Writer/designer, Yuma, AZ

Sounds like quite a sports tradition in that town. :
At least there shouldn't be much of a traffic jam leaving the games.

 

Prep games are sparsely attended - unless they are against in-town opponents - but the town has supported the Scorpions, much to the surprise of many (myself included). Yuma has led the Golden Baseball League in attendance, and frequently brings in good crowds. The Scorpions just need to make sure they never, ever play a day game.

As for the quality of the high school teams, there is good baseball, boys soccer, girls track and usually a decent golfer or two. The area is bad at everything else.

 

I'm a Yuma vet and it's a badge of honor. If you can survive that place, you can make it .... ummm. Well, actually if you move on, it's because you put yourself in position to move on. The job is nice but this business is about making the right connections on your own.

Yuma's turned out a number of athletes that are role players for college teams (Mesa on the UofA softball team, an NCAA wrestling champ a few years back, plenty of small D-II kids) but no true superstars. Lone exception is six-time NCAA (outdoor/indoor track and field) champion Jacquelyn Johnson, who will be in the Olympics in 2008.

They turned out a few minor leaguers (most fizzle out at Double-A) and a CFL quarterback but an athlete out of Yuma reaching the top level in any professional sport is rare. Arizona Western has two NBA players (Nate Archibold and Rafael Araujo) and a MLBer (Bengie Molina). None were from Yuma.

PTOWN is right, the kids strive to be the best in Yuma. That's it. They're satisfied with their corner of the state and not achieving state success. Don't know about the Scorpions but I don't think they're anywhere near reaching a sellout crowd at Desert Sun Stadium. Maybe for the Fourth of July they'll reach 7,000-plus.

 

There was the one time a Sun column identified Bengie Molina as a Cibola grad - which would have meant he communted between Puerto Rico and Yuma. That probably was a mistake.

And Araujo barely qualifies as an NBA player, if we're being honest...

 

Gotta love serious discourse of prep fan trends in Yuma, Arizona. Internet message boarding at its finest.

 

There was the one time a Sun column identified Bengie Molina as a Cibola grad - which would have meant he communted between Puerto Rico and Yuma. That probably was a mistake.[/quote]

Whatever happened to that writer?

 

Hoosier, If your talking about Cain Velasquez, I don't believe he ever won a title. Maybe fourth or fifth. The Bengie Molina-Cibola bumblefuck as it has come to be known was a fine piece of journalism. I don't know what's worse, being the guy who turned it in or being the editor who didn't catch it (Maybe the person was one in the same on that particuliar evening). As for the writer I'm sure he's some where, still putting Angels covreage out front, which is fine if he's working in SoCal, but not SW Arizona.

Surviving Yuma is not a badge of honor in my opinion, but I will say I worked with some fine scribes in my time there. It is extremely difficult to make a big jump out of there (it took Bill Kopatich more than a decade to make it to the East Valley Trib). Many copy editors/designers have gone onto bigger things, but the writers I know are still grinding it out. Which is fine because I know they enjoy the biz, on most days at least.

 

Man, he must have had a sugar mama. How else can someone grind it out for 10 years?

 

Kopatich did not go to the Trib. He left the business.
I believe you are referring to Bob Romantic, now SE up there.

 

Champ, you are correct on Romantic. I think Kopatich went to work on the Kerry campaign, after that I do not know his whereabouts.

 

I think he went to work in the Kerry administration.

 

One thing for Yuma is if you can handle the 120-degree heat, there are a few nice golf courses for decent prices. And the pace of play isn't bad either during June-July.

I actually never bothered with playing during the winter ... it cost too much and there were too many people.

And whoever gets this job, remember that your commute (!) will double in time when the Snowbirds and their slow-moving RVs roll into town.