Kiya Dorroh with her Tanque Verde summer teammates. Dorroh is standing to to the right of Adia Barnes. (Tanque Verde Photo)
“I want the girls in Tucson be excited about our team. I want them to want to play for Arizona.”
That’s what University of Arizona playing legend and second-year women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes told AllSportsTucson.com exactly one year ago when she kicked off her first summer basketball camp with the Wildcats.
“We have to go after the best talent and sometimes players want to leave home but they will know they will have a place here,” Barnes added.
That was all the young Division I talent from Southern Arizona (and their parents) needed to hear from their hometown legend because the promise to actually look at Tucson talent was strangely missing over the last decade.
That promise came true on Friday night when Barnes offered incoming Tanque Verde freshman Kiya Dorroh a scholarship.
“I was at her team camp and went to say goodbye to the coaches and Coach Barnes said she has seen me play enough and wanted to make an offer,” Dorroh said.
Only an incoming ninth grader, Dorroh will obviously research and take her time, considering the staggering amount of D-I schools interested in her.
“I am blessed and humbled, this will only make me work harder! I like the coaches a lot and I am very excited by the offer,” Dorroh added.
Dorroh’s older sister, Brianna Pitre, played at Sabino and will be a sophomore at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The “Vaqueros” are part of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
“Kiya works so hard daily and has such a bright future,” her club coach Chris Klassen (Tucson Rattlers) explained.
“It’s refreshing to see such a young player want something so bad that she constantly pushes herself to get better all the time. Her family is extremely supportive and gives her all the right opportunities to progress and improve as a player. Tucson is growing with talented players and it’s very exciting to see that coach Barnes and the U of A is looking in southern Arizona for players, it’s an exciting thing for all of Tucson.”
Dorroh (6-0) has offers from Arizona and Texas Rio Grande Valley and interest from ASU, Stanford, Oregon, Washington and at least seven other programs.
(Rattlers Photo)
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Andy Morales was recognized by the AIA as the top high school reporter in 2014 and he was awarded the Ray McNally Award in 2017 and he has been a youth, high school and college coach for over 30 years. His own children have won multiple state high school championships and were named to all-state teams. Competing in hockey, basketball, baseball and track & field in high school, his unique perspective can only be found here and on AZPreps365.com. Andy was named a Local Hero by the Tucson Weekly for 2016. Contact Andy Morales at AMoralesMyTucson@yahoo.com
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