Top 10 Sports Stories of 2007

Hirings, firings, tragedy and triumphs. That pretty much summed up the Yuma-area sports scene in 2007. The biggest story, however, was Yuma Catholic's hiring of Yuma High head football coach Rhett Stallworth. And his impact was felt immediately as he helped propel the Shamrocks to new heights in Arizona 2-A football.

Another coaching change that attracted a lot of attention was the firing of longtime Arizona Western College softball coach Pam Stone. Her abrupt release was tied to alleged mistreatment of players and it provided plenty of controversy.

Yuma also experienced state championships on both the team and individual level.

Yuma Catholic claimed back-to-back titles in 1A-3A boys soccer, Kofa's Katelyn Weddle took home a 5A Div. II state title in the breaststroke, and Kofa's Ivan Felix and Anthony Bermudez, Yuma Catholic's Ryan Renkey and Cibola's Alex Meraz all won wrestling championships.

The Shamrocks' Ashley Aitken also won a state track title in the 100-meter hurdles.

1. NEW TOP 'ROCK - Homegrown product Rhett Stallworth accepts the head football post at Yuma Catholic.

Yuma High has always been a huge part of Rhett Stallworth's life. He starred as a linebacker and fullback for the Criminals during the early 1990s, and returned for his first teaching and coaching positions out of college.

But after 10 years on the faculty - the past three as the head football coach - he bid farewell.

Stallworth confirmed April 25 that he had accepted an offer to become the next head football coach at Yuma Catholic.

"Yuma High's been good to me. I appreciate everything they've done and they treated me with nothing but respect," said Stallworth, who became YC's first-ever head football coach from the local area. "It was a tough decision, but ultimately you have to break away sometimes.

"I just felt that for me, my family and my three kids that this is what's best for us right now."

Stallworth wasted no time making an impact, as Yuma Catholic upset 5A Kofa in the first game on the way to a top ranking in 2A.

2. OUT THE DOOR - Arizona Western College women's softball coach Pam Stone is let go amid allegations.

Allegations of physical misconduct and psychological abuse unhinged the 15-year career of Pam Stone, the winningest softball coach in Arizona Western College history. She amassed 595 victories and coached the Matadors to postseason berths in all but four seasons since 1993, but documents obtained by The Sun cast a foul light on the 2006-07 campaign.

Calling players derogatory names and suggesting they "might as well commit suicide if they could not handle (Stone's) treatment of them because life was going to get a lot harder," were among the list of allegations presented to AWC Athletic Director Jerry Smith in a letter signed by 13 of Stone's 18 players.

"I can tell you that I'm being accused of a whole lot of stuff that never happened," said Stone, who lost an appeal of AWC's decision.

3. GETTING 'ROCKED IN YUMA - In consecutive Friday nights, Yuma Catholic's football team knocks off the state's two top-ranked 2A teams.

The chance to dethrone the No. 1 football team in the state is a rare opportunity, but Yuma Catholic did it in consecutive weeks.

After the Shamrocks' 33-point victory over previous No. 1 Chandler-Valley Christian on Sept. 19, Phoenix-Arizona Lutheran assumed the top spot in the 2A Conference. But a trip to Ricky Gwynn Stadium on Sept. 28 changed all that, as YC marched 65 yards in the final 20 seconds to stun Lutheran and take over the top spot, which the Shamrocks held for the rest of an unbeaten regular season.

"There's not a single team in 2A that could put the type of athletes that (Yuma Catholic) does out on the field," Arizona Lutheran coach Doug Meyer said afterward.

4. CHAMPS ALL OVER AGAIN - Yuma Catholic's boys soccer team wins second straight 1A-3A state championship, and third title in four years.

It took just two minutes to transform a bland game and runner-up finish for the Yuma Catholic boys soccer team into an instant classic and state title on Feb. 9 as the Shamrocks defeated Northwest Christian 3-2 for their second straight 1A-3A state title.

The win for the Shamrocks also gave them their third title in four years and avenged an early-season shootout loss to the Crusaders during the regular season.

"We're just taking this one like it's a new year," YC head coach Tony Tellez said. "From Day 1, we took it one game at a time and we shot for this."

This last team might have been Tellez's most challenging coaching job yet. The Shamrocks were young and inexperienced with only three seniors, but they still managed to finish the year with a 16-1-1 record.

5. WINTER BASEBALL - The Golden Baseball League's four-team instructional Arizona Winter League kicked off its monthlong season Jan. 19 when the Scorpions winter incarnation debuted against the Canadian Miners. The Snow Falcons and Sonora Surf Dawgs were also the charter clubs of the AWL, which is presided over by GBL Commissioner Kevin Outcalt.

After drawing modest crowds during the season, over 3,000 showed up at Desert Sun Stadium to watch the Scorpions beat the Miners 7-6 in the championship game on Greg Burrows' walk off RBI-single.

"It was an overall team effort coming back from 5-1," Burrows said moments after slicing the game-wining ninth-inning single down the left field line to plate Chris Langlois from second.

6. KING OF ARIZONA - Kofa senior wrestler Ivan Felix claimed back-to-back 5A Div. II titles at 112 pounds on Feb. 10 at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale. Felix scored eight points in the final :32 of the third stanza to break open what had been a 1-1 score to that point and defeat Desert Mountain's Shane McGough.

Felix pinned his previous three opponents on the way to his second championship

"This is my last so to be two-time state champion feels great. This past week was great practice - a lot of hard work. The intensity came up," he said afterward.

7. WRESTLING WITH PERFECTION - Yuma Catholic wrestler Ryan Renkey capped a perfect 54-0 season by narrowly defeating St. John's T.J. Johnson 5-4 to capture the 1A-2A state championship at 103 pounds.

Renkey's final match turned out to be the toughest he had faced all season.

"I was nervous since this was the first state final I have been in," Renkey said afterward. "When it came down to it in the final match, I was like I don't want to be 53-1. That would ruin the entire season."

8. SCORCHING SCORPIONS - The Yuma Scorpions jumped out to a red-hot 11-1 start in the 2007 Golden Baseball League season.

Fresh off a championship in the Arizona Winter League, the Yuma Scorpions hit the ground running when the official Golden Baseball League season opened up in June.

The Scorps jumped out to an 11-1 start behind a powerful offense, only to struggle down the stretch in the first half and finish 21-17, despite going 14-2 at home.

Collectively, Yuma batted .295 - three points better than the Golden Baseball League season record they established in Year 1 - while also leading the GBL with 508 runs and 772 hits.

Yet, given that production, even an 11-1 start wasn't enough to position them for a first-half crown, and a 9-1 second half opening surge bore an equally disappointing bounty.

"We were kind of like the whole league," said first-year Scorpions manager Mike Marshall. "We pounded it and scored a lot of runs and when we did we won. But when we had to make a play or pitch our way through it we just didn't play the game very well. But boy, we could swing the bat and in an instant put the runs on the board.

"That to me is not how you win championships."

9. GAME OF EMOTIONS - Top-ranked Chandler-Valley Christian came to Yuma to face Yuma Catholic after learning of the death of teammate Danny Pasanella that morning.

The number 34 was everywhere. Painted onto the cheeks of cheerleaders, scribbled in marker on the arms of players and stickered over the hearts of parents and students who made the trip down to watch 2A's top-ranked team, Valley Christian, take on Yuma Catholic on Sept. 19.

The numerical tribute paid homage to the jersey number of Trojan football player Danny Pasanella, who was found dead in his bed by his mother just hours before the rest of his team loaded onto a bus to make the trek down south.

Once the game began, Valley Christian found itself behind by a touchdown just 23 seconds into the contest. Five minutes later, the deficit reached 14-0 in what would turn out to be an eventual 55-22 Trojan defeat.

But that disappointment didn't compare to the loss the Valley Christian football team felt earlier that morning.

"We really tried to put it out of our heads," VC quarterback Stephen Sasso said. "We tried to play for Danny, but there were just too many distractions. We found out only an hour before we left."

It was later found that Pasanella had died of a heroin overdose.

10. NEW RING LEADER - Michael Chadwick becomes Yuma High's new head football coach.

With the loss of homegrown football coach Rhett Stallworth to Yuma Catholic, Yuma High decided to broaden its search for the next person to lead the Criminals football program.

They needed to look no further than Washington state, where Michael Chadwick arrived last fall to fill the head coaching void on Yuma's sidelines.

Chadwick had been coaching varsity football for 11 years, most recently as a defensive coordinator at Lynnwood (Wash.) High School.

But the Criminals job was his first as head coach.

"We're going to try and build up the participation numbers and bring a positive buzz around the program and continue the great tradition," Chadwick said. "That's probably the predominant element that brought me here when comparing it to others - the tradition and history here is really a draw and it's a wonderful opportunity."

The Criminals struggled through a brutal non-conference schedule, before defeating Cibola and San Luis in Gila Valley play to finish 2-8.