Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Pima Aztecs had best season ever, thanks to sudden star Hugo Kametani

When Dave Cosgrove earned a history degree from Arizona in 1993, he thought he’d pursue a career in law enforcement.

“I did some tests,” he remembers, “but I never got picked up. What a blessing.”

He returned to the UA, completed a teaching certificate and Plan B was to teach and coach at Amphitheater High School.

Now, 25 years later, Cosgrove is Pima College’s national championship men’s soccer coach. But it was more than an NJCAA title; it was a season like few others in JC soccer history.

The Aztecs won 26 games, the most ever in the NJCAA. Only Yavapai College had ever won 26 games in a year. Pima won 18 consecutive games; its school record was nine.

Cosgrove, the son of a distinguished UA history professor, did coach at Amphi, but his career plans changed when he accepted a full-time job as director of coaching of the Foothills Football Club, an organization that turned into the Tucson Soccer Academy, which later turned into FC Tucson Youth, a robust soccer operation with more than 2,000 young players.

Along the way, Cosgrove had to overcome the NJCAA’s No. 1 men’s soccer program, Yavapai. And  he has now done so. After finishing No. 2 in the NJCAA in 1999, Cosgrove knew he would someday have to go outside a Tucson-only culture and add a few important non-Arizonans to the roster.

There are 156 teams in NJCAA men’s soccer and almost all of them have a foreign element. Cosgrove added the most important “foreign element” in school history a year ago when Hugo Kametani moved to Tucson and enrolled at PCC with the purpose to take English as a Second Language (ESL) courses.

Kametani, who is from Kashima, Japan, planned to play at Iowa Western, but after working out with FC Tucson and PCC players for a few months, Cosgrove was able to persuade him to remain in Tucson.

“Of the 4,200 players in NJCAA Division I men’s soccer, Hugo is No. 1,” said Cosgrove. “He just fell into our laps.”

Kametani, a sophomore who is being heavily recruited by four-year programs, is the best soccer player in PCC history, and that’s not me saying it, it’s Cosgrove saying it. The Aztecs have had so many first-team All-Americans — from Minh Vu and Julian Gaona to Jason Romero and on and on and on — that it tells you just how good Kametani was in 2018.

Kametani finished second in the NJCAA with an amazing 30 goals , including the game-winners in the national semifinals and final. He didn’t do it alone. Freshman goalkeeper Nils Roth led the nation in goals-against average at .45 per game. Tucson High grad sophomore Daniel Suazo, Sahuaro High grad freshman Alec Nguyen and Cholla High grad sophomore Kaskile Zawadi were strong contributors.

On a national scale, Cosgrove now has 347 career victories, which is No. 6 among active  NJCAA coaches. And it’s not like he’s coasting toward some finish line. He is also the head coach of FC Tucson, a May-to-July season in which he coached the national developmental team to a 7-3-4 record and the PDL Western Conference final.

Who’s had a better year in Tucson sports? Nobody.

Sahuaro High School girls basketball coach Steve Botkin coached the Cougars to his 500th career victory Saturday afternoon against Rincon/University. The Cougars won 67-27.

It’s unfortunate the game started at the same time as the Territorial Cup; Botkin deserved a stage to himself on such a special day.

The Cougars were 26-3 last year and appear to be headed in a similar direction. They opened the Boyd Baker Tournament with 71-13 and 52-19 victories, and have a foursome that can match almost any in Class 4A : sophomores Alyssa Brown and Alyssa Franke, junior Milaya Leon and senior Lourdes Heslop.

Botkin, who played for Sahuaro in the 1980s, is in some select company — his own. He easily ranks No. 1 in girls basketball coaching victories in Tucson prep history, surpassing Pima County Sports Hall of Famers Mike Dyer of Marana (337) and Sahuaro’s Jim Scott (333).

Now that Sahuaro is in Class 4A, which fits its size more than last year’s battle against Phoenix-area super teams in 5A, the Cougars seem equipped to make a run for a state championship.

When the high school basketball season opened last week, Salpointe Catholic was on a first-name basis with Tucson’s basketball community.

The Lancers, who finished No. 2 in the state finals last season, are loaded. They opened the season in the annual Salpointe Tip Off Classic by winning 82-44, 84-49, 91-35 and 97-37 games.

This all points to another 4A state championship showdown against Mike Bibby’s mega-talented Phoenix Shadow Mountain team, which frankly should be playing in the 6A classification.

Salpointe is coached by Jim Reynolds, father of Ryan Reynolds, the UA men’s basketball program’s longtime director of operations.

After that, Salpointe starts Majok Deng, a senior with more than 10 Division I scholarship offers, and junior point guard Evan Nelson, who is also a Division I prospect.

The Lancers have been joined this year by junior Jordan Gainey, son of new UA assistant basketball coach Justin Gainey. In Salpointe’s first four games last week, Gainey averaged 10 points. Sean Miller’s son, Braden, is a junior guard.

There are more familiar names, too: Junior Grant Weitman, who scored 17 points last week against Ironwood Ridge, is the son of Neal Weitman, the former Tucson Conquistadores chairman who was heavily involved in the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, and the grandson of Paul Weitman, whose thoroughbred, Lookin At Lucky, was the Kentucky Derby favorite in 2010. And Salpointe senior Ryan Grabosch, who scored 10 points against Desert View last week, is the grandson of Pima County Sports Hall of Fame high school baseball coach Gary Grabosch.

The Lancers and all their familiar names are likely to be unbeaten, 12-0, when they play in the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic between Christmas and New Year’s.

At the Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson showdown Friday in Las Vegas, the on-course announcers were both former Arizona Wildcats: Shane Bacon, a former Daily Wildcat reporter who is carving out a significant role for Fox Sports, and Natalie Gulbis, an All-American golfer in 2001 who earned in excess of $5 million on the LPGA Tour. Gulbis’ pro career has diminished; she played in just eight LPGA events this season. She turns 36 in January.

NAU removed long-time football coach Jerome Souers from that position last week. He went 4-6 this year. One thing Souers did was to recruit Tucson productively. The Lumberjacks had eight Tucson-area players on its 2018 team, including its leading tackler, senior Jake Casteel of Salpointe Catholic. He is the son of former UA defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel, who now holds a similar job at Nevada. The Lumberjacks have five underclassmen from Tucson — quarterback Connor Leavens of Marana; running back Heath Beemiller of Ironwood Ridge; tight end Max Michalczik of Catalina Foothills; offensive lineman Jonas Leader of CDO; and offensive lineman Chase Laurita of Ironwood Ridge.

Gary Bernardi is one of the leading assistant football coaches in Pac-10/12 history, but — with Mike MacIntyre gone at Colorado — he is likely out of a job. Bernardi spent six years at Colorado as an offensive assistant; MacIntyre was fired last week. Bernardi made his mark in Pac-10 football from 1980-86, part of Larry Smith’s Arizona staff that challenged for the Rose Bowl in 1985 and 1986. He has since coached at USC, UCLA, NAU, San Jose State and UNLV. Bernardi retains his ties to Tucson; he returned to Tucson High in 2016 to be part of the Larry Smith Coaching Academy.

Tucsonan Delaney Schnell turns 20 next month but it seems like she’s been a diving standout for almost that long. Last week in Flagstaff, Schnell, a sophomore at Arizona, won all three diving events and set a school record in the platform, breaking a point total that had stood since 2006. She is the reigning Pac-12 Freshman Diver of the Year, a former state champion at Tucson High and a two-time USA national junior diving champion. Schnell projects to be one of those competing strongly for a berth on the 2020 USA Olympic diving team.

The Tucson Roadrunners, contending again for the AHL Pacific Division championship, are averaging 4,320 in attendance at  Tucson Arena this season. That’s impressive because it would be the highest total in the franchise’s three seasons in Tucson — last year’s Western Conference regular-season champions averaged 4,217 — but also because the most attractive part of the home schedule remains. The Roadrunners have Friday-Saturday homestands on Dec. 7-8 and Dec. 28-29.

Arizona State has climbed to No. 8 in the NCAA wrestling poll and its starter at 133 pounds is Ironwood Ridge grad Josiah Kline. In last week’s matches against No. 2 Ohio State and No. 24 North Carolina, Kline went 1-1. He was a starter for the Sun Devils as a freshman, going 11-8.

The NCAA will announce the field for its women’s volleyball championships Sunday, and Arizona coach Dave Rubio will be, as most coaches, unsettled. Even though the No. 23 Wildcats are 22-10 overall and finished fifth in the Pac-12, the most difficult volleyball league in the NCAA, the latest RPI metrics list Arizona only at No. 39 overall. Usually any team in the top 40 in RPI gets an at-large berth, so it could be close. In the Pac-12 this year, Stanford is No. 1 in RPI, followed by No. 4 USC, No. 13 Washington State, No. 19 Oregon, No. 21 Washington and Arizona at 39th. Rubio’s club had what has to be an NCAA-record seven concussion injuries to players this year and yet it survived to get in good position on Selection Sunday.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to former Arizona All-Pac-12 forward Aaron Gordon. The Orlando Magic star — he is averaging 16.9 points and 7.7 rebounds — provided 400 Oakland-area families with turkeys and side items for Thanksgiving. Gordon is from Oakland; the food was distributed at Oakland’s New Hope Baptist Church.

Here’s a statistic that epitomizes Arizona’s basketball excellence of the last 36 years: Arizona lost back-to-back games by double figures at last week’s Maui Invitational, marking just the fourth time in 36 years it has happened.

Incredibly, Lute Olson lost back-to-back double-figure games only once: his first season, 90-80 to San Diego State and 61-49 to Tennessee.

Interim coach Kevin O’Neill lost back-to-back double-figure games at the conclusion of the 2007-08 season. The Wildcats fell to Stanford 75-64 in the regular-season finale, then lost to West Virginia 75-65 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Interim coach Russ Pennell lost back-to-back double-figure games in the 2008-09 season — to Cal (69-55) and Stanford (76-60).

Here’s a quick comparison: Arizona State has lost back-to-back double-figure games seven times in the last three seasons.

Sean Miller recovered almost immediately from his 17- and 16-point losses to Gonzaga and Auburn by getting confirmation that four-star forward Zeke Nnaji of Minnesota will become part of Arizona’s Class of 2019. That puts Arizona at No. 1 in some of the recruiting rankings.

This looks to be an uphill climb for the UA’s 2018-19 club, one with a dangerously thin front line and a bench that combined to shoot just 3 for 20 in three Hawaii games. But the off-court recruiting victories are likely to keep the fans engaged and enthused about the future.