Long-time Corona head football coach Gary Venturo was recently selected to the Arizona High School Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will be May 1 at the Phoenix Elks Lodge 335.
Venturo ran Corona’s football program for 23 years before he announced his retirement at the end of the 2009 football season. He stated, at the time, that he didn’t feel he was as effective, after retiring from teaching three years earlier, because he wasn’t able to build as close of a relationship with the players by not being on campus full time.
Venturo, a former Arizona State offensive lineman under coach Frank Kush, earned All-American honors before coaching stints in Ray, Yuma and Nogales before settling in at Corona. All together he coached in Arizona for over 31 years.
Venturo received the Coach of the Year Award in 1989 and led the All -Star game South team to wins in 90 and 99. He is a recipient of the Gene Autry Award for courage in the face of adversity. Over 50 players have gone on to play college football from Corona under Coach Venturo’s tenure and over 70 have gone on to play Junior College football.
CdS Boys Volleyball
Corona del Sol boys volleyball team may be peaking at just the right time, after winning one tournament, the Antelope Classic, and then taking second at the one of the state’s most prestigious tournament, the Brophy Invitational, April 2.
The Aztecs finished pool play Friday in second place and faced off against Desert Vista Saturday morning. After defeating both Desert Vista and Salpointe Catholic in two games, the Aztecs lost to Gilbert. The Brophy Invitational is a double elimination tournament meaning the Aztecs still had a chance to play in the finals if they could defeat Brophy.
After a hard-fought three game match against Brophy, the Aztecs earned the right to play in the finals against Gilbert for the second time in the tournament. Unfortunately, Gilbert played smart, consistent volleyball and defeated Corona in two games to take home the championship trophy.
Although the Aztecs had played fairly consistently throughout the tournament where they improved their serving, offense and defense as the matches went on, Gilbert was too much that day.
“Gilbert played very disciplined volleyball in the finals. We couldn’t get a ball to drop,” said coach Brynne Evans. “Plays that had worked for us against other teams earlier in the tournament weren’t having the same impact against the Gilbert defense.”
“On the positive side, outside hitter Alex Davis made the All-Tournament Team and Blake Pendleton played very consistent,” said Evans. “He is becoming a smart outside hitter. We also had Charlie Hualde funneling our offense with great serve receive passing.
In the week following the Brophy Invitational, Corona had three tough regular season matches. On April 5, the Aztecs defeated Basha at home. Davis had 8 kills; Hualde 14 digs; and Sean Hughes 10 digs.
Defeating Brophy at home on April 6 was a big win for the Aztecs.
“We finished each game of the match against Brophy with big plays,” said Evans. “Alex Davis had a solo block to finish off a long rally in the first game. Then Scott Burdick had a kill off a quick set in the middle to finish game two. A block by Sean Zwenger finished the match.”
Corona completed the week with a tough five-game win at Dobson to end with a 5-4 regular season record as of April 11. The Aztecs were ranked No. 4 by the Arizona Republic after coming in second at the Brophy Invitational but are only No. 18 in AIA power point rankings.
The Aztecs have nine very challenging regular season matches left to improve their power point rankings in order to even qualify to play in the state 5A tournament.
Track and Field
Corona’s track and field team is racing towards the finish line in order to qualify as many athletes as possible according to the new AIA state tournament guidelines by recently finishing third, for the boys team, and fourth, for the girls, in ASU’s 32nd Sun Angel Track Classic held April 7-9 on the Joe Selleh Track at Sun Angel Stadium.
Currently, Corona has all relay teams, for both boys and girls, automatically qualified and over 24 athletes either automatically or provisionally qualified for the state tournament according to head coach Tim Kelley.
Corona’s relay teams had a good showing at the Sun Angel Classic. The highlights included a fourth place finish for the boys 4×400 meter relay team of Dominique Branscumb, Michael Seall, Matt Hayhurst and Cody Jackson and a seventh place for the 4X100 relay team of Dominic Mercurio, George Wright, Alex Smith and Tevin Mayfield.
Corona girls had a sixth place finish in the 4X400 Meter Relay for Taylor Johnson, Hallie, Swensen, Grace Ashu and Lakevia Stormer and a seventh place finish for the 4X100 team of Megan Benson, Ashu, Johnson and Lauren Milovich.
Corona’s strength, in addition to the relay teams, is in middle distance and distance running on both teams.
“Our 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 meter kids are knocking off major seconds of their time and some athletes are consistently getting personal bests each time they compete,” said Kelley. “I believe it is a reflection of their workout programs, training and attitude.”
Proving this point for the boys team was a third for Cody Jackson and a fourth for Seall in the 800 Meter Run, a second for Daniel Wrapp and a 12th for Jared Hirschl in the 1600 Meter Run, and a sixth for Hirschl and 10th for Jacob Whitney in the 3200 Meter Run at the Sun Angel Classic.
Corona’s girls team also had some strong finishes in the distance races including a second place for Stormer in the 400 Meter Dash, a fourth place for Swensen in the 800 Meter Run. Dani Lemieux was 11th and Ellen Dunn 15th in the 1600 Meter Run.
“These distance runners are leading the way, and along with Leanne Wittilles, Kelley Nero, Sarah Williams, Carly Robertson, Victoria Haun, Dani Lemieux and Kate Halligan work extremely hard every day and want to make themselves and each other better,” said Kelley. “We have other kids who are also improving and have great attitudes every day.”
Some of those kids include Mayfield who took fourth in the 300 Meter Hurdles and 12th in the 110 Meter Hurdles, Nick Siefker who was fifth in the 110 Meter Hurdles, and Quinn Robertson who was 12th in the 300 Meter Hurdles at the Sun Angel Classic.
Others improving every race include Megan Benson, fourth in the 100 Meter Hurdles, Jackie Vogt, ninth in the same race, Taylor Johnson, 11th in the 200 Meter Dash and Alyssa Ramsland, 21st in the 3200 Meter Run.
Corona’s is lacking experience in a lot of the field events this season which is something Kelley says will be improved over the summer when the bulk of the Aztec’s younger athletes get a chance to work in the weight room.
“The greatest strides our field event athletes make will be in the off season,” said Kelley. “That’s when our freshman and sophomores will improve the most in the athletic, explosive field events by working out in the weight room.”
Highlights in the field events at the Sun Angel Classic included a third place finish for Dana McKenzie in the High Jump with a personal best, 5 foot 6 inch jump, and Carli Giese who took 11th place in the Pole Vault.
The boys team had two field event finishers: George Bafaloukus was 10th in the High Jump and Mercurio was eighth in the Long Jump at the Sun Angel Classic.
Up next will be the City Meet, April 16, and the Freshman Showcase, April 21, both at Desert Vista before the last chance Corona athletes will have to qualify for the state.
Corona Basketball Camps
Coach Sam Duane, Jr. is holding his summer basketball camps again this summer. The first two sessions, June 6-9 and June 20-23 are to be held in Corona’s gym.
Two sessions are available for the camps in June: 8:30-10:30 for grades 1-5 and 10:30-12:30 for grades 6-10.
A Shooting camp will be July 5-8 and an Offensive camp July 11-14. Both will be held at Kiwanis Park. The link to sign up for any of these camps is http://www.tempe.gov/kiwanis/Classes/Summer%20Camps%202011.htm
