Daniel Sainz, an offensive line coach at Sahuaro High School under Scott McKee for the previous eight seasons, is the new head coach at Catalina Foothills.
Sainz was a senior center listed at 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds at Santa Rita when Jeff Scurran coached the Eagles to the state championship game in 2008.
“I am just incredibly grateful for this opportunity that the Foothills administration has given me to build this program,” Sainz mentioned. “I was lucky enough to learn from some of Tucson’s greats having played for Coach Scurran at Santa Rita, and getting to grow as a coach during my time under one of my best friends in Scott McKee at Sahuaro.
“There’s too many great coaches in this city to thank as well that helped me prepare for this. The community has been absolutely amazing in their support and excitement. I can’t wait to get to work and build a winning program for these kids and the entire Foothills community.”
Sainz replaces Darius Kelly, a former Buena and Pima College standout, who accepted the head coaching job with the Sonoran Sidewinders team comprised of local junior college players.
Sainz’s offensive lines at Sahuaro were productive in terms of helping to generate a very potent running game.
In the Cougars’ last full season in 2019 — in 2020 they played only three games because of COVID-19 — they rushed for 3,310 yards and three of their running backs gained at least 700 yards.
Izaiah Davis had 1,083 yards on 129 carries, Jamir Gasaway rushed for 942 yards on 49 carries and Trevion Watkins gained 743 yards on 142 rushes.
“Great kids that made my job easier,” Sainz said of that running back trio.
Before Sainz became the offensive line coach, he served one season as an apprentice on McKee’s staff.
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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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