said Wednesday night upon hearing the ESPY news. “I just think that is very cool.”
Same here. I generally hate the ESPYs – given that it is just an
extension of ESPN’s overblown self-congratulatory nature – but, yeah,
I’ll be watching Sunday night when the cable network airs the show,
which was Wednesday night, red carpet and all, at Hollywood’s Kodak
Theatre.
Shaq. LeBron. Peyton.
Tomlinson. Sharapova.
Mowatt.
I guess that trip to Hollywood was worth her taking a few days off from summer school.
Yeah, this is all surreal.
Consider: On the eve of the Women’s College World Series, Mowatt was
selected a second-team All-American, which means she wasn’t even rated
among the top three pitchers in her sport.
She was very good. Not great. Not extraordinary. A rival coach called her “beatable.”
And then, through an exhausting stretch in which she never once
complained, Mowatt seized the moment. Pitch after pitch, escaping jam
after jam, she willed the Wildcats to the national championship,
surviving five elimination games along the way. “We really had a big
load on her shoulders. It was just amazing how she got through what she
got through,” Ray said. “Each inning was a pleasant surprise.”
The Series thrust the photogenic Mowatt onto the pages of the
biggest Internet sports blogs. She started receiving fan mail from all
over the globe, visited the White House and met the president with her
teammates . . . and now this.
Amid the celebrities and paparazzi and most iconic of sports figures
at the Kodak Theatre, she was selected, through fan voting, as the
college female athlete of the year and the national female athlete of
the year.
She won the latter award over ex-Wildcat golfer Lorena Ochoa, pro
basketball player Lisa Leslie and University of Tennessee basketball
player Candace Parker.
“I definitely was a little surprised to win,” Mowatt was quoted as
saying by the Associated Press. “Being up against them, it’s just
surreal.”
Mowatt, in a blue satin dress, accepted the trophy from Indianapolis
Colts quarterback Peyton Manning and actress Kate Walsh of “Grey’s
Anatomy.”
“Oh my god,” assistant coach Nancy Evans said Wednesday night when she found out about Mowatt’s ESPY victories.
“That is just awesome for her and it’s a great honor for the University of Arizona softball program. It’s amazing.”
Alas, Tennessee basketball, and not UA softball, was recognized as
the top women’s collegiate team, but Mowatt’s award and her meteoric
rise is all about team. That’s the moral of this story.
The Cats were able to give her a little rest during the regular
season, but she was the only full-time pitcher on the staff. She knew
from the beginning that the team’s fortunes would hinge on her ability,
her toughness, how she handled herself every single day of the season.
“I have always told her and everybody I teach, you have to take care
of yourself physically, emotionally and mentally throughout the season
and basically give yourself up for the team. Be unselfish,” said Evans,
who coaches the pitchers.
“When you focus on winning and losing and nothing else – not your
stats or personal achievements – in the end great things will happen on
their own. It’s amazing how true that is.
“She started to believe that in the middle of the year. She didn’t
get all the (regular-season) awards, but she got the national
championship and now she’s getting all the rewards, all the
recognition, and she deserves it.
“I always knew the pitcher Taryne could be, and at the end she was
phenomenal. To see her succeed the way she did is a very, very proud
moment for me as a coach.”
Next season, when Mowatt is a senior, is just going to be crazy. UA
set a school attendance record when Jennie Finch was a senior in 2002,
averaging 1,775 per game.
Move over Jennie.
It’s Taryne’s time.
“She has a lot to live up to now and it’s going to be a tough act to
follow,” Ray said. “But she did it once, and she can do it again.”
Anthony Gimino’s e-mail:
agimino@tucsoncitizen.com
• ESPY winners, Page 7C
ESPYS ON TV
The sports award show, taped Wednesday night, will be shown at 6 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.
Freelance
Corky Simpson
Young athletes are better today than ever, but they don’t have as much fun as we did when I was a kid.
They couldn’t. Today they’re one-sport wonders.
We played every game there was and even made up a few, some of them stretching the imagination to outrageous lengths.
I sat in the nosebleed section at McKale Center and watched this year’s Lute Olson Basketball Camp, which ended last week. I was amazed at the skills of these whippersnappers with skinny legs and oversized sneakers.
These young’uns are far better at basketball – light-years advanced – than I and my buddies were.
Kids today switch hands and dribble with an ambidextrous ease that just blows your mind. We couldn’t begin to do that when I was growing up. We were right-handed or left-handed, and that was pretty much that.
Oh, sure, today’s kids “carry” the ball, and in my day, that was an infraction. But the game has evolved in such a way (twice as fast, for one thing) that it’s best to give ballhandlers a greater degree of freedom.
It makes basketball a much better game to play and to watch, I think.
But here we are in the middle of summer and these boys were playing . . . basketball!
Geez, we’d have been about halfway through the league schedule in baseball when I was a boy about a hundred years ago.
Coaches, parents and fans tell me that competition is so fierce today that a kid has to concentrate on one sport.
That’s why there’s summer basketball and winter baseball. Football is pretty much year-round, too.
And that’s a shame.
Maybe we were “uncool” and backward, watched B-movie Westerns and black-and-white television, but whatever sport was in season, we played it. And we invented others.
We loved all the sports and wouldn’t have dreamed of choosing just one.
In my Midwest hometown, when there was ice on the ground we played hockey – even though we didn’t know the rules. We knew there were two goals to be defended, and you could jump on top of somebody and pound his face into the snow.
Then we’d drag our bloody little bods to somebody’s driveway, shovel off the snow and shoot baskets.
At the first sign of spring, sometimes before, we’d hit a few flies, play some pepper and get ready for baseball. When the leaves turned from green to brown and red and yellow, we played football.
We didn’t have basketball camps, or baseball or football camps.
“Camp” was something your church had way out in the boondocks somewhere. You went there for a couple of weeks, drank a lot of Kool-Aid and got munched on by mosquitoes big enough to throw a saddle on.
When the weather was so bad we couldn’t play outdoors, we went inside and used our imagination. My best friend, Jimmy Hooten, had this large basement at his house, and we made basketball hoops from the rims of coffee cans. We used a tennis ball – and boxing gloves.
Seriously. Jimmy had one set of boxing gloves. We’d play one-on-one basketball, and you wore a boxing glove on one of your hands.
According to our rules, while dribbling the ball or shooting with one hand, you could punch your opponent’s lights out with the other. Defenders defended with one bare hand and threw punches with the gloved fist.
But you couldn’t “carry” the ball.
We stooped so low we even made super-miniature baseball “stadiums,” got down on our hands and knees and swatted marbles, using wooden pencils as bats.
Once, on an early April stroll along Spring River, I found a bag of some kind of seed a farmer had left beside a fence. I didn’t know what it was – still don’t – but for the heck of it, I built a tiny baseball park and planted the seed where the outfield grass and infield grass would be. I formed a pitcher’s mound and took about a million little sticks and built a fence around the outfield.
I never did go back to check on my ballpark, but I would like to think that some weeks later, a startled Farmer Brown busted into his house and said something like, “Edna, Edna, come quick! You know them there little people – them Leprechauns – we used to read about? Well, by golly, they’re for real!!”
We’d play baseball on the town tennis courts if they were empty. We hit tennis balls with a broom handle.
And none of us made it to the big leagues, or even to Division I basketball, football or anything else.
But we had a great time.
And thank goodness, we weren’t forced to choose one sport.
Besides, no college in the history of the world has even given out scholarships in “boxing ball.”
Retired columnist Corky Simpson writes every Saturday for the Citizen.
Citizen Staff Writer
Anthony Gimino
Sports Columnist
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.
Anthony Gimino’s e-mail:
agimino@tucsoncitizen.com
The Associated Press
NEW YORK – Two University of Arizona female athletes have received ESPY nominations this year.
UA’s national championship softball team pitcher Taryne Mowatt and ex-Cat golfer Lorena Ochoa are among the women nominees.
ESPN announced the nominees Monday. The awards show airs July 15 from Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre.
Mowatt was nominated for both the female athlete of the year and the female collegiate athlete of the year.
Ochoa was nominated for the female of the year category.
The UA softball team is also up for an award. The Wildcats were nominated as one of the top NCAA women’s teams.
The Associated Press
Citizen Staff Writer
Anthony Gimino
Sports Columnist
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.
Anthony Gimino’s e-mail: agimino@tucsoncitizen.com
TOP 10
There are so many good choices when deciding on a top-10 list of UA athletes for 2006-07. When you have world-class talent at No. 6 (softball’s Caitlin Lowe) and No. 7 (swimmer Albert Subirats), well, you better be sure the athletes ahead of them are special. We think they are. (Bios, Page 3C)
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
2006-07 TUCSON CITIZEN TOP 10 UA ATHLETES
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.
Citizen Staff Writer
GEOFF GRAMMER
ggrammer@tucsoncitizen.com
In 1979, Santa Rita High School placed the future of its baseball program in the hands of 25-year-old Dan Moore.
The same day he was hired as a teacher, the school’s baseball coach resigned, giving the former Sahuaro High and University of Arizona football and baseball player his big break.
“When I first started,” Moore said, “I was in such awe in what I was doing and awe of some of the coaches I was going against, I never stopped to think much about how long I’d be doing it.”
Nearly 30 years later, Moore is one of 12 members of the 2007 induction class of the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame. Of those 12 inductees, six have high school coaching experience in the county.
Although he has a Class 3A state championship to his credit and a 4A runner-up season, Moore said his induction has more to do with the number of kids he has been able to teach during the years.
Moore, 53, said he still runs his program the way he learned from such mentors as Gary Grabosch and Hal Eustice. As for coaching longevity, Moore admits the days of tenure such as his are numbered.
“Nowadays, I’m not sure how any of us have kept going,” Moore said. “There are a lot of kids looking for the easy way out. In the past, if I told the kids to run through the fence, it’d be a race to see who got there first. Now, they look at each other for support not to do it. . . . Every team that’s worth a darn still has a certain number of guys that go to the weight room when nobody is looking, that get up early and go to the batting cage . . . trying to get that out of the kids, that is what the challenge is.”
Moore joins 243 other Pima County Sports Hall of Fame members. He and the 11 other members of the class of 2007 will be formally inducted at a banquet Oct. 21.
Member John Gleeson, also the group’s president, said the hall of fame museum should reopen soon at La Placita Village, 110 S. Church Ave.
“I’m hoping by sometime in July,” Gleeson said, adding it is closed while it is moving to another suite at the same downtown complex.
Gleeson, who was inducted last week into the Arizona Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, was inducted into the county hall after a successful baseball coaching career that included stints at Flowing Wells and Salpointe Catholic.
A selection committee sorts through nominations each year, according to Gleeson, and selects the top candidates in four categories: athlete, coach, official and contributor.
The other five inductees with high school coaching experience in the class of 2007 are Howard Breinig, Jim Estrada, Mike Odum, Jeff Scurran and Virgil Stan.
Other inductees include Ray Desmond, a local businessman who has contributed generously to area youth, college and professional sports; Russ Gragg, a star baseball player at Tucson High and UA before a professional career; and Kathleen “Rocky” LaRose, the UA senior sssociate athletic director and former Wildcats softball player.
Other inductees are Herbert “Red” Mann, a UA football player; Jerry Tolle, a 10-year president of the Arizona State Bowlers Association and former Tucson High football player; and Jim Markert, a Rincon graduate who became one of Arizona’s busiest high school officials, calling 233 postseason games in the state, including multiple state championships in football (6), baseball (10) and basketball (3).
Hall of Fame
The Pima County Sports Hall of Fame will induct 12 new members this year:
1. Howard Breinig
2. Ray Desmond
3. Jim Estrada
4. Russ Gragg
5. Kathleen “Rocky” LaRose
6. Herbert “Red” Mann
7. Jim Markert
8. Dan Moore
9. Mike Odum
10. Jeff Scurran
11. Virgil Stan
12. Jerry Tolle
Citizen Staff Writer
In my three months in Tucson, one of the more enjoyable projects I’ve been able to work on – aside from my sports editor making me wash his car and mow his lawn once a week for the first 90 days on the job – was the selection process for the Tucson Citizen Student-Athlete Award.
As the process unfolded, Flowing Wells multiple-sport star Tara Erdmann separated herself from the field much as she did last week when she won three state titles at the Class 5A Division II state track and field meet.
Another enjoyable aspect of this process was my catching up with the first winner of the award, 1957 honoree Dr. D.L. Secrist Jr., and his wife of 43 years, Jan. In talking with the Secrists, they were both impressed to hear of this year’s six finalists for the award, five of whom were girls. The Secrists spoke of their appreciation for Title IX, the federally mandated gender equity law, and the opportunities it has provided female athletes through the years.
“The availability of women to do anything they want to do, I just think that is absolutely fabulous,” said Jan Secrist, who graduated from the University of Arizona in 1961 and taught for 10 years at the University of San Diego. “I saw this at the university, but the girls I taught in my classes who had played sports in high school were so much more well-rounded and, frankly, so much more interesting to have in the graduate program. They understood the competition and the team concept.”
Her husband said, “All of us have grown up with some outstanding women who deserve the same opportunities to compete as the boys.”
I’ve had mixed feelings through the years about Title IX and how it has been twisted by some schools – in particular on the college level – to downsize men’s sports to reach equity. Talking with the Secrists, it makes me realize that without Title IX, maybe Erdmann and the other female finalists wouldn’t have been given the opportunity today to win such a prestigious award.
Citizen Staff Writer
GEOFF GRAMMER
ggrammer@tucsoncitizen.com
Tara Montana Erdmann still doesn’t seem to realize it.
The 2007 Tucson Citizen Student-Athlete Award winner from Flowing Wells High School might be the last person to get the message: She’s a phenomenal athlete and student.
“She doesn’t realize how awesome she is,” said Erdmann’s understandably biased mother, Christene Haag. “She’s very humble and she has always been like that, and I don’t know why because she just amazes me every time I watch her run. I can’t even believe she’s my kid.”
The often clouded eyes of a proud parent aren’t deceiving Haag. Erdmann is one of the greatest athletes, if not one of the most decorated, to come out of the Tucson area. And with a 3.5 grade point average, the National Honor Society member isn’t just running circles around her peers on the track.
Throw in her work as a volunteer – she has worked with the Foundation for Animals In Risk and has helped organize community races and sports camps – and it’s apparent the Loyola Marymount University-bound Erdmann has quietly developed into a well-rounded young adult noticed by more than just a proud parent.
“She is the picture of humility almost to a fault,” said Jeff Messer, the track and field coach at Phoenix Xavier Prep who, in the last year, has become a close friend and running adviser for Erdmann. “I wouldn’t say I coach her, but I’ve just been trying to get her to look at herself and focus on some of her fundamental qualities as an athlete, as a student and as a human being. I think that’s translated to some success for her. She’s coming closer to understanding just how good she can be.”
How good she has become was never more apparent than in the past eight days. Erdmann completed a dominating year in track and field by pulling off a rare trifecta, winning Class 5A Division II state championships in the 3,200 meters, the 1,600 and the 800, making her the first Tucson female athlete to do so since 1993.
“As the coach at Xavier, I’d like to say this about (one of his athletes), but if I’m being truthful, there is no denying Tara is the elite distance runner in Arizona,” Messer said.
The three titles Erdmann won in track this year bring her high school championship total to seven.
As a sophomore, she was part of Flowing Wells’ championship cross country team. As a junior, she won the 1,600 state title in track and an individual title in cross country. As a senior, she was a star midfielder on the school’s championship soccer team before her sweep in last week’s track championship meet.
“Running was just always easy for me,” Erdmann said. “I always was first in all the conditioning runs we would do for softball practice, and in soccer we did a lot of running, and that part wasn’t really ever that hard. But what I really wanted to do when I was younger was grow up to play soccer at some college in California.”
The multisport athlete has played three sports a year since she was a sophomore and played plenty of softball when she was younger.
Running was never a goal, despite her clocking a 6:05 mile in seventh grade.
“I didn’t have any concept in seventh grade of whether that was a good time,” Erdmann said. “I just knew I won.”
Credit John Fish, a former teacher and athletic trainer at Flowing Wells and the husband of Caballeros cross country coach Amanda Fish, for persuading the soccer star to give running a try.
“He bugged me every day my freshman year to come out for the cross country team,” Erdmann said.
Fish said, “She finally gave in.”
That sophomore year, Erdmann helped Flowing Wells win the 5A state cross country title and hasn’t looked back.
“She had all the physical talent in the world,” John Fish said, “but without the mental toughness, you’ll never break through as a runner. She had both.”
Erdmann’s prowess in the world of athletics and her passion for sports are shaping her plans. At LMU, she plans to study to pursue a career in sports, getting into athletic training and nutrition after college.
“I love sports and I know that when I’m done with my collegiate running, I want to stay involved in athletics and sports,” Erdmann said. “Sports have been a big part of my life and I don’t think that will ever change.”
EXCERPTS FROM TARA ERDMANN’S ESSAY
Coach an inspiration to winner
“An influential person can be defined as someone who makes a positive impact on another person’s life. In the past, I’ve had multiple people to look up to but hadn’t found the right person. Now it is my senior year in high school and I have found the person who has made me a better athlete and student. This person is my coach, Jeff Messer.
“Without his knowledge and coaching experience, I would not have landed where I am in my running career. He has found a way to connect with me and make me believe things are possible and in my reach.
“Not only on the track does he influence me, but in the classroom as well. With Jeff having a doctorate in kinesiology, he is a positive role model for me because I know how many months and years it takes to earn the highest degree. Getting good marks has always been important, but he has made them even more important to me.
“Jeff’s overall influence affects my daily life on the track and in the classroom – he’s made a positive impact on my lifestyle. And making me believe I can achieve at a high level has given me the best feeling about my sport that I could want.”
PAST WINNERS
1957: D.L. Secrist Jr., Tucson High
1958: Donald Parsons, Catalina
1959: Edward Brown, Flowing Wells
1960: Terry DeJonghe, Salpointe
1961: Robert Svob, Catalina
1962: Ray Kosanke, Tucson High
1963: Michael Aboud, Tucson High
1964: Pat McAndrew, Flowing Wells
1965: Charles Begley, Sunnyside
1966: Eric Evett, Catalina
1967: Ron Curry, Tucson High
1968: Jeff Lovin, Palo Verde
1969: Bruce Pawlowski, Salpointe
1970: Dave Henry, Sahuaro
1971: Tom Hagen, Salpointe
1972: Bill Baechler, Palo Verde
1973: Francisco Gomez, Pueblo
1974: Richard Rucker, Canyon del Oro
1975: Guillermo Robles, Sunnyside
1976: Karen Christensen, Rincon
1977: Michael Wing, Rincon
1978: Craig Barker, Amphitheater
1979: Ralph Gay, Sunnyside
1980: Kristine Bush, Sabino
1981: Lisa Kay Baker, Sahuaro
1982: Vickie Patton, Marana
1983: Martin Tetreault, Sahuaro
1984: Molly Reiling, Salpointe
1985: Timothy Roggeman, Salpointe
1986: Jon Volpe, Amphitheater
1987: Luis A. Padilla, Pueblo
1988: Nicole Stern, Catalina
1989: Robert Moen, Flowing Wells
1990: Grace O’Neill, Salpointe
1991: Angel Phillips, Rincon/Univ- ersity
1992: Zenen Salazar, Sunnyside
1993: Michelle Vielledent, Sahuaro
1994: Julie Reitan, Sahuaro;
and Brady Bennon, Sabino
1995: Kelly Yablonski, University High
1996: Joe Aguirre, Palo Verde
1997: Andy Viner, University High
1998: Scott Beck, Canyon del Oro
1999: Glenn Schatz, University High
2000: Nicole Voelkel, University High
2001: Ai-ris Yonekura, Catalina Foothills
2002: Phillip Sanchez, Sunnyside
2003: Tim Ashcraft, Sahuaro
2004: Joe Kay, Tucson High
2005: Tiffany Hosten, Tucson High; and Echo Fallon, Catalina Foothills
2006: Michael Smith, Sunnyside
2007: Tara Erdmann, Flowing Wells
2007 NOMINEES
Andrea Elise Kinney: Academy of Tucson
Rudy Marcus Padilla: Amphitheater
Pamela Sage: Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind
Mona Eskandari: BASIS Tucson
Kelly Anne Zimmer: Canyon del Oro
Steven Bradley Greer: Catalina Foothills
Cliff Vazquez: Catalina
Kyle Evan Gee: Cholla
Karina Lisette Camacho: Cienega
Hannah Kathleen Waller: Desert Christian
Tara Montana Erdmann: Flowing Wells
Anna Elizabeth Fiastro: Green Fields Country Day
Wayne A. Martin Jr.: Ha:sañ Preparatory
Samantha Anna Kunk: Howenstine
Jordan Edward Flayer: Immaculate Heart
Gabriel Carrasco: Luz Academy
Kirsten Helene Herrera: Ironwood Ridge
Ashley Marie Jungbluth: Marana
Lynn Garnaat: Mountain View
Ahmad Azzam Taleb: Palo Verde
Jessica Danielle Switzer: Pueblo
Katlyn J. Freeland: Pusch Ridge
Carmen Vinueza-Daly: Rincon
Abigail Marie Bird: Sabino
Brette Anne Hoyt: Sahuaro
John Adams Leavitt: Salpointe Catholic
Nicole Maria Gonzalez: Santa Rita
Sandra Mae Crusa: St. Augustine
Nathan Levy: St. Gregory College Preparatory School
Kaleigh Renee Gates: Sunnyside
Lindsay Ruth Liebson: Tucson High
Juliana Peña: University High
Citizen Staff Writer
Stories by GEOFF GRAMMER, High School Sports Editor
Hoops, softball standout Freeland idolizes mother
When Baylor University signed Katlyn Freeland to an athletic scholarship to play softball for the Bears this fall, it got one of Arizona’s best small-school athletes over the past few years.
A starting guard on the 2007 Class 2A girls state basketball champion Pusch Ridge Christian Academy team, Freeland has also carried the Lions’ softball team to new heights over the past four years before its run in this year’s tournament was cut short when she hurt her ankle in the opening round.
Off the field, she’s been equally impressive. She has a 4.1 grade point average, is a member of the National Honor Society and has won several scholastic and athletic awards to go along with a long list of various volunteer activities.
Essay excerpt: “Strength, courage, honor, loyalty, generosity and hospitality: these attributes formally make up the heroic code, but they also make up a woman of God named Rhonda Freeland.
“This mother, adviser and friend has made the largest impact on my life. Rhonda Freeland is the greatest influence for me of all time because of her heroic qualities she encompasses and the positive impact she has always had on me by allowing me to learn from her past.”
Softball star Gates credits her mom as No. 1 influence
Long before Kaleigh Gates helped lead her team to last week’s Class 5A Division II state softball title, the Sunnyside team captain had already established herself as one of the school’s best players ever.
Gates was nominated for the Student-Athlete award with a 3.5 GPA and as a seven-time honor roll honoree. She received the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s Scholar/ Athlete Award her first three years in high school and has received a scholarship to play softball at Tennessee Tech next year. Gates is a member of the color guard and is on the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council.
In addition to softball, Gates was also a four-year letter winner in basketball and cross country at Sunnyside, but the diamond is where her heart is and she has volunteered for four years with youth T-ball teams.
Essay excerpt: “The person who has influenced me the most would have to be my mother, Michelle Gates . . .
“My mother thinks of her life as always being plain and ordinary. She doesn’t realize how many people’s lives she has touched. Whereas my father has taught me everything I need to know about softball, my mom has taught me everything I need to know about who I want to become . . . .”
Runner Herrera refuses to follow the easiest path
A telling example of the character of Ironwood Ridge’s Kirsten Herrera came in a cross country race in her junior year.
When a runner in front of her veered off course in the final mile of the race, Herrera called out to her and waited until the runner got back on the proper path, then the two resumed the race. Herrera still ended up winning, but she chose to earn it on the course and not by the other runner’s mistake.
A four-year varsity letter winner in cross country, track and soccer at Ironwood Ridge, Herrera also has a 3.74 grade point average (4.12 if you weight her honors classes). She was a Tucson Citizen Southern Arizona first team cross country selection in 2005 and 2006 and a first-team selection in track in 2006.
Essay excerpt: “Sometimes sports are tough. Your lungs might burn during the last grueling mile in a cross country race or you might get knocked down hard in a soccer game and something like that might make you want to quit. It has such impact on me that this man (Jesus Christ) in history went through hours of pain and tormenting but kept going. This influences me to never quit just to take the easy way out. Even when things go bad, there’s never a good enough reason to quit. I have learned that pain makes you stronger.”
Tucson High’s Liebson a good athlete, likes bugs
You can’t have a more well-rounded résumé than Lindsay Liebson’s.
Her 4.2 grade point average ranks her No. 1 among 619 Tucson High graduating seniors. She has been president and a four-year member of the Math Engineering Science Achievement program; she was a part of Amnesty International; she’s played in various bands, she plays the flute, piano and guitar; she composes music; she’s the vice president of the Calculus Club; a three-year member of the National Honor Society; president and a three-year member of the Tucson Chapter of the Asian Youth Alliance.
Then there is sports.
Liebson played volleyball for the Badgers for four years, ran track as a freshman, and was the captain of the tennis team the past two seasons.
Essay excerpt: “My father is my inspiration, my motivation and my determination. . . . When my parents divorced (when she was 5) my father made a promise to raise me to the best of his ability . . . .
“Perhaps I didn’t smell quite as pleasant as the other girls at school; perhaps I didn’t wear ribbons or curls; perhaps my fingernails grew a bit too long and were a bit too dirty a bit too often. Who cares? I had a killer bug collection.”
Palo Verde’s Taleb lobbied for grid commitment
Linemen may not get all the headlines, but they serve a vital purpose.
Ahmad Azzam Taleb anchored the Palo Verde High School offensive and defensive lines for the past few seasons and displayed leadership off the field by writing a contract of commitment and presenting it to his teammates.
He also competed on the wrestling, tennis and track and field teams.
Taleb is a member of the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council and the National Honor Society. He won a National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame Scholar Athlete Award earlier this spring.
Essay excerpt: “To me, my family not only includes my immediate, but the family relationship that comes with playing on a high school football team. So when mentioning my family, this includes my parents, siblings, coaches, teammates, close friends and teachers.
“. . . Playing football did not just teach us how to make big hits and be a bunch of brutes on the field, but it taught us all as a team that we had to come together as one family, as one group of brothers in order to accomplish a goal, a goal that could only be accomplished by working together.”
Citizen Staff Writer
GEOFF GRAMMER
ggrammer@tucsoncitizen.com
He had it at Tucson High, where he was a multisport athlete and excelled in the classroom as the 1957 winner of the first-ever Tucson Citizen Student Athlete Award.
He had it at Stanford, where he played football and baseball.
He had it in the Army, where he was a medical officer.
But ask the 69-year-old Dr. D.L. Secrist Jr. to point to another time or place in his life where he felt the same sense of team – a concept he feels is vital for finding success in life – that he felt during those early years in life, and he has a hard time finding a parallel.
“The thing about sports you just can’t replace is the camaraderie,” Secrist said. “Some of the finest fellas I’ve ever met were teammates. . . . Creating team – a lot of kids grow up and they don’t play in a team sport, so they have to be taught. Athletics is a great teacher. You learn to get knocked down and get back up.”
With his affinity for sports still very apparent, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear the pride in Secrist’s voice when he talks about the team he’s been building around him for the past 43 years with wife, Jan. The couple have two children – daughter Wendy and son D. L. III or “Trip” – and four grandchildren. All, according to the proud grandfather, are great athletes and even better people.
Secrist, now residing in Solana Beach, Calif., with Jan, hasn’t slowed down. He still practices medicine (child, adolescent and adult psychiatry and he previously practiced obstetrics and gynecology). Through the years he’s run six marathons, was an avid tennis player, ocean swimmer, hiker and even rode a horse across Montana a few years ago. He was a charter member of the Durango Mountain Caballeros, does yoga and, now that arthritis in his neck from his football playing days has put a damper on some of the more rigorous activities, he and Jan walk for at least 45 minutes a day.
“Once an athlete you’re always an athlete,” he said. “Once it’s in your blood, it’s in you.”
Jan Secrist is no different.
“I’m the same way. Neither one of us can sit still,” said Jan, a 1961 graduate of the University of Arizona. “One of the reasons our marriage has been so successful is we share so many interests.”
Jan Secrist began understanding the successful and motivated Secrist family long before she married, or even met, her future husband. As an undergrad at UA, where she was on the synchronized swimming team, Jan Secrist pledged the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority where she met KAT alumnus, and future mother-in-law, Jeanette Secrist.
Delbert Secrist, D.L.’s father, was an All-American football player in college who played in the East-West Shrine game and later was a 17-year team physician for the UA athletics department.
D.L. Secrist says growing up on the sidelines of UA football and basketball was a big factor in his and his sibling’s early fondness for sports. His brother, Rick, is a longtime member of the Tucson High Badger Foundation, among several other organizations.
D.L. Secrist gets back to Tucson “two or three” times a year, including next week when he will be attending a pair of graduation ceremonies. One will be at Tucson High and another will be at the middle school named for his father, Secrist Middle School (3400 S. Houghton), where he will present awards to that school’s top male and female students of the year.
The advice he plans on giving those students, and this year’s winner of the Tucson Citizen Student Athlete Award, seems appropriate for a life-long athlete.
“Just keep on going,” he said. “So much of my success was due to great support from my parents, teachers and so many others around me, but remember you’re going to get knocked down sometimes. Just get up and keep on going.”
Today, things are going well for the Secrist family, and they credit a lot of that success to a very basic principle.
“We have an awesome team,” Jan Secrist said. “I would hope everybody could find a team like this. I feel very fortunate to spend my life with such an interesting and energetic friend.”
TUCSON CITIZEN STUDENT-ATHLETE AWARD
TODAY: On award’s 50th anniversary, we talk to 1957 winner D.L. Secrist (right).
WEDNESDAY: The 2007 winner is announced. For candidates’ profiles, go to tucsoncitizen.com/achieve07.
DR. D.L. SECRIST JR.
Age: 69
Personal: Married 43 years; wife, Jan; two children; four grandchildren
Education: Tucson High, Stanford University, George Washington University Medical School
Military: He served two years as a captain (medical officer) in the Army stationed at Fort Richie and Camp David (Maryland)
On playing sports at Stanford: “I played four years of baseball as a first baseman and right fielder. In football, I went as a halfback. That’s what I played at Tucson High. But there they converted me to an outside linebacker and then I played tight end. . . . Compared to the other guys there, I was too small to play much end. When I was playing, that was before steroids. When we played USC, their line averaged 190 pounds. Their biggest player was Luther Hayes and he was 6-5, 235.”
Do you remember winning the award?: “Absolutely, it was a time I’ll never forget. . . I received an engraved Omega SeaMaster watch, which I still have today.”
• • •
“The thing I’d love to say about the award, the finalists I was up against, I think we were all equally worthy of the award. And I’m sure they all found success in their lives, too. Athletics is just such a great teacher.”
It’s in the blood: In addition to having an uncle play football for the New York Giants, Delbert Secrist Sr., D.L.’s father was an All-American football player at Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania and later a 17-year team physician for the University of Arizona.
Citizen Staff Writer
GEOFF GRAMMER
ggrammer@tucsoncitizen.com
Tucson native Andy Viner is no Saul Towner. There are similarities, but they are hardly one and the same.
Towner is the 36-year-old lead character in “It’s your birthday, Saul Towner,” a 14-minute film Viner created as his graduate thesis film at the University of Southern California, where the 1997 winner of the Tucson Citizen Student-Athlete Award graduated last week with a master’s of fine arts in film production.
“Saul Towner is a lot like me in 10 years or so if I were to succumb to some of my more idle tendencies,” the 28-year-old Viner said.
With the pace the former University High soccer standout has kept over the past 10 years, it doesn’t appear he will be succumbing to too many “idle tendencies.”
After winning the 1997 Class 4A soccer championship at Rincon/University and graduating that year with a 4.28 grade-point average, Viner walked on to the Duke University soccer team for two seasons.
He went to Duke with the intention of pursuing a medical career, but changed his major in his freshman year and went on to earn bachelor’s degrees in literature and economics.
Viner’s passion for film, which first began to rear its head at University High when he was the founder of the UHS Motion Picture Association, took him back west to USC.
With another collegiate experience behind him, Viner plans to keep on moving and tackle his budding career in film with the same ambition and dedication he wrote about in the 1997 essay he was asked to write when nominated for the Citizen’s Student-Athlete Award.
“The idea of pushing my body as far as it can reach parallels my attitude toward school and everything else in life,” Viner wrote as a high school senior.
Last week, from his home in southern California, Viner was looking ahead with optimism about his career path..
“It could be 10 years before I really get one of my ideas made (into a film),” Viner said of the movie industry. “It’s always going to have that element of quick money and celebrity to it, but if you’re not coming out for that, it’s a lot easier to last in the business. It’s a lot of work, but I love what I’m doing.”
TUCSON CITIZEN STUDENT-ATHLETE AWARD
TODAY: Catching up with Andy Viner, who won the award 10 years ago.
TUESDAY: On award’s 50th anniversary, we talk to 1957 winner D.L. Secrist (right).
WEDNESDAY: The 2007 winner is announced. For candidates’ profiles, go to tucsoncitizen.com/achieve07.
Freelance
Corky Simpson
You probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the decathlon, but here’s a handy way to appreciate those who participate in it.
Say your spouse hands you a honey-do list for the weekend, and it looks like this:
• Mow the lawn
• Rake and bag the clippings
• Trim the hedge
• Pick weeds
• Clean out the garage
• Wash the dishes
• Paint the patio trim
• Service the cooler
• Wash the car
• Bathe the dog
Oh, and do it better than the neighbors, even those with big mowers and electric clippers.
It was more derring-do than honey-do, but Jake Arnold of the University of Arizona has won the 10-event Pacific-10 Conference decathlon two years in a row.
His most recent victory was last week at Stanford.
Today and Sunday he’ll compete in only four events at the conference Track and Field Championships, also at Stanford.
Arnold is a fifth-year senior from Santa Rosa, Calif., who earned a degree last year in retail and consumer sciences. He’s going to give the decathlon a shot as a professional after this school year, try for the World Meet and maybe the Olympic Games next year.
He’s a big guy, 6-foot-3 by 195 pounds, and if you want to walk – or run – a mile in his shoes, you’ll have to bring nine pair.
That’s right. He totes nine different pairs of shoes to every competition.
“I guess you could technically use the same shoes for maybe one or two different things,” he said. “But event-specific shoes help.”
So does his experience with Nike. He served an internship with the Oregon-based company a couple of years ago and hopes to work for Nike full-time, maybe, when his competition days are over.
After today’s Pac-10 meet at Stanford, Arnold will try to defend his national title at the NCAA Championships and then compete in the U.S. Nationals.
“I like the decathlon,” he said. “And I feel that I can compete better in the 10 events than I could if I focused on only one.”
He did focus for a time on the pole vault, which is merely the most difficult single event in the world of sports. But an injury – “I broke my arm snowboarding when I was a senior in high school,” he said – caused him to consider the decathlon.
It helped that he broke his high school record in the 110 hurdles while the arm was mending. He ran the hurdles because, obviously, he couldn’t pole vault.
Arnold, 23, vaulted 16 feet, 11 inches in the decathlon competition at the Pac-10 Track & Field Multi-Event Championships.
“My best is 17 feet, 5 inches,” he said.
The aerobic requirements of the decathlon – strength, speed, mobility and endurance – are amazing enough.
Even more amazing, though, are the athletes who challenge the 10 events.
No wonder when, at the 1912 Olympic Games after Jim Thorpe emerged the decathlon champion, King Gustav V of Sweden told him, “You, sir, are the world’s greatest athlete.”
To which Thorpe, a rugged Native American of the Sac and Fox tribe, famously replied: “Thanks, King.”
Jake Arnold began his sporting life as a center fielder and pitcher in kid league baseball and as a basketball player. He was wearing a San Francisco Giants baseball cap when we sat down this week and talked about his successful defense of the Pac-10 decathlon title.
One other Wildcat, Derek Huff in 1988 and 1989, won back-to-back conference decathlons.
“I have really good coaches in Fred Harvey and assistant Sheldon Blockburger,” Arnold said.
“Sheldon is our jumps coach and he was a decathlete at LSU. He came in last year and taught me what the decathlon is all about.”
Harvey said his Wildcat decathlon champion is “a great young man, and the neat thing is, he’s a guy who walked on here right out of high school, worked hard and has become very successful.”
Arnold walked on because he was still trying to develop decathlon skills after the snowboarding spill put his pole-vaulting on temporary hold.
Sometimes when one door closes, another one opens.
“I don’t think I was good enough to compete nationally in the pole vault,” Arnold said. “But in the decathlon, I can.”
He ranks No. 5 in the country in the decathlon and said if he can jump up a couple of notches at the U.S. Nationals this summer, he can qualify for the World Meet in Osaka, Japan.
Looming not far away is the 2008 Summer Olympics, where Jake would love to take his shoe collection.
Retired sports columnist Corky Simpson writes every Saturday for the Tucson Citizen.
