When putting this list of former Arizona athletes as head coaches together thankfully some readers point out the ones I might miss.
Moises Duran during his Arizona playing career.
This happened this morning after I posted the story about former Arizona pitcher Jason Hisey getting hired by Canyon del Oro to be its head coach.
I was alerted shortly after that story that I omitted Rio Rico head baseball coach Moises Duran, who was hitting home runs for the Wildcats at a high rate from 2001 to 2004. He finished with 32 career home runs at Arizona, including 15 with 63 RBIs in 2003.
Duran, who starred at Sunnyside High School before playing at Arizona, has coached Rio Rico since 2014 and is considered one of the top coaches in Southern Arizona with a 56-33 career record at the school.
The addition of Duran and Hisey makes it six former Arizona baseball players who are coaching or managing a team, including Terry Francona of the AL Central champion Cleveland Indians. Others are Shelley Duncan, who just completed his first season as manager at the Double-A level with Jackson (Miss.), Bill Kinneberg at the University of Utah and Tod Brown at North Dakota State.
Former Arizona standout Moises Duran has been the head coach at Rio Rico since 2014.
The following is a list of the 36 former Arizona athletes who presently are head coaches:
FORMER ARIZONA ATHLETES AS CURRENT HEAD COACHES
High school boys basketball (2)
[table “” not found /]Men’s college basketball (4)
[table “” not found /]Men’s professional basketball (3)
[table “” not found /]High school baseball (2)
[table “” not found /]College baseball (2)
[table “” not found /]Professional baseball (2)
[table “” not found /]Women’s college basketball (2)
[table “” not found /]High school football (8)
[table “” not found /]College football (1)
[table “” not found /]College softball (4)
[table “” not found /]High school softball (4)
[table “” not found /]High school soccer (1)
[table “” not found /]College women’s tennis (1)
[table “” not found /]
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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