• Slug: Sports-Cactus League Attendance, 900 words.
• Photo available.

By Sammy Nute
Cronkite News

PEORIA – To trace the success of this spring’s Cactus League, look no further back than the 2023 World Series, when the Texas Rangers blanked the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-0, in Game 5 at Chase Field to win the championship.

Fast forwarding from the Fall Classic, the residual effects produced one of the best fan turnouts at spring training since 2019, with hordes of people flocking to Arizona to get the first look at the reigning World Series champions, the runner-up and, of course, Shohei Ohtani, Major League Baseball’s biggest star.

Cactus League executive director Bridget Binsbacher announced that 1,630,436 attendees across the league’s 216 games marked the most since before the pandemic, an increase of over 65,000 fans from last year. For the 11th straight season, the Chicago Cubs topped attendance as Sloan Park’s 10th season saw a total of 241,215 baseball fans walk through the turnstiles throughout the spring.  Continue reading “Cactus League announces highest attendance total since pre-pandemic”

• Slug: Sports-Rhys Hoskins MDA, 1,900 words.
• 3 photos available.

By Grace Del Pizzo
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – In 2017, Rhys Hoskins made his MLB debut with the Philadelphia Phillies, and over the next six seasons, he became a fixture as the team’s first baseman. He served as the organization’s bridge from an 11-year postseason drought to achieving long-awaited playoff success in 2022. Just three months ago, he signed a two-year, $34 million contract with the Milwaukee Brewers, leaving Philly fans who had grown attached to his dedication and personality distraught.

Before all that, however, he was just a student at Jesuit High School in Carmichael, California who had to earn 50 community service hours to graduate. He signed up to be a camp counselor at a nearby summer camp run by the Muscular Dystrophy Association to meet the requirement, but what began as an obligation in the eyes of a teenager became so much more.

“I was assigned a camper that I was there to help with (his) care, but also to show him what summer camp is like,” Hoskins said. “And I just fell in love with the community that was there to bring some sort of normalcy to these kids’ lives, but also give a chance for caregivers and parents to have a break. It’s a full-time job, with these kids that are living with these neuromuscular diseases, full-time job for caregivers.” Continue reading “From Phillies hero to championing muscular dystrophy awareness, Rhys Hoskins’ journey is one of heart, home runs”

• Slug: Sports-ASU Running Backs, 850 words.
• 3 photos available.

By Justin de Haas
Cronkite News

TEMPE – “Skattebo, Skatte-can, Skatte-touchdown!”

Those were the words of Fox Sports college football play-by-play announcer Tim Brando when Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo broke through two missed tackles to scamper in for a 52-yard touchdown against USC last season.

That was a breakout moment for Skattebo, who finished the season as the team’s leading rusher with 783 rushing yards and the third-most receiving yards (286). In a rebuilding 3-9 season, the performances from the ASU running back room was a silver lining amid the struggles. Continue reading “‘There ain’t no soft-baked cookies’: Arizona State taps transfer portal with running backs primed to reverse backslide”

• Slug: Sports-Suns Superfan Mr ORNG Arrested. 680 words.
• Photo available.

By David Bernauer
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – A Peoria High School boys basketball coach and popular Phoenix Suns superfan was arrested by Peoria police Tuesday night on charges related to child sex crimes.

Police charged Patrick Battillo, a state title-winning coach also known as Mr. ORNG, with several crimes, including luring a minor for sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking. Peoria High School teacher Holly Holgate, 46, was also arrested and charged with hindering prosecution and failing to report child abuse or neglect.

Peoria police were tipped off to the crimes around 10 a.m. Tuesday when Peoria High School administrators alerted the school’s resource officer that Battillo, 37, had received images and videos of students via Snapchat in “various sex acts and in various states of nudity,” according to police. Continue reading “Phoenix Suns superfan Mr. ORNG arrested on child sex crime charges”

• Slug: Sports-Mercury New Headquarters Court. 740 words.
• 3 photos available.

By Tia Reid
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Mat Ishbia continues to show his commitment to women’s basketball and the Valley’s WNBA team.

On Thursday, Player 15 Group owned by Ishbia,  who also owns the Phoenix Mercury and Suns, unveiled the new team headquarters in downtown Phoenix, just a few blocks from Footprint Center in the Warehouse District. The offices serve as the first phase in a $100 million-plus project that also includes a new state-of-the-art practice facility for the Mercury.

“This feels like a building that delivers championships,” Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said. “We feel like Phoenix is (a) basketball city, and this is a building to befit that high standard. This is incredible. … We are so excited to have the Suns and Mercury growing in the city of Phoenix. You’ve chosen a very special area. The Warehouse District was really the economic backbone of the city when we were an agricultural city, and now it is the future of our city as well.” Continue reading “Phoenix Mercury unveils new headquarters, practice facility renderings”

• Slug: Sports-Coyotes Arena Potential Move. 1,300 words.
• Photo available

By Zach Mott
Cronkite News

TEMPE – The Arizona Coyotes have had a wild month. Between zeroing in on yet another potential place in the Valley to call home and news that the NHL has reportedly dropped a contingency plan in case the team is relocated to Salt Lake City – along with the owner of the Utah Jazz asking fans on social media for possible team names should SLC lure the ‘Yotes – there has been no shortage of off-the-ice drama.

Now, Coyotes fans will have to wait until June 27 to see if and where the team’s future exists.

The Coyotes are focused on a 110-acre piece of land next to the Desert Ridge Marketplace in north Phoenix, right off Loop 101 and Scottsdale Road, a parcel of desert that was approved for auction on March 14. An already popular area will become more popular with the addition of the arena and the entertainment district in the surrounding areas, according to Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo.

But the interest from business executives and politicians in Utah could prompt the franchise to once again pull up stakes and move to what it considers greener pastures. In 1996, the Winnipeg Jets moved to the Valley and rebranded as the Phoenix Coyotes, before changing the name in 2014 to the Arizona Coyotes.

Continue reading “Despite auction date set, roadblocks lie ahead in Arizona Coyotes’ trip to new arena as Salt Lake City makes overtures”

• Slug: Sports-Ra’Shaad Samples Oregon. 500 words.
• Photo available.

By Timothy Russell
Cronkite News

TEMPE – The heralded Texas-to-Tempe football pipeline took a rough detour this week.

Ra’Shaad Samples, Arizona State’s wide receivers coach and one of the most dynamic recruiters in the country, has left the Sun Devils for the University of Oregon, where he will be the Ducks’ running backs coach and assistant head coach. The news comes just four months after Samples signed an extension with ASU that was meant to keep him in the Valley through the 2025 season.

Samples, 29, was also ASU’s passing game coordinator. Before he joined the Sun Devils, his resume was already stacked, as he worked his way up to an assistant coach at SMU after three years with the team from 2019-2021. Samples had also been TCU’s assistant head coach and running backs coach in 2021 before joining the Los Angeles Rams.

The loss of Samples comes smack in the middle of ASU’s spring practices, tossing yet another hurdle at a team searching for ways to jump-start its stagnant program.

“You lose your wide receiver coach at the time, but that’s the nature of adversity,” Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said Tuesday.

Continue reading “Ra’Shaad Samples, ASU’s coveted wide receivers coach, leaves for new role with Oregon Ducks”

• Slug: Sports-HBCU Showcase. 760 words.
• Photo available.

By Jaden Batiest
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Rick Mahorn, who played 18 seasons in the NBA and won a league championship with the 1988-89 Detroit Pistons, established his college basketball roots at Hampton University, a Historically Black College and University in Hampton, Virginia.

So Mahorn knows better than most about the progress of HBCU sports over decades, and he saw it on display from the sidelines Sunday when he was one of two NBA legends coaching some of the best HBCU basketball players in the country at the third annual HBCU All-Star Game at Grand Canyon University’s Global Credit Union Arena.

Ben Wallace – also a former Piston who played college basketball at another HBCU, Virginia Union University – coached the opposing All-Star team.

There was “nothing like this,” Mahorn said, when he starred at Hampton from 1976-1980. Thanks to the vision of Travis Williams, the CEO and founder of the HBCU All-Star Game, “this wouldn’t be possible,” Mahorn added.

Continue reading “HBCU All-Star Game shines spotlight on Black excellence during Final Four weekend”

• Slug: Sports-Final Four Slam Wrap-up, 1,000 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Sammy Nute
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – As confetti fell Monday from the State Farm Stadium rafters, bringing three weeks of hectic college basketball to a close, the UConn Huskies were crowned back-to-back NCAA Tournament champions.

However, the Huskies weren’t the only team celebrating at the end of the 2024 NCAA Men’s Final Four.

JoAn Scott, the NCAA vice-president of men’s basketball, and Jay Parry, CEO of the Phoenix Local Organizing Committee, also had reason to pop a cork. Continue reading “Phoenix shines as host city for 2024 Men’s Final Four, passes torch to San Antonio”

• Slug: Sports-Final Four Slam Dunk Update, 830 words.
• 3 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Noah Maltzman
Cronkite News

PHOENIX – Nicknamed “Young Skywalker,” Grand Canyon star Gabe McGlothan played a significant role in his team’s 30-win season and stuffed the stat sheet in the 12th-seeded Lopes’ first-round NCAA Tournament upset over the fifth-seeded Saint Mary’s Gaels.

He posted a double-double in that game, Grand Canyon’s first NCAA Tournament victory ever, finishing with 12 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and three blocks.

And McGlothan put on another March Madness show to remember in front of his home crowd during last Thursday’s 35th annual State Farm College Dunk & 3-Point Championships at Global Credit Union Arena. Continue reading “Sky-high action, sharpshooting tips off Final Four weekend at GCU’s Global Credit Union Arena”

• Slug: Sports-Purdue Championship Game, 980 words.
• 2 photos available (thumbnails, captions below).

By Lucas Gordon
Cronkite News

GLENDALE – Indiana is known for its vast farmland and its reputation as a basketball haven. Hoosiers, as residents call themselves, eat, sleep and breathe basketball.

The sentiment toward basketball is the same all across the state, especially in the college towns. Travel 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis and you’ll find the one town that has been into basketball more than the rest in Indiana recently. West Lafayette.

Home of the Purdue Boilermakers, the usually quiet town was preparing for a riot Monday night as the school’s men’s team made its first national championship appearance in 55 years. Continue reading “Purdue’s season a success despite men’s national title loss to UConn”