The stadium where Laura Espinoza–Watson was legendary for Arizona softball became a place for her family to gather Tuesday to watch her kids continue her legacy in the sport.
While David Watson Jr. coached third base and his sister Kristiana played at first base representing New Mexico State, their parents — David Sr. and Laura, former Arizona athletes — were on the upper concourse at Hillenbrand Stadium among family and friends.
The result of the doubleheader between Arizona and New Mexico State was not to their liking, with the Aggies swept by scores of 3-0 and 13-0 in five innings, but time spent with family afterward was valuable with some tears shed mixed with some laughs.
“It’s good to be back (in Tucson),” the younger David mentioned after the second game. “I’ve got all my family here waiting for me. That, to me, is the most important thing because I’m nothing without them.
“Everything I do in my life is try to help them and live up to them.”
Former Amphi and Arizona lineman David Watson Jr. grew up around softball with his mom being legendary Wildcat slugger Laura Espinoza-Watson so it’s natural he wants a future in the game as a coach. He is in his first year as New Mexico State’s third-base coach, which provides… pic.twitter.com/dqIkVyaxRS
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) April 23, 2025
David Jr. went from being a football player at Amphi (Class of 2018) to following his dad’s footsteps playing on the offensive line at Arizona.
Kristiana went on to play softball at Arizona State after graduating from Amphi in 2020. Her softball odyssey has taken her to Duke and now New Mexico State.
She became so emotional while visiting with family after Tuesday’s games that she was unable to do an interview.
Her mother is not one for media attention. Kristiana, like her mom, lets her actions do the talking.
“I don’t like to get interviewed,” Laura told me in 2022 when she was coaching at Amphi, where she remains helping students find careers before they graduate. “I don’t like me to be out there.”
Kristiana is “out there” because of her skills. Her legacy in Southern Arizona softball includes being a two-time MaxPreps All-American, the 4A Offensive Player of the Year and a finalist for the Arizona Player of the Year in her time at Amphi.
She has also earned high academic honors and is well on her way to a film-editing career in Hollywood.
Not playing last spring at Duke while concentrating on her studies, she earned a bachelor’s degree in visual and media studies. In her season on the field with the Blue Devils in 2023, she was an Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete.
She has already spent time in Hollywood as an intern at Paramount Studios looking over scripts and assisting with film editing.
She was 1 of 17 students selected at Duke for a program called Duke in LA last spring. She took film courses at USC and worked as an intern at Paramount Pictures for DiBonaventura Pictures (the company that made Transformers).
“As an intern, I worked in development where I did script coverage,” Kristiana messaged me later. “I analyzed scripts that could possibly be turned into a movie or TV show in the future. I am currently continuing my internship remotely and I plan on entering the film industry once I am done playing softball.”
She is currently working on a masters in leadership communications at New Mexico State.
Her return to playing this year at New Mexico State, taking advantage of being with her brother and playing closer to home, has been productive. Playing first base, she is batting .353 with 14 doubles, 12 home runs and 43 RBIs.
She wears the same uniform number — 30 — that her mother wore during her Hall of Fame career at Arizona. Laura, a shortstop, set an NCAA record with 37 home runs and 132 RBIs during her senior season with the Wildcats in 1995. Her career mark of 85 home runs is second in the Arizona record books behind Stacie Chambers’ 87.
She was a three-time first-team All-American selection and one of the five Wildcat players to earn four-time, first-team All-Pac-10 honors.
Kristiana and David Jr. have also assisted their mother coaching youth softball with the ThunderCats club organization.
David Jr. grew up around softball with his mother and played youth baseball. He also honed his football lineman skills under his dad at Amphi, when his dad was an assistant under Jorge Mendivil.
“I grew up playing baseball and grew up around the game (softball) my whole life, and after I medically retired from here (Arizona) from football, I went to play one year of Division II baseball at Colorado (for Adams State),” David Jr. said. “I have been coaching with my mom’s organization since 2020. (Coaching) started by me having fun, hitting fungo and then it kind of developed into a real love for the game.”
The family has a photo with David Jr. and Kristiana when they were very young, David Jr. about 7 and Kristiana 4, and he is coaching her at first base with Kristiana looking his way. Almost two decades later, they are living that scenario with New Mexico State every game.
“That picture will be up on our social media at the end of the season when we’re done,” David Jr. said. “She’s turning her head saying, ‘What?’ It’s a pretty cool moment captured and we’ve been able to capture it playing more this year.”
He envisions a career coaching softball using his first year at the Division I level as a third-base coach under New Mexico State coach Kathy Rodolph as a strong starting point.
Kristiana has one more year of eligibility after this season, although she may opt to concentrate on her film-based career.
Their cousin Isabella Espinoza — a quality Class of 2026 outfielder and student at Amphi, playing for her aunt Irma Sonnek (Laura’s sister) — has already verbally committed to New Mexico State. David Jr. may have the opportunity to coach her with the Aggies in a couple of years.
“It’s still up in the air,” David Jr. said about his immediate future plans. “I’ve just got to see what opportunities present themselves and we’ll go from there.”
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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. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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