Hansen's Sunday Notebook: From worst to first at Sahuaro, Sahuarita

Nine years ago last month, Desert View and Pueblo met in a game of soon-to-be 2-8 high school football teams, a game that scarcely got notice outside of friends and family.

Pueblo won 12-7, and the two coaches, Pueblo’s Scott McKee and Desert View’s David Rodriguez went their separate ways. In 2005, you wouldn’t have taken a nickel for their chances to someday be undefeated and highly ranked.

McKee, a Sabino grad who played football at Arizona from 1999 to 2002, would go 13-40 in five Pueblo seasons. Rodriguez, a Nogales native, left DVHS after going 5-15.

Rodriguez was then hired to be McKee’s offensive coordinator at Pueblo. In two seasons they were 1-9 and 2-9. When McKee left Pueblo to be the head coach at Sahuaro, Rodriguez went with him.

What happened next is something else.

McKee’s sixth Sahuaro Cougars team is 7-0. Rodriguez, in his fourth season as head coach of the Sahuarita Mustangs, is 8-0. They are the only two unbeatens among 33 Southern Arizona high school football teams.

From their humble beginnings, they have become two of the most successful program-builders in Southern Arizona football history.

Hiring Rodriguez, 45, proved that McKee, 35, who is in his 11th season as a head coach, has a sharp understanding of the game. It reflects on Sahuaro’s success — the Cougars are 29-11 dating to 2010 — and is a reason why the Cougars have reclaimed their 1980s position as TUSD’s top football school.

At Sahuaro, McKee surounded himself with top assistants such as Don Bacon, an institution at the school who has coached everything from softball to soccer. He brought in two of Jeff Scurran’s most accomplished soldiers from Sabino, Santos Olague and Brian Graves.

To complete the rebuilding effort, McKee added his father, Larry McKee, to the staff. Larry McKee was Pueblo’s head coach from 1977 to 1979, an old-school guy with football instincts that can be traced to his days as an Arizona football letterman from 1969 to 1971.

You can’t replace his insight.

Rodriguez, 32-8 at Sahuarita, went 10-1 in 2012 before losing to Peoria Sunrise Mountain in the state playoffs. McKee, 37-24 at Sahuaro, was 8-3 last year before losing to Camp Verde in the playoffs.

There’s no chance they will meet this year. Sahuaro is gunning for the Division II state championship; Sahuarita is a Division IV power.

But their connection is the best story going in Southern Arizona high school football.

Lorena Ochoa, the most dominant golfer in UA history, hinted last week that she may return to the LPGA Tour. Now 32, having “retired” to have a family four years ago, Ochoa said she plans to play in the Pro-Am at her Nov. 13-16 LGPA event, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. She was ranked No. 1 in the world, with 27 victories, when she left the tour in 2010; she remains No 4 in LPGA career money rankings with $14.86 million. She told reporters she will compete in her tournament in 2015 and then “maybe try a few tournaments in the States.” She has two children.

Salpointe Catholic grad Sara Brown made her debut as Golf Channel’s co-host of the “School of Golf” last week. She has been hired through December and also was the host of last week’s “Playing Lessons with the Pros.” Although Brown, 28, remains eligible for the 2015 Symetra Tour (the LPGA’s feeder tour), she looks to be a natural for TV work. She is engaging, a world-class smiler who knows golf (she was an LPGA Tour regular in 2012) and quick-witted. Her future is very bright indeed. Brown is married to UA assistant women’s golf coach Derek Radley.

Tucsonan Brian Prouty finished tied for third Friday among 74 golfers in the Web.com Tour Qualifying School in Phoenix. Prouty shot rounds of 67-75-68-67 (or 11-under par) to advance to the second stage of Q-School next month. Five-time Tucson City Amateur champion David McDaniel also advanced, finishing tied for 27th.

TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte, who was the No. 2 man in Arizona’s athletic department under Jim Livengood, returned to Tucson for Lute Olson’s 80th birthday celebration last month. It wasn’t just a fun weekend; Del Conte hired Gretchen Bouton off of Arizona’s staff; she had been the associate AD for compliance, one of the most critical positions in any athletic department.

Former UA Wildcat Aaron Gordon has started both of the Orlando Magic’s preseason games, averaging 25.3 minutes and six points. Gordon is getting more minutes because Victor Oladipo and Channing Frye have been held out with injuries.

Former Cat Nick Johnson, taking advantage of Jason Terry’s hamstring injury, averaged 16.5 minutes in the Rockets’ first two preseason games. Johnson shot 0 for 7 from the field Friday.

Exactly a year after he underwent heart surgery, UA baseball coach Andy Lopez had a much more enjoyable weekend. He flew to Los Angeles to be part of the wedding of the Pac-12’s 2012 Player of the Year, Alex Mejia, who was married Saturday in Woodland Hills. Mejia spent most of the 2014 season with Class AA Springfield (Missouri), where he was named the Texas League’s top defensive shortstop by Baseball America.

Arizona’s 2012 starting quarterback Matt Scott was signed by the CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos last week. He is competing for a backup spot with Pat White, who was Rich Rodriguez’s franchise QB at West Virginia.

Arizona’s eight-time NCAA champion distance runner Lawi Lalang is one of the most personable and friendly star athletes I’ve ever met. Two weeks ago, a high school cross country runner in Alexendria, Minnesota, sent Lalang a twitter message that asked, essentially, “could you visit our school and help us?” Lalang then flew to Minnesota and spent three days working with the young athletes at Alexandria High. He told a Minnesota newspaper, “what I usually say is that there is no secret in running. Even in business, in everything, there is no secret. You have to work for it.” Lalang then flew to Tennessee to work with the cross country team at Middle Tennessee State. Good guy.

The New York Yankees predictably fired hitting coach Kevin Long last week, making the 1989 Arizona All-Pac-10 South outfielder the scapegoat for a lousy season. Long isn’t likely to be unemployed in 2015. He became the Yankees’ hitting coach at 39, and made a mark in the game before the Yankee roster got too old.

Long played on UA baseball teams with Chip Hale, who is one of four finalists to become the Diamondbacks’ next manager, and is also on the radar in the Minnesota Twins managerial search. Hale, who managed the Tucson Sidewinders to the 2006 Pacific Coast League championship, the best season in club history, lives in Tucson. I’m not sure if it would be a blessing or a curse to be the next D-backs manager. The club had the worst record in baseball this season, one of its lowest attendance marks in franchise history, and yet the club payroll is higher than that of three surviving playoff teams: Kansas City, Baltimore and St. Louis. Hard to believe. And a new manager is going to change all of that?

Ex-Yankees outfielder Shelley Duncan, the UA’s career home run leader, will stage the inaugural Grand Slam Golf Tournament to fund the Tucson Youth Baseball Experience on Nov. 2 at The Golf Club at Dove Mountain. For three years, Duncan has held a one-day clinic at Kino Sports Complex, without charge, to more than 300 youth players per year. This year’s clinic is Jan. 10. Camp counselors are expected to include major-leaguers Ian Kinsler of CDO and J.J. Hardy of Sabino. Golf tournament information: shelleyduncan@me.com.

Hardy’s new three-year, $40 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles will boost his career earnings to $70.4 million through age 35. It should also give the two-time All-Star shortstop a chance to hit 200 career home runs. He now has 167.

Santa Rita High School grad Terrell Stoglin continues his basketball world tour. He left Tucson last week to begin his third pro season, signing with Sagesse of the Lebanon Basketball League. Since leaving the Maryland Terrapins, Stoglin has played in Greece, France, Poland, Italy and Ukraine.

Senior outfielder Cynthia Pelayo, who helped Pima College finish third in the 2013 NJCAA softball championships, has left the Arizona softball team to concentrate on her academic work. She hit .478 in 21 games for Arizona (six starts) last season.

In the UA’s two-game fall softball series last weekend, another PCC grad, Alexis Dotson, started in center field, and freshman pitcher/designated player Trish Parks had six RBIs in two games. Possibly the most encouraging numbers were those of sophomore pitcher Michelle Floyd, who did not allow a run in five innings. Although she started only six games a year ago, Floyd appears to be the UA’s leading pitcher.

If Arizona soccer coach Tony Amato can coach the 9-2-1 Wildcats to a victory at Washington, No. 18 in the RPI, today, it’s likely Arizona would jump into the national polls for the first time since 2005. But the upcoming schedule is nasty. The Wildcats will play at No. 1 UCLA on Friday, followed by No. 3 Stanford at home Oct. 24. Arizona’s highest-ever ranking was No. 10 in November 2004. It reached No. 16 a year later.

Immaculate Heart High School is a small school, with about 100 students in Oro Valley. It plays in the state’s smallest sports classification, Division IV or Division V, and has 11 boys and girls varsity sports.

The Knights travel far more than larger schools, who benefit from dozens of Tucson rivals. But Immaculate Heart this year has games scheduled in Sells, Duncan, Willcox, Benson, Thatcher, Nogales, Elfrida, San Manuel, Gilbert, Chandler and as far away as Yuma.

Until this year, the Knights went about their travel plans the way a Little League team might: Ask the parents to sign up as volunteers and serve as a shuttle system.

It became a significant hardship, as it is for most small schools.

But in the lead-up to the fall sports schedule, the school’s search for help was finally answered. Robertson Auto Auctions on South Swan Road, owned by Rod Robertson, donated $20,000 for the purchase of a van that will transport IMHS athletes to their faraway road games.

That’s a potential life-saver.

It sure beats asking mom and dad to drive the late shift, six (or more) to a car, driving dark desert roads between here and nowhere.

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