• Slug: Sports-ASU Spring Football Showcase, about 705 words.
• Photo available.

By Jeremiah Sosa
Cronkite News

TEMPE – After weeks of holding spring practices at the Kajikawa Football Practice Fields, Arizona State closed out spring ball with the 2022 Spring Football Showcase, giving Sun Devil faithful a first look at the team under the bright lights of Sun Devil Stadium.

“It’s always fun to come into this stadium. It’s a special place,” Arizona State coach Herm Edwards said. “(The players) love coming in here and playing on the grass, the young guys and even some of the older guys. They don’t know how good it is until they see the fans in here, and the advantage we have with our fans.”

Sun Devil followers had a lot of questions about the team coming into the Spring Showcase, and most of them won’t be answered until the fall. That includes the outcome of a highly publicized battle at the quarterback position.

Continue reading “Questions remain after ASU Spring Football Showcase”

• Slug: Sports-Perry High softball, about 825 words.
• 4 photos available.

By Dominic Rivera
Cronkite News

GILBERT – The secret is out: The Perry Pumas are evolving into one of the state’s top high school athletic programs.

The evidence is in Perry’s recent record. The Gilbert school’s varsity girls soccer team reached the state championship game. It’s pom and cheer squad brought home a state championship. Perry’s varsity boys baseball team is off to a hot start, and both of the school’s varsity basketball squads reached the 6A championship game with the boys delivering a title.

And now the school’s softball team is poised to make a run at a state championship, which would complete a dramatic turnaround in the program under coach Robert Hehe.

Continue reading “Perry Pumas poised to make state softball run, extend school’s sports roll”

• Slug: Sports-Remy Martin championship, 671 words.
• Photo available.

By Brandon Bonaparte
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – On May 11, former Arizona State guard Remy Martin entered the NCAA transfer portal as a fifth year player and two-time first team All-Pac-12 selection.

Six days later, Martin was a Kansas Jayhawk. Now, he’s a national champion.

A knee injury hampered most of Martin’s final college season, but he emerged in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, transforming into the player many expected when he joined the Jayhawks as a key piece to a team poised to make a deep tournament run.

Continue reading “From Arizona State to Kansas, Remy Martin ends college career as national champ”

• Slug: Sports-5A Softball rematch, 631 words.
• 5 photos available.

By Dominic Rivera
Cronkite News

WADDELL – From the time their schedule came out, the Canyon View Jaguars had their March 18 date with Willow Canyon circled.

The meeting came 10 months removed from the Jaguars’ loss to Surprise Willow Canyon in the 2021 5A Girls’ Softball State Championship game. Waddell Canyon View was set on getting even and handing the Wildcats just their third loss of the season.

Andrea Hudson, Canyon View’s athletic director, said the team’s returners worked hard in the offseason, aiming at the rematch.

Continue reading “Willow Canyon holds off Canyon View in rematch of 5A girls softball powers”

• Slug: Sports-ASU January, 856 words.
• 3 photos available.

By Kenneth Manoj
Cronkite News

TEMPE – Briann January’s résumé is dotted with individual accomplishments.

• She was a dominant two-way player at Arizona State from 2005-09, leading the team in assists and steals in all four years that she wore a Sun Devils uniform. She is still the only player in ASU history to do that.

• She was named to the Pac-10 All-Freshman team in 2006, won the conference’s defensive player of the year award in 2008 and 2009 and was named All-Pac-10 second and first team in her final two seasons.

• And January ranks second all-time in assists and steals at Arizona State, and sixth all-time in three-pointers made.

But of all of those individual awards and records, January values one record above all the rest: 104-32.

That was Arizona State’s record during her time in Tempe, the best four-year stretch in the program’s history. And, naturally, she called it a team effort.

Continue reading “Sun Devils still learning team-first lessons from Briann January”

• Slug:Sports-Cardinals replacements, about 590 words.
• File photo available.

By Dylan Wilhelm
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – In the 2000 film “The Replacements,” a group of everyday men step in to take the place of professional football players on strike and lead the fictional Washington Sentinels to a playoff berth.

While there is no strike currently happening in the NFL, the Cardinals had to rely on their own replacements to throttle the 49ers Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco.

Quarterback Kyler Murray, a league MVP candidate, and wide receivers DeAndre Hopkins and A.J. Green all were out due to injuries.

Still, Arizona (8-1) bounced back from their first loss of the season against Green Bay with a thorough 31-17 win over the 49ers (3-5).

Continue reading “‘The Replacements’ help Arizona Cardinals improve to 8-1”

• Slug: Sports-Muir comeback, about 1,300 words.
• 2 photos attached.

By Dylan Wilhelm
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – In late January, Krysten Muir found herself alone in a hospital room, unable to even move.

And Muir had been on the move most of her life.

In 2015, Muir made Arizona history by becoming the first female athlete to score in an AIA state championship football game when she booted a pair of extra points for Tempe’s Marcos de Niza against Saguaro High in the 2015 4A championship game.

Continue reading “History-making prep kicker back on the move after car crash, back injury”

• Slug: College Football Playoff Mock, 1,433 words.
• 2 photos available.

By Shawn DePaz
Cronkite News

GRAPEVINE, Texas – In early October, I had the opportunity to participate in a mock College Football Playoff selection for members of the media, meant to give us a better understanding of how the selection committee works.

The selection committee’s process may seem a mysterious one. After all, members of the committee can not comment to anyone about any of the actual debates or votes that take place behind closed doors. That said, I came to find that the actual manner in which the selections are made is not only quite transparent – the selection protocols are available online – it is incredibly thorough as well.

The idea for the real committee is to identify and rank the top 25 teams in college football, pick the teams that will participate in the four-team playoff and other selected bowl games and assign the chosen teams to bowl sites.

It is a formidable task.

Continue reading “Pulling back the curtain: behind the scenes of the College Football Playoff process”

• Slug: Sports-World Series reflections, 1,370 words
• 1 photo and 1 graphic available.

By Zach Larson
Cronkite News

This is the third in a series of stories looking at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ World Series run.

PHOENIX – When the Arizona Diamondbacks flew to New York with a 2-0 lead in the 2001 World Series against the New York Yankees, a skyline and a world forever altered by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 awaited them.

Four days later, the Diamondbacks left New York trailing 3-2 in the series but with a sobering appreciation for the devastation of the attack on the World Trade Center and the impact it had on the city and nation.

It was against that backdrop that reporters from New York, Arizona and across the country tried to cover a sporting event that both demonstrated a country’s resilience and its resolve to return to normalcy.

Continue reading “Reporters recall ’emotion’ of 2001 World Series in wake of 9/11 attacks”

• Slug: Sports-Phoenix Mercury wrap,625
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Amna Subhan
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – As the Phoenix Mercury tried to tie a bow on a season that ended in disappointment against the Chicago Sky in the WNBA Finals, the Sky were throwing some shade their way and the WNBA had another surprise in store – a $10,000 fine.

The Mercury hoped to return home with a chance to play another game in the WNBA Finals, keep their hopes for a fourth league championship alive and perhaps extend the career of their star, Diana Taurasi.

Instead, they returned to find out Tuesday that the WNBA had levied what is reportedly the largest fine ever issued by the WNBA for a media violation, and they enter an offseason of uncertainty about the 39-year-old’s future.

Continue reading “Mercury star Taurasi mulls future after disappointing WNBA Finals loss”

• Slug: Sports-NIL pro perspective, 1043 words
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below)

By Mac Friday
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Each morning at the Kajikawa Practice Fields in Tempe, the cheerful chirp of pre-practice sound is broken by the deep growl of a Ford V8 engine. A sleek, black coupe rumbles through the parking lot, past the Verde Dickey Dome and the open gates to the practice fields, before reversing into a spot.

Arizona State junior quarterback Jayden Daniels cuts the engine and steps out of his 2020 Ford Mustang GT Premium, a gift of the Jones Auto Group.

Once upon a time, this was a scene that would launch scandals and NCAA investigations.

Continue reading “Pro athletes envy college stars cashing in on new NCAA rule”

• Slug: Sports-ASU Soccer Captain, 2,468 words
• 2 photos available.

By Ian Garcia
Cronkite News

TEMPE – Alexia Delgado has finally found a place that feels like home.

After moving away from her family’s house in Mexico as a 13-year-old to pursue her dream of becoming a soccer player, the Arizona State captain developed lasting relationships with her teammates, forming a second family in the Arizona desert.

“This has been the best three and a half years of my life,” Delgado said. “I’m so happy I made the decision to come. I’m probably going to cry so much when I’m done here.”

Continue reading “Mexico’s Delgado has found a second family as ASU soccer captain”

• Slug: Sports-Arizona NBA Draft, 1,439 words
• Photo available (thumbnail, caption below)

By Edwin Perez
Cronkite News

Three Arizona Wildcats and a former Arizona high school standout were among the players who heard their name called during the 2020 NBA Draft.

The event was conducted remotely with teams making their selections from their headquarters while players got the news surrounded by friends and family in their homes.
Wildcats Josh Green, a 6-foot-6 swingman, and Zeke Nnaji, a 6-foot-11 center, were taken in the first round of the draft and point guard Saben Lee, who graduated from Tempe’s Corona del Sol High and played at Vanderbilt, went early in the second round.

And a player who might have been expected to go ahead of all of them a year ago, lasted until the 48th overall before the Golden State Warriors nabbed him.

Continue reading “NBA Draft has Arizona flavor”

• Slug: Sports-AIA Postponement, 931 words.
• Photo available

By Brandon Jones
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – The Arizona Interscholastic Association recommended postponing the start of winter high school sports such as basketball, wrestling and soccer to its executive board Monday, possibly pushing the start of those sports into January.

AIA Executive Director David Hines will meet with state health and education officials before the executive board votes on the proposal.

The news is forcing high school coaches to make some tough decisions.

Continue reading “AIA recommends postponing start of winter high school sports”

• Slug: Sports-Hackbarth ASU Softball, about 730 words.
• Photos available.

By Nathan Hiatt
Cronkite News

TEMPE – Kindra Hackbarth, Morgan Howe and Skylar McCarty combined for arguably the best outfield in the nation last season, but only Hackbarth will return to Arizona State softball as Howe and McCarty graduated.

As ASU prepared to start the new season Friday afternoon, Hackbarth found herself missing her outfield buddies from the past few seasons as her senior season begins.

“It is definitely going to be different, just because they were always there and they had my back through it all,” Hackbarth said.

Continue reading “Hackbarth adjusts to new position, teammates in ASU softball outfield”

• Slug: ASU Softball Facility, about 675 words.
• Photos available.

By Brady Vernon
Cronkite News

TEMPE – Coach Trisha Ford had a vision for the Arizona State softball program when she took the job in 2016. And the plan has quickly fallen into place with Ford leading the Sun Devils to three postseason appearances in three seasons, including a return in 2018 to the Women’s College World Series after a five-year ASU absence.

The team success and player accolades achieved under Ford were all part of the blueprint. However, there is more to be done, and in December 2019, the foundation to a key component of Ford’s proposal was literally laid down when construction began on a new hitting facility.

Similar to the improvements made to Phoenix Municipal Stadium for ASU’s baseball team last year, Ford is getting a new hitting facility on the left-field side of Alberta B. Farrington Stadium, home to the Sun Devils softball program.

Continue reading “‘State-of-the-art’ hitting facility coming to ASU in March”

• Slug: ASU Hockey Knierim, about 975 words.
• Photos available.

By TJ Mathewson
Cronkite News

TEMPE – Junior forward Willie Knierim’s breakout season on the third line for No. 11 Arizona State this season has helped propel the newest hockey program in Division l into position for a second-straight NCAA tournament appearance.

Knierim has turned up his game for the Sun Devils over the past month, scoring seven goals and tallying two assists to help ASU pull off a 3-2 upset win in overtime at No. 8 Clarkson on Jan. 25, then burying four goals in two games versus Robert Morris on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.

But getting to where he is now was anything but easy for Knierim. Continue reading “Willie Knierim found his groove with No. 11 ASU hockey”