It doesn’t matter if the high schools are out for summer when it comes to Corona’s boys basketball program. The Aztecs have two dominant players who seem to be in the news almost weekly.
Marvin Bagley III, named National Freshman Basketball Player of the Year by MaxPreps.com and All-USA Arizona American Family Insurance 2014-15 boys basketball Big Schools Player of the Year after averaging over 20 points and 10 rebounds per game while helping Corona win its fourth straight state championship, recently received his 16th scholarship offer.
The No. 8 ranked overall player by Scouts.com received his latest scholarship offer from the 2015 NCAA basketball championship Duke University after he paid an unofficial visit earlier this month.
His other recent top-tier offers include Kentucky and UCLA.
As only a sophomore this fall, Bagley will have plenty of time to come to a decision, which may even include Arizona State University where his grandfather, Joe Caldwell, was a legendary basketball player selected to the ASU Hall of Fame and the PAC-12 Hall of Fame.
Caldwell, known as “Pogo Joe” or “Jumping Joe” for his leaping abilities, has not only attended all of Bagley’s games but may have unintentionally given him aspirations to be a best basketball player he can be as well.
Caldwell won a gold medal in the 1964 Olympics and was an All-Star in the NBA and ABA—one of the few players to have this distinction.
University of Arizona has their eye on 6-foot-10 Bagley as well but he is in no hurry to make a decision.
It also appears his is in no hurry to leave Corona either stating he plans on staying put and giving his best effort to the Aztec team.
Corona’s other stand-out player, Alex Barcello, is also being heavily recruited.
Barcello, at last count, had received 14 scholarship offers. Six of those offers came in the two days following his outstanding performance at the Adidas Gauntlet Series in April where he averaged 24 points a game.
Coach Sean Miller offered his a scholarship to the University of Arizona after he scored 51 points in an epic battle against Perry towards the end of the season. Corona defeated Perry 106-92 despite the 47 points Perry’s stand-out guard Markus Howard scored.
Howard, an incoming junior this fall, recently decided to leave Perry for Finley Prep, the basketball prep high school in Las Vegas after the Pumas were knocked out of the state championship playoffs his freshman and sophomore years without making it to the finals.
Corona’s sixth man on last season’s championship team, Isiah Bolden, signed a letter of intent at the spring signing date to play basketball at South Mountain Community College next fall.
Bolden started and played major minutes when Cassius Peat was injured towards the end of the season and was the first player off the bench the rest of the season often knocking down three’s when the Aztecs needed a boost.
Corona’s exceptional distance and cross country runner Kelly Naumann signed a letter of intent to run track and cross country at Iowa State.
Naumann, who decided to get serious about distance running during her sophomore year, had a stellar junior and season running both cross country and track for Corona.
Originally running the shorter distance in the 800m run, Naumann started liking the longer distances when she went out for cross country the first time her junior year.
This past spring she broke a school record in the 3200m run. She then went on to record her fastest times in the 1600m and 3200m runs at the state championship meet in May.
Naumann finished fourth in the 1600m run with her fastest time of 5:02.69 and fifth in the 3200m running her fastest time this season of 10:48.78.
Naumann plans on studying in a field related to sustainability and environmental sciences ultimately working in the environmental field to design and develop environmentally friendly programs to help neighborhoods in establishing sustainable practices.
Corona girls basketball player Haley Langille signed a basketball letter of intent with Chandler-Gilbert Community College.
Playing the forward position, the 5-foot-8 Langille played in all 30 games during the 2014-15 season averaging 6.5 points and 5.4 rebounds a game.
As a three-sport athlete at Corona, Langille gained notoriety as the point-after kicker for the Aztec football team her senior year. She made 10 out of 12 attempts scoring 10 points which made her the fourth leading scorer on the team.
Softball Awards
Corona’s sophomore catcher Haley Vallejos was selected as part of American Family Insurance’s All-USA Arizona high school girls softball team.
Vallejos started and played in all 26 games of the season earning a .579 batting average scoring 22 runs on 46 hits. She not only led the team in hits, at 46, but also led the team in home runs at 12 and RBI’s at 36.
As the catcher for the Aztecs, she put out 150 batters on 193 chances or 96.4% of the time.
Taylor Miller and Maggie Jackson where selected to the 2015 All-Tribune Softball second team.
Miller, a sophomore playing third base, batted .636 with 15 RBI’s while senior outfielder Jackson batted .435 with 15 RBI’s.
Baseball Awards
Corona’s Ryan Novis was chosen as one of the top baseball players in the state regardless of division to be part of the American Insurance All-USA Arizona high school baseball team.
Playing outfielder, Novis was known for his aggressive skills as Corona’s lead-off batter averaging .500. He helped ignite the Aztecs offense helping them go farther than expected in the state championship playoffs scoring 33 runs and 18 RBI’s over the season.
Novis, a junior, was also selected to the Division I All-Arizona first team and the 2015 All-Tribune Baseball first team.
Corona pitcher Quinn Flanagan, as a sophomore, won six out of seven games with 1.56 ERA’s, was selected to the Division I All-Arizona second team and the All-Tribune first team.
Sophomore catcher Matt Asta made honorable mention Division I All-Arizona first team and the All-Tribune first team with an ERA of 2.58 while driving in 17 runs batting .325.
Corona’s Connor McCord was selected as honorable mention for the All-Tribune Second team.
Marcos de Niza had two baseball players recognized by the East Valley Tribune.
Nick Leach, the Padres freshman second baseman, was a first-team all-section pick and the All-Tribune second team pick after hitting .425 with 31 runs and 19 RBI’s over the season.
Freshman shortstop Maxwell L’Heureux from Marcos de Niza received honorable mention to the All-Tribune team.
McClintock’s junior baseball player Gianni Guaglianone was given honorable mention to the All-Tribune baseball team. Guaglianone played in 24 of the 25 games over the season averaging .375 with 18 runs and 18 RBI’s on 30 this with 3 home runs.
