While the head boys basketball coach at Sahuaro High School from 1969-2007, Dick McConnell won three state championships and a total of 774 games in his long career. That was just a start.
His son, Sahuaro High grad and former UA baseball player Rick McConnell, has won 705 games as head coach at Mesa Dobson High School, where he is still active. Beyond that, Pima College men's basketball coach Brian Peabody, who has gone 35-1 in back-to-back seasons at PCC, has won 746 games in high school and junior college.
St. Mary's associate head coach Mickey McConnell, center, stands on the sideline with head coach Randy Bennett, right, during the first half of a game against Santa Clara in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference men's tournament March 11, 2024, in Las Vegas.
Now comes Dick McConnell's grandson, Mickey McConnell, who last week became the head coach of the Saint Mary's Gaels of the WCC, replacing new ASU coach Randy Bennett. It would be quite a story if Mickey becomes the fourth of his grandfather's coaching family to hit 700 victories someday.
