Greg Hansen column: The struggling Santa Rita boys basketball team is representative of shifts in population and demographics that have made it hard for several TUSD athletic programs to remain competitive.
Greg Hansen The old scoreboard at Palo Verde High School got an unusual workout Monday night. In the first quarter of the Titans’ boys basketball game against Santa Rita, the lights kept blinking: 9-0, 16-0, 24-0, 31-0.It went far beyond sad. Santa Rita dressed just six players for the game. Coach Cedric Martin’s club is 0-12 this season, outscored by an average of 72-31 per game. Amazingly, Monday’s final score was 73-31.
People are also reading… “We try our best; that’s all we can do,’’ says Gabusi. “It’s on me and the coaches to be a good example for the kids, to not give up, and keep encouraging them. But it’s tough. Just tough.’’From 1980 to 1986, Santa Rita won eight state championships in baseball, track, girls basketball and cross country. The far-southeast-side TUSD school produced an NBA player, Dave Feitl, and perhaps the top girls basketball player in Tucson history, Paula Pyers.
Hickle could not have imagined that he was at the beginning of Santa Rita’s disconcerting and unexpected fall from 40 years of sports significance. “We didn’t have any money,’’ says Hickle, now a Tucson insurance executive who coached for Brian Peabody at Pima College from 2016 to '22. “After road games to Thatcher and Morenci and Safford, we’d stop at McDonald’s and order from the dollar menu. That’s seriously all we could afford.’’
When Santa Rita played Palo Verde on Monday, the crowd in the antiquated gymnasium couldn’t have been more than 75. The heating system wasn't fully functional. Two players on the Palo Verde bench wore winter jackets during the game to stay warm.
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