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Long list of strong candidates forces difficult decision
Opinion by Tyler Hansen
Tucson, Arizona

The Star will release its All-Southern Arizona football teams Sunday, Dec. 23. It is one of the most daunting tasks we face each year, selecting a Player of the Year and more than 100 other players for first-team, second-team and honorable-mention honors.
That might be the easiest part of the process this season.
The Coach of the Year race has been a hot topic all year, with a handful of locals able to make a strong case for the award.

Eight coaches made their debuts at Southern Arizona schools this year, and many of them turned in the finest efforts we have seen in recent years.
Jim Monaco established Desert View as a rising contender, leading the Jaguars to the brink of the 4A-I state playoffs after years of suffering.
Mountain View's Paul Schmidt inherited a quality team, then turned it up a notch and finished second — ahead of powerhouse Sunnyside — in the ultra-tough 5A Southern Region II.

Monaco and Schmidt — as well as first-year Rincon/University coach Pat Ryden — were good, but not quite as good as the four men the Star selected as the top four candidates for the Coach of the Year award.

At right is a season summary for each candidate. Peruse their cases, then give us your two cents in the poll.

UA still interests recruit
The UA basketball team has responded to Lute Olson's season-long absence with success on the court, and success on the recruiting trail has not dropped off, either.
Santa Rita sophomore guard Terrell Stoglin, Tucson's highest-profile recruit this decade, said Thursday his interest in the UA is still very high.
He added interim head coach Kevin O'Neill is someone he would like to play for if Olson retires before Stoglin graduates high school in 2010.

"Coach Olson not being there affected me a little bit, but O'Neill is a good coach, and I like him a lot," Stoglin said. "If he became the permanent head coach, I'd be very confident that the program was still going in the right direction. I'd still be very interested in playing there."

Stoglin is a 5-foot-11-inch superstar who averages 22.3 points per game for Santa Rita (6-0). He is a native Tucsonan being pursued by UCLA, Stanford, Cal and more.
If Olson's team lost out on a local player of Stoglin's caliber, it would be the first time.

At the buzzer
Tucson-area soccer teams are at it again: dominating the rest of the state.
OK, so it is very early in the season, but the chance to have a repeat of last season's record-setting success — five big-school state championships by local boys and girls teams — appears likely.

As of early Thursday morning, Southern Arizona teams owned the No. 1 spot in the statewide power rankings in all eight divisions (girls and boys 4A-I, 4A-II, 5A-I, 5A-II).

That is not the most impressive part. All 26 boys teams in the area, and 23 of 26 girls teams, were ranked in the top 16 of their respective divisions in the power rankings, which is the system that determines state playoff entrants.
There are still five weeks left in the regular season. A lot can happen in that time, but do not expect Tucson's title contenders to disappear. We might be in for another landmark season.