David Hines, Dan Manucci and Mark Brand all will be honored at 1 p.m. Saturday as “Distinguished Arizonans” during the 41st National Football Foundation Valley of the Sun Chapter Scholar-Athlete banquet at Wild Horse Pass grand showroom.
The event honors 23 high school senior football players and three college players who were chosen based on excellence on the football field, in the classroom and in the community. Brad Cesmat of sports360AZ will be the emcee of the sold-out event. This is the first time in three years the banquet will take place in person, because of the pandemic.
Hines is the executive director of the Arizona Interscholastic Association, who welcomed the Open Division era in Arizona high school football three years ago; Manucci is a sports radio talk show host on Fox Sports 910, who works with Valley quarterbacks, including former Perry High QBs Brock and Chubba Purdy; and Brand is longtime associate athletic director of media relations at Arizona State, who is part of the 2022 Hall of Fame Class of the College Sports Information Directors of America.
Scottsdale Saguaro safety Thomas DeChesaro, who helped the Sabercats win their first Open Division state championship, will receive the highest scholar-athlete honor by the NFF Valley of the Sun Chapter.
—Richard Obert
ASU women’s basketball coach names staff
Arizona State women’s basketball head coach Natasha Adair filled out her staff on Thursday, with all four members coming from her previous job at Delaware.
Adair named Mykala Walker and Darrell Mosley as assistant coaches, while Bob Clark was named special assistant and Carter Caplan was named director of women’s basketball operations.
Walker has worked with Adair since 2014 when she began as a graduate assistant at Georgetown. Mosley served as the assistant coach this past season at Delaware. Clark was the associate head coach at Delaware during Adair’s time. Caplan began working with Adair this past season as the assistant director of basketball operations.
—Jenna Ortiz
Voting open for Arizona Hall of Fame
Public voting is now open for the 51st Arizona Sports Hall of Fame class. You can find the ballot at azsportsent.com.
There are 44 names on the list of final ballot nominees. Voting will continue through May 4, with the announcement of the class expected in June. There are no restrictions on how many candidates you may vote for, but only one ballot per person.
The new enshrinees will be honored at a gala on Nov, 1.
The nominees, in alphabetical order:
Abdi Abdirahman, Michael Bates, Melissa Belote-Ripley, Michael Bidwill, Scott Bordow, Bob Brenly, Lance Briggs, Tedy Bruschi, Michael Budenholzer, Henry Cejudo, Tom Dillon, Mike Feder, Larry Fitzgerald, Terry Francona, Lyndsey Fry, Channing Frye, Joe Garagiola Sr., Jennifer Gillom, Pedro Gomez, Greg Hansen, Billy Hatcher.
Also: Richard Jefferson, Tom Jurich, Bill Kajikawa, Peggy Kennedy, Mike Kennedy, Steve Kerr, Jerry Kindall, Paul Konerko, Lopez Lomong, Anne Montgomery, Arte Moreno, Pat Murphy, Bill Nixon, Lorena Ochoa, Susie Parra, Greg Schulte, Karen Self, Matt Shott, Oscar Soria, Mark Tudi, Charli Turner Thorne, Matt Williams, Bobby Winkles.
Coyotes take on Ovechkin, Capitals
Their losing streak now at eight games, the Coyotes take on the Washington Capitals on Friday night at Gila River Arena, the only stop in Glendale this season for Washington and star forward Alex Ovechkin, who reached 50 goals for the ninth time in his career two at Vegas on Wednesday.
The Capitals (43-23-11) are in a tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins for third place in the Metropolitan Division. Friday’s game is the last of a long five-game road trip that started in Eastern Canada on April 14 and has taken the Caps through Colorado, Vegas and finally, Arizona.
The Coyotes have won four of the last five home games against Washington, and are 7-2-1 in their last 10 home games against the Capitals.
—Jose M. Romero
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