Trying to make the Sahuaro High School boys basketball team’s roster during Hall of Fame coach Dick McConnell’s years required not just a dead-eye jumper and years of preparation, but size, speed and a shrewd basketball IQ.
It was no place for someone like young Jim Henry.
“I was a math and science nerd,’’ he says now, chuckling. “I wasn’t very tall or athletic.’’
From 1970-2007, McConnell’s Sahuaro teams won four state championships and a state-record 774 games, the greatest run by a Tucson prep basketball program since the 1940s, or maybe ever.
“I got cut,’’ Henry says.
After graduating from Sahuaro, Henry, a UA biochemistry major, became a math teacher, not a point guard. Early Tuesday morning, low on sleep, Henry was at Gridley Middle School helping to administer district math tests.
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But this time he had much more on his mind than math.
A night earlier in Phoenix, in one of the most compelling, against-the-odds sports stories in Tucson sports, Henry coached Sahuaro to a victory over No. 1 seed ALA-Gilbert North, catapulting the Cougars to Thursday’s Class 4A state championship game against Glendale Deer Valley.
“Jim has always said he wanted to make coach McConnell proud,’’ says Sahuaro athletic director Steve Botkin. Proud? At Monday’s pulsating 55-51 semifinal victory, Botkin spent time with McConnell’s son, Rick, who has been the boys basketball coach at Mesa Dobson High for 41 years.
Rick told Botkin that his father “must be looking down from heaven with pride’’ at the former math nerd, an assistant coach under Dick McConnell during his last four seasons at Sahuaro, 2004-07.
“Jim’s kids are so well-coached,’’ says Botkin, who is also Sahuaro’s girls basketball coach. “They play so hard for him. Other schools have tried to recruit Jim to be their head coach.’’
Henry has chosen to stay on Sahuaro’s hallowed basketball turf.
Now comes the hard part: beating Deer Valley at Phoenix Veterans Memorial Coliseum, a few miles from the Skyhawks’ home court. It’s a would-be, could-be victory that would take McConnell’s legacy and Henry’s career to another level.
Here’s the math that matters this week: McConnell’s former Sahuaro assistant coaches — all former Cougar standout players except Henry — have won 2,832 games in Arizona prep (and junior-college) basketball. Or, as Henry says, “it’s crazy to think I’m part of that circle of coaches. They all mentored me along the way.’’
Pima College men’s basketball coach Brian Peabody has won 677 games, including the 2008 state championship at Ironwood Ridge.
Botkin, who has coached Sahuaro’s girls team to the state semifinals four times, has coached 637 victories, a Tucson girls basketball record.
Former Santa Rita High coach Jim Ferguson won 370 games including Santa Rita’s 1999 and 2010 state championships.
Former Catalina Foothills and Tucson High boys coach Gary Lewis won 194 games as the coach at Catalina Foothills and Tucson High.
Rick McConnell has coached Dobson to 689 victories and four state semifinals.
Now comes Henry, who has won 265 games at Sahuaro, with just one losing season in 14 years. Henry has established his own reputation. Other than Rincon/University coach Rich Utter, who has won 501 games in 35 years, Henry is the longest-tenured boys basketball coach in Tucson.
That’s quite a journey for a man who began his coaching career as a volunteer coach at the YMCA, coaching third graders 25 years ago.
“The more I started understanding basketball, the more I loved it,’’ says Henry. “I stayed at the YMCA, coaching seventh and eighth graders. And because Gridley Middle School feeds into Sahuaro, once I started teaching there I volunteered to be a freshman assistant coach at Sahuaro.’’
And thus began his no-look-back journey to Thursday’s state championship game.
Reaching the state championship game at any level requires much more than being from Dick McConnell’s coaching tree. It requires legitimate, win-it-all talent, and the Cougars appear to have that for the first time in 20 years.
Sophomore point guard Cisco Llamas has been superb, averaging 18 points. Forward Nick Ponds, a versatile senior, is averaging 14 points and seven rebounds. Junior Jamal Ali has been a reliable third scoring and rebounding option.
Says Henry: “At the beginning of the season I knew we had one of the better teams I’ve had, and we’ve had some pretty accomplished teams.’’ Indeed, The Cougars have won 20 or more games seven times under Henry.
This one, however, 24-4 overall, is Sahuaro’s winningest team snice 2001.
“The chemistry these guys built let me know we had a chance to do something special,’’ says Henry. “State title good? We’ll find out Thursday.’’
Henry refers to Llamas as “a special kid; the best point guard I’ve ever seen in Tucson basketball.’’ On Pond, he says “his development has taken us to a higher level.’’
If you examine Sahuaro’s roster the temptation is to say that this is just the beginning of an epic run at the top. With Llamas, Ali and 11-points-per game junior Ayumu Lara returning next year, Sahuaro is likely to open next season ranked No. 1, or near it.
Henry knows that’s not the way it works.
“This is our best chance, right now,’’ he says. “We’ve waited a long time to get to this spot. This is the big one.’’
Contact sports columnist Greg Hansen at GHansenAZStar@gmail.com. On X(Twitter): @ghansen711