Dick McConnell's Sahuaro basketball legacy lives on

When longtime Sahuaro High School boys basketball coach Dick McConnell died last week, his 774 coaching victories over 39 seasons created scores of memories. It’s difficult to accurately choose the five or six leading players of McConnell’s Sahuaro years, but here’s one man’s attempt:

• David Haskin, leading scorer of 1982 state champions and the only McConnell player to accept a basketball scholarship to Arizona. He scored 331 points in four years and played on Lute Olson’s first three UA teams;
• Brothers Dan and Jim Ferguson were part of McConnell’s first Sahuaro team, 1969, and first state championship, 1970. Dan, a first team all-state selection, accepted a scholarship to Utah. Jim went on to coach Santa Rita High School to three state championships;
• Neil Henry was a first-team All-State player in 1972 who played at Seattle University;
• Longtime Tucson High basketball coach Gary Lewis, who accepted a scholarship to Texas A&M, was a big part of Sahuaro’s ’82 state title team;
• Steve Williams and Adrian Brown were first-team all-state players in ’88. Brown played at Arizona State and Eastern Kentucky, and Williams played at NAU.

Current Sahuaro coach Jim Henry has carried on McConnell’s legacy well, going 168-82 in nine seasons. Henry has kept two seats near the Cougars’ bench reserved for Dick and his wife Clarine during every home game in that period.

Former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Pat Darcy was fortunate to have McConnell as his junior varsity baseball coach at Rincon High School in the mid-60s.

“I don’t think I would’ve got to the major leagues without Dick’s coaching,” Darcy said. When Darcy was a skinny sophomore, McConnell told him he had a future in baseball. Thus motivated, Darcy ultimately made by majors and went 11-5 for the 1975 World Series champion Cincinnati Reds.

McConnell himself played five seasons of minor-league baseball. He was also an accomplished golfer: I played with McConnell at Forty Niner Country Club in 2008 and he shot his age, 78. It wasn’t luck, either: When McConnell was 200 or so yards from the green, he would often hit a driver off the fairway grass, the toughest shot in golf. I still remember him reaching the par-5 No. 11 hole at Forty Niner in two shots, using his driver twice. Try that sometime.

McConnell’s athletic genes were passed on to his son, Rick, who was a first-team all-state baseball player at Sahuaro, a shortstop who led the Cougars to the 1973 and 1974 state championships. Dick’s grandson, Mickey, starts at point guard and averages 13.1 points for France’s EuroLeague power Pau-Lacq Orthez. Mickey McConnell led St. Mary’s to the 2010 Sweet 16, and scored 1,234 points in his college career.