Two people applied for the Seton Catholic girls basketball coaching job in 1992. Karen Self and another person, and she won the proverbial coin flip.
She was fresh out of Arizona State following a solid playing career, but never coached before and was broke.
“I was floored when it said $2,000 to coach the season,” she said earlier this week. “I was in it for the money.”
She went 13-13 her first season, and joked that she was too intimidated by her first boss to quit at the time, so she did it …

With hopes of getting things ramped up at his new school in the next two weeks, new Dobson football coach George De La Torre is already picking a few of his people.
The most interesting being an old friend, fellow retiree and longtime East Valley coach Mike Reardon as his offensive coordinator.
Reardon coached at various spots for 42 years until he retired from coaching and teaching after the 2010 season from Mesquite. He went to the playoffs three straight seasons at Saguaro and won a state championship in 2006 before moving …

Remember the original iPhone?  Barry Bonds hitting his 756th home run? Luciano Pavarotti’s death?
Those were in 2007, the same year Marcos de Niza was last relevant in boys soccer. Until now.
This year’s few Marcos’ seniors who’ve been around since their freshman year had a total of seven wins through the first three years of high school soccer at the school. Needless to say this season has been a renaissance, as the Padres went 12-0 in power point matches to earn a No. 3 seed in the Division II state tournament.
That …

At least a couple Chandler High wrestlers took the “Prusuing Victory with Honor” mantra seriously.
The Wolves competed at the Brad Jones Wrestling Invitational last weekend at Peoria Centennial High School, a meet recently named after fallen Glendale Police Officer Brad Jones.
Jones, who’d been with the police department for four years, was dispatched to aid a probation officer dealing with a probationer.
At some point during the contact, a physical struggle ensued. Jones radioed for help and several officers responded to assist him, but the suspect drew a gun, fired at Jones …

Desert Vista LB Mike Arredondo had a change of heart last week and will instead attend the University of New Mexico.
More details found here.

There have been several inquiries regarding changes to soccer locations for this year’s state tournament. Namely, why are the top-4 seeds in each division hosting doubleheaders?
Last year, all early-round matches were held at Reach 11 Sports Complex or at Red Mountain Park. That drew significant shouts of disdain. Some enjoyed being able to watch multiple games at the same time, others were vociferous in their dislike of losing home-field advantage for the first and second rounds, rendering power points virtually meaningless and not saving schools themselves any travel costs. A …

It’s the final go-round of regular season games for girls basketball. Everything wraps up Friday night and Sectionals from each Division begin next Tuesday, with semifinals set for Thursday night and championship games on Friday night, Feb. 10  (Division IV girls are Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday).
The top eight teams in each Section advance to the Sectional Tournament, which is single elimination. If a team wins its first game in the Sectional Tournament it should advance to the state tournament.
(All games are 7 p.m.  and records are PP games only through Monday).
Pinnacle at St. …

The Suns are taking nominations for its annual Spirit of Cotton Award which honors a deserving boys or girls basketball coach in Arizona.
The award recognizes a high school basketball coach who consistently demonstrates the best qualities of coach, educator, mentor and community leader. All high school head basketball coaches are eligible to be nominated. Nominations can be made by a community member, fellow coach, teacher, school administrator or student-athlete. The Spirit of Cotton Award winner receives a $10,000 grant from the Suns for use in that school’s athletic program, plus …

Perhaps George De La Torre and Steve McKane will pass one another on the freeway.
Almost as soon as De La Torre accepted the Dobson football job, than Steve McKane was chosen to be De La Torre’s replacement as Florence’s new football coach.
McKane, son of longtime Mesa High coach Bill McKane  (who’s still a lower-level assistant), Steve spent the past six years at Western Illinois University as the school’s defensive assistant and recruiting coordinator.
Father and son won two state championships at Mesa High before Steve graduated and left to play at …

On the surface, Dobson’s hiring of George De La Torre as its new football coach is a pretty good one.
The guy can coach. He turned around South Mountain in the mid-2000s and brought consistency to an otherwise hot-and-cold program with three consecutive playoff appearances and went to the 5A Division II semifinals in 2007.
Then came another challenge in Florence, a program whose success had deteriorated significantly in that same period. De La Torre came in and went 1-9 in 2008 with only one senior willing to stay on board with …