Since Pueblo High School graduate Lafayette “Fat” Lever began an 11-year NBA career in 1983, only three other players from a Tucson-area high school advanced that far.
The short list includes Arizona great Sean Elliott of Cholla (in the NBA from 1990 to 2001), Dave Feitl of Santa Rita (1987-92), and Bryce Cotton of Palo Verde (2015-16).
In the same timespan, Phoenix-area prospects who made it to the NBA totals 27. That’s counting only public-school products, not those who played a national schedule at a prep school.
That’s a substantial margin, 27 to 4, with only one Tucson-area player making that far in the last 25 years. And that one player — Cotton — played in only 23 games over two seasons with three different NBA teams.
The population difference between the Phoenix metro area and Southern Arizona is a major factor. The development of young players in the Tucson area also plays a part.
.@SacHornetsMBB assistant @AugustMendes, who has a long history of working with Mike Bibby at Shadow Mountain HS and now Sac State, conducting a free coaches clinic at Sunnyside. Salpointe and Arizona grad with history of coaching elite prep teams in national competition. The… pic.twitter.com/YCqCxAwldo
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) August 16, 2025
An effort to educate local youth and high school coaches, thereby enhancing the development of players, took place Saturday at Sunnyside High School with former Salpointe assistant and Arizona graduate, Dr. August Mendes, conducting a clinic.
Mendes has joined the Sacramento State coaching staff under Arizona Hall of Famer Mike Bibby (a Phoenix Shadow Mountain graduate who played 14 years in the NBA).
“Tucson is really special to me,” Mendes said. “I want to make sure I help anybody I can here because they helped me so much, whether it’s teachers, educators … these coaches who give their time, the community of Tucson … It’s just so important and I care about it a lot. I want to help everybody I can.”
Mendes, who earned a PhD in general psychology from Grand Canyon University last year, achieved bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Arizona. The bachelor’s degree, which he earned in 2010, was in physical education, and the master’s degree, completed in 2014, was in education leadership.
A Chicago native, Mendes served as an assistant coach at Salpointe from 2012 to 2014 while attending Arizona and working with the Wildcat Club.
“Going to the U of A means a lot to me, too,” Mendes said. “Just helping this community is special.”
Sunnyside graduate and former Pima Community College assistant coach Mateo Garcia organized the free event, which attracted 15 coaches from the middle school and high school levels, as part of his newly formed non-profit organization, CAM AVE Partnership.
The mission statement of CAM AVE Partnership: “Dedicated to empowering youth and athletes in Tucson’s underserved communities through free, high-level basketball opportunities.”
Sunnyside alum Mateo Garcia, a former Pima College assistant, talks about organizing a free coaches clinic involving high school and youth basketball coaches with Sacramento State assistant August Mendes (former Salpointe assistant and Arizona graduate). Garcia started a… pic.twitter.com/dYow0pPyeX
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) August 16, 2025
“I’m from Sunnyside, it’s my alma mater; also born and raised on the Southside,” Garcia said. “Coming here, and also playing sports here, it was really important that people like myself had opportunities to not only play a sport, but to be competitive in a sport.
“Over time, going to camps, clinics and tournaments, it can cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars at a time. I just wanted to give an opportunity for kids to be competitive in a sport. Today, we’re having a coaches clinic, but for me, the coaches are interacting with kids on a daily basis. It’s important that they’re having enhanced learning, too.”
Mendes spoke for an hour at Sunnyside’s auditorium to the group of coaches, noting that in years to come, “we’ll fill this place” for the clinic.
His speech included a film study that touched on individual defense, post-entry passes, adjustments during a game based on scouting reports, not allowing opponents to become comfortable by finding small advantages and practicing them, scheduling higher-ranked teams, and charting free throws.
He also touched on social media and the dangers involved with youth, including bullying and the possibility of posts affecting the mental health of a player.
The last hour of the clinic shifted to Sunnyside’s gymnasium, where Mendes demonstrated drills to run in practice with the aid of two of his former players at Salpointe — Cam Denson and Jaylen Juan.
.@SacHornetsMBB assistant @AugustMendes talks about conducting a free coaches clinic at Sunnyside and his background with Arizona legend Mike Bibby, the new Sac State coach of whom he has an extended background starting at Shadow Mountain HS. pic.twitter.com/S2I9LxnHs0
— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) August 16, 2025
“Out of this, I’d love to see coaches more educated on the current literature, what’s going on in the world, like mental health for kids and different cyber-bullying things,” Mendes said. “Things like how to prepare our kids to navigate through the social media world that we’re dealing with, including parents. Parents being educated, too. What they share affects recruiting. They may not know, but I’m watching what the parents do.
“For these coaches outside the drills, that’s easy, everybody has their own drills, but studying film, I think that can give a huge advantage to these guys that maybe they don’t have. And academics, reading, and just that gritty, scrappy mentality that you didn’t have before. Last thing, pouring into kids a positive spirit because you don’t know what they’re dealing with. You want to help them and build trust.”
After he completed his master’s degree at Arizona in 2014, Mendes became the associate head coach at Shadow Mountain, working alongside Bibby.
During his time at Shadow Mountain from 2014 to 2019, the school captured four consecutive state titles, amassed a 157–21 overall record, and maintained a 72-game winning streak. That includes an undefeated streak at home for six straight years. The program also became the first public school in Arizona history to qualify for the Dick’s National Tournament featuring future collegiate and NBA players.
“It’s been really special,” Mendes said of his relationship with Bibby. “He’s been able to help me. He’s challenged me a lot to become a better coach and how I prepare. He trusts me a lot.
“I’m super grateful for him bringing me to this next step (at Sacramento State), and us doing this next step together. His preparation, his trust, all of his experience, keep growing. I’m just really fortunate to keep it going and create a new legacy.”
Before joining Bibby’s staff at Sacramento State (the Arizona great was hired as the Hornets’ head coach in April), Mendes served as the Director of NIL Strategy and assistant coach for the Nike EYBL National Team at Bella Vista College Prep in Phoenix.
Under his guidance, Bella Vista posted a 21–6 record, winning Arizona’s first Beach Ball Classic championship, as well as the Nike EYBL Scholastic regular season conference title in what is one of the most competitive high school basketball leagues in the country.
Mendes also helped lead Bella Vista to its first appearance at the Chipotle Nationals tournament, one of the most prestigious high school events in the country. It was his fourth overall trip to the tournament during his coaching career. The team closed the season ranked eighth in the nation by ESPN.
He was the assistant coach and video coordinator at national powerhouse Arizona Compass Prep in 2022–23, when the team finished 24–6 and earned a national runner-up finish at GEICO Nationals. The program produced seven Division I commits, including the school’s first McDonald’s All-American, Mookie Cook.
Mendes has served as scout for the Puerto Rican U19 National Team (2022) and contributor to basketball operations at the NBA Draft Combine (2015–20).
A significant achievement for Mendes was being selected as the lead coach at the 2019 Jordan Brand Invitational in Taiwan. There, he coached the event’s top 52 collegiate prospects in the country, focused on player development, film study significance, and leadership skill building.
“I had a chance to (speak) at Jordan Brand in Taiwan, and that was the first time stepping out there across the whole world and putting myself in a different position,” he said. “High-level stuff. It kind of gave me the blueprint of how to do it, coaching high-level guys and coaching university kids or professional staffs.
“Now doing my doctorate, I want to help push academics. I think academics isn’t talked about enough. If I can help educate these coaches so much in preparing their kids. Stuff they don’t think of is all in writing. They just have to look. I want to help present that.”
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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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