The Big Four of the week in Tucson sports:
1. Jessica Williams, golf. After finishing second in the state golf championships last fall, the Amphi senior accepted a scholarship to study space/physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Career goal: to be an astronaut.
Williams was in orbit Friday at Dell Urich Golf Course, shooting an 8-under-par 62, believed to be the lowest score by a Tucson female amateur in history. On the back nine alone, Williams birdied Nos. 10, 12, 13, 15 and 16 for a 5-under 30. She finished second in the Tucson City Junior Championships, shooting 74-62, three strokes behind Phoenix’s Ashley Menne, who shot 68-65.
The amazing part to Williams’ story is that she started playing golf just three years ago. She shot 90-99 in the state tournament as an Amphi sophomore. Then she began working with former Catalina Foothills state championship golf coach Mark Polich, who says Williams is “shockingly long” for a younger female golfer, with driving distance to 280 yards and beyond. Williams will play on the Embry-Riddle golf team coached by former Arizona and Florida head coach Kim Haddow, who was Annika Sorenstam’s coach at Arizona in 1991 and 1992.
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2. John Gleeson, president, Pima County Sports Hall of Fame. Gleeson made his mark in Tucson sports by coaching Flowing Wells to the 1983 state baseball championship. Amazingly, the baseball facilities at Flowing Wells and Salpointe Catholic are both named in his honor — Gleeson Field — after he coached at both schools.
In the last 10 years, Gleeson has been president of the Hall of Fame, diligently maintaining its museum downtown at La Placita year-round.
Unfortunately, with redevelopment of La Placita, the sports Hall of Fame museum has until July 31 to vacate. It’s a scramble to find the funds for a new home. “We’ve got to take everything down, and I’m working like the dickens to try to get stuff labeled and in boxes,” said Gleeson, 84.
The Hall selected its Class of 2016 last week (honorees won’t be revealed until August). Gleeson then announced he will retire after the Hall of Fame banquet in October. His is a job well done.
He will be succeeded at the top by former Cincinnati Reds and Rincon High pitcher Pat Darcy.
3. Chris Singleton, linebacker. One of the leading football players in UA history, a two-time All-Pac-10 linebacker in 1988 and 1989, Singleton was the No. 8 overall pick in the 1990 NFL draft. He played seven seasons for New England and Miami.
He has never strayed far from his UA roots; he is a regular at Arizona home games, as is his twin brother, ex-UA standout Kevin Singleton, who fought and beat leukemia in his five football seasons here.
The Singleton twins were undefeated, both 4-0, against Arizona State.
So you might imagine how foreign it felt last week when both attended the graduation of Nicolas Singleton, Chris’ son from Chandler Hamilton High School, at ASU’s Wells Fargo Arena.
But in March, Nic Singleton took a tour of the UA campus and decided he, too, would be a Wildcat. His best sport? Golf.
4. Ali Farhang, attorney. The chairman of the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl, the force behind Tucson’s second-year bowl game, has now made it an all-Tucson enterprise.
The inaugural game was owned and operated by a Phoenix group, the Arizona Sports and Entertainment Commission.
It was very helpful in the start-up process. But Farhang and his capable Tucson committee now owns and manages the game as a nonprofit organization.
This needed to be a Tucson operation, and now it is.
The game will wisely be played on the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 30. It will be up against ESPN and CBS telecasts of the Liberty and Sun Bowls, but who cares about those games?
The ideal game for putting people in the seats would be New Mexico State of the Sun Belt Conference vs. UNLV of the Mountain West Conference.
If the Arizona Bowl gets two bowl-starved teams within driving distance, the crowd could exceed 30,000.
