After completing his college career, a lefty pitcher at Iowa's William Penn University, Shaun Cole returned home to the Seattle area and plotted a career in coaching.
First he would have to get a master's degree at the University of Washington and hope to get a break; getting your foot in the door in the Pac-12, or in pro baseball, or any kind of college baseball, is one of those the-odds-are-heavily-against-you scenarios.
It became even more daunting when Cole wasn't initially accepted into the UW graduate program.
Now, seven years later, Cole is the NCAA's Pitching Coach of the Year, a vital part of Arizona's 2012 College World Series champions.
"A lot of good things have happened to me; I've been fortunate to have some good timing," said Cole, who spent his first year at Arizona, 2009, as an unpaid volunteer, making ends meet by extending his student loan. "Before I came to Arizona I was making $1,200 as the pitching coach at Edmonds Community College."
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The Pitching Coach of the Year award isn't a perfunctory honor given to someone from the NCAA champions. In fact, since Collegiate Baseball started the award in 2002, Cole is just the second championship coach so honored; it has gone to coaches from, among others, VCU, Vanderbilt, Grand Valley State and Seton Hall.
Further, Cole didn't rise to prominence with a veteran staff he inherited. When Cole became a full-time coach on Andy Lopez's staff in 2010, UA World Series stars Kurt Heyer, Konner Wade, Mat Troupe and James Farris were just joining the team or still in high school.
As announced by Collegiate Baseball last week, Cole will be honored at the American Baseball Coaches Association Convention Jan. 4 in Chicago.
"When I was completing my master's degree I wrote letters to Stanford, Cal, Arizona, the Red Sox, Angels and Dodgers, asking for an internship," said Cole. "Coach Lopez and the Angels got back to me. I was 27; I decided to make a run at college ball."
At Arizona, Cole started at the bottom; he basically shadowed Lopez for a year, helped the director of baseball operations, did recruiting odds and ends, and tried not to go hungry.
When UA assistant Jeff Pickler left the program - talk about good timing - Lopez liked what he had seen in Cole. Lopez stepped away from day-to-day responsibilities with the pitching staff and let the "walk-on coach" from Seattle take over.
"Andy took a chance and I owe him so much," said Cole, who had worked entry-level and intern-type, part-time jobs with the Class AAA Tacoma Rainiers, among others, in the Seattle area.
"When people ask me how I got into Division I coaching I say 'I was willing to work for nothing.' It was a roll of the dice, but strategically it was the right decision for me. I'm forever indebted to Andy Lopez."
Game of the year, Part I
Nighthawks look to post another statement win
Ironwood Ridge High School football coach Matt Johnson coached the undefeated Nighthawks to an upset victory over No. 2 Marcos de Niza on Friday night in Tempe, stretching the Ridge's record to 5-0 and setting up a must-see game Friday night in Oro Valley against Peoria Centennial.
Centennial is 82-6 in the last seven seasons and is averaging 61 points per game this season. What's more, Centennial has beaten Johnson's team in 2008, 2010 and 2011, two of those in the state semifinals. Talk about motivation for a payback.
The Nighthawks defense has been superb this year. Jake Mathews, Scott Simmons, John Klass, Jake Vartanian and Austin Goddard, among others, have limited opponents to 12 points per game.
Johnson's defense has also been resourceful. On Friday, Simmons, who is a 4.0 student, blocked two Marcos de Niza punts. Goddard, a sophomore who starts at linebacker, blocked a point-after touchdown kick.
The Game of the Year in Tucson has long been said to be the Oct. 26 showdown between Salpointe and Ironwood Ridge. Friday's IR-Centennial game will give us a taste of championship football a month early.
Short stuff
UA soccer victory at Cal may be sign of good times
No coach at the UA has been under fire more than women's soccer coach Lisa Oyen, whose club was 1-9-1 in the Pac-12 last season. But on Friday, matched against No. 15 Cal - a school with a 14-1-2 lifetime record against Arizona - Oyen's Wildcats were outstanding, winning 2-1, giving hope that the long-struggling UA soccer program has turned a corner. Cal had outscored Arizona 36-6 in the series. Talk about a job well done. … Saturday's 7 p.m., Oregon State at Arizona football game will be a return to the Pac-12 Networks for the Wildcats, which can't make thousands of Tucson viewers who subscribe to DirecTV happy. The league and DirectTV remain in a contract stalemate. Beyond that, predictably, creation of the league's TV network hasn't been cheap; the fans have picked up the cost. Here's what I mean: If you are a Cox Communications subscriber in Tucson, with a mid-tier package, adding the Pac-12 Networks has bumped your monthly fee from $60.79 per month to $76.58. In a year, that's $189. That's a significant bump. … Sierra Vista left-hander Donnie Veal, a former Pima College pitcher, is having a superb finish for the Chicago White Sox. At 28, Veal has retired 21 consecutive hitters as a left-handed set-up reliever. For the year, he has 17 strikeouts in 11 2/3 innings, allowing just two hits and one run. Veal is now back to full strength after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2010 and has established himself as one of the top lefty vs. lefty situational relievers in baseball. … After leaving Arizona in 2003, football coach John Mackovic has lived in Palm Desert, Calif., where he writes a weekly football-season column for the local daily. He also works as an investment advisor in La Quinta, Calif., for the Rick M. Stein and Dana Crosby financial firm.
More short stuff
Remember these names as future hoops stars
At the Tucson Elite 50 Showcase, a recruiting/evaluation camp for boys basketball players 13-17 last week, Ironwood Ridge freshman Mitchell Lightfoot, a 6-foot-6-inch forward, and Orange Grove Middle School eighth-grader Cameron Miller, who is 5-8, were chosen as the top prospects for their respective classes. Miller is the son of UA basketball coach Sean Miller. Rincon/University freshman forward Brendan Rumel, a 6-6 forward who will play for Rich Utter's Rangers, also was named one of the leading players at the showcase. Keep those names in mind through 2017. … Rondae Jefferson, the All-America high school basketball player from Chester, Pa., who committed to play for Arizona, is at the USA Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs this weekend. He is one of four high school players selected for the FIBA 3x3 U18 World Championships to be played in Alcobendas, Spain, next weekend. The 3x3 event is just as it sounds: games of three players vs. three players. Teams from 31 nations will be in Spain to compete against Jefferson's American club. … Salpointe Catholic grad Sara Brown shot 81 Saturday in the Symetra Tour tournament in Vidalia, Ga., to miss the cut. She is No. 9 on the Symetra money list at $31,188. Next weekend, the 10 leading money winners will be absorbed by the LPGA Tour in 2013, which means that Brown must avoid falling any further in the Symetra Tour's final event of the year, the Daytona Beach Invitational, next week in Florida. … CDO grad Nick Marshall, who led the Dorados to the state soccer title in 2008, was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Week. A senior at UNLV, Marshall leads the league with 11 points. He played with FC Tucson this season, appearing in nine matches.
Candrea recruits include niece of ex-Cat
UA softball coach Mike Candrea is in the final five weeks of another recruiting push, but he has already received commitments from seven elite-level players, including one from the class of 2014 and another from the class of 2015. Among those to commit to Arizona from this year's high school senior class is San Marino (Calif.) High School senior pitcher Michelle Floyd, a 6-foot-4-inch lefty who had 288 strikeouts and an 0.83 ERA in 120 innings as a junior. The youngest to commit to Candrea is Mission Viejo (Calif.) High School sophomore hitter Alyssa Palomino, a first baseman/outfielder and the niece of former UA All-America third baseman Toni Mascarenas. … Two ex-Arizona Wildcats are coaching in the NFL this year: 1990s defensive back David Fipp is a special teams coach with the Miami Dolphins, and Desert Swarm-era linebacker Brant Boyer is coaching for the Indianapolis Colts. Sabino High grad Chris Foerster is the offensive line coach of the Washington Redskins, his seventh NFL team. … UA freshman golfer Janie Jackson, who has played in two LPGA events, flew to her home state, Alabama, in an attempt to qualify for the ongoing Navistar LPGA Classic on Tuesday. Jackson failed to get one of two available spots, but then flew to Nashville, Tenn., to join her teammates at the Mason Rudolph Championship, which has eight Top 25 teams, according to the Golfweek poll. Jackson is tied for fourth overall (74-71) entering today's final round as coach Laura Ianello's Wildcats lead the field by five strokes. Sophomore Kendall Prince, a transfer who was the Big Ten freshman of the year at Ohio State last season, is the overall leader (73-70) in her Wildcat debut. This has the look of the top UA women's golf team since its 2000 NCAA championship squad.
My two cents
El Paso gets it right with downtown park
How's this for the ultimate irony/slap in the face:
El Paso will almost surely replace Tucson in the Pacific Coast League in 2014, because it plans to build a downtown baseball stadium.
Tucson will lose yet another professional baseball franchise because, in 1996, politicians Steve Leal and Raul Grijalva influenced the construction of a baseball facility in no man's land, on East Ajo Way.
Kino Stadium will be their legacy: They built it in the wrong place, and, essentially, no one came.
