Arizona
3 Arizona boys basketball seniors who could star at college level
St. Mary’s Cameron Williams helps down Brophy Prep
St. Mary’s center Cameron Williams made two free throws with two seconds left as the Knights downed Brophy Prep in a thriller on Jan. 7.
Arizona has elevated itself nationally in boys’ high school basketball like never before.
Last year, Gilbert Perry finished ranked No. 4 in the nation, behind current Arizona freshman Koa Peat. This year, both Phoenix Sunnylope (No. 4) and Goodyear Millennium (No. 10) are ranked among the nation’s top 10 teams by MaxPreps.
More college coaches are taking a serious look at Arizona high school basketball talent. And this year’s 2026 class has its fair share of future college players. The Arizona Republic takes a look at three seniors who could make immediate splashes next college basketball season as freshmen. They are in the midst of their final season of high school basketball, so catch them while you can.
Cameron Williams, Phoenix St. Mary’s
The 7-footer is a shot-blocking phenom and the No. 2 overall prospect in the ESPN Next for the 2026 class. He signed with Duke in November, one of the nation’s top college programs, after also considering Arizona and Texas. And he’s only scratched the surface of his potential.
He’s considered a later bloomer, whose star only began to glisten on a national scale last summer when he separated himself at the NBPA Top 100 Camp, where he averaged 12.8 points and six rebounds.
Williams has always been a great rim protector, but his offense has blossomed in the last year under coach Damin Lopez at St. Mary’s. He’s developed a more consistent 3-point shot. He runs the court well. He was clutch at the end in a recent 67-66 win over Phoenix Brophy Prep, nailing two late 3s, blocking a shot, making a steal and hitting two free throws with two seconds left to win it.
“We’re super proud of him. Cam is not making small steps. Cam is making jumps,” Lopez said. “That’s why he’s been so successful on the national level. He’s learning the game at a high rate. He’s still going to make some mistakes. But overall he’s getting better.”
Here’s where to find Williams’ next five games. All times MST:
Jan. 19 vs. No. 1 nationally ranked Paul VI (Virginia), 11 a.m., at the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts (on ESPN2); Jan. 23 at Santa Ana (California) Mater Dei, 5 p.m.; Jan. 27, at home against Tempe Marcos de Niza, 7 p.m.; Jan. 30 at Gilbert Mesquite, 7 p.m.; Feb. 3, at home against Scottsdale Saguaro, 7 p.m.
Cameron Holmes, Goodyear Millennium
The 6-foot-6 guard signed with top-ranked Arizona. He’s a complete player, a dynamo at both ends of the court, who took the Tigers to the Open state championship game his sophomore season, a loss to Perry and Peat, who won four state titles in his Perry career.
Holmes, one of the more athletic players in the state, a great leaper, has stayed loyal to Millennium, even after the Tigers said goodbye to coach Ty Amundsen, who left last summer to be an assistant at Arizona State. Holmes avoided the prep school scene — where basketball-focused schools play national schedules — and has developed into the No. 38-ranked player in the nation in the 2026 class by ESPN.
He’s a scorer from all three levels. He hyper-extended his knee on his way to a dunk against Georgia-power Wheeler late in the Hoophall West semifinal game of the traditional bracket. Losing Holmes hurt the Tigers’ chances of beating Wheeler and getting a chance to play Phoenix Sunnyslope in the final. But those two teams will see each other twice in the second half of the season.
First-year coach Rich Thornton said that Holmes could have played in Millennium’s 11-point win over Phoenix Desert Vista last week, but he held him out as a precaution. Holmes returned Jan. 17 in the Hoophall Classic in Massachusetts with a game against Christ the King out of New York.
Holmes is the brother of former Dayton star DaRon Holmes II, who was a first-round NBA draft pick of the Suns in 2024. The Suns traded his draft rights to the Denver Nuggets. Cameron is a different style of player than DaRon. He’s not as tall, but has the same kind of hops, plays a bigger role on the perimeter and, like his older brother, gets after it defensively.
Here’s where to find Holmes’ next five games, all times MST:
Jan. 21, at Sunnyslope, 7 p.m.; Jan. 27, at Brophy Prep, 7 p.m.; Jan. 30, at Phoenix Desert Vista, 7 p.m.; Feb. 10, at home against Sunnyslope, 7 p.m.; Feb. 12, at home against Brophy Prep, 7 p.m.
Rider Portela, Sunnyslope
The 6-foot-6 Portela has signed with Colorado. One of the best defenders in the state, he’s been a big part of his dad, Ray Portela’s, Sunnyslope teams since his freshman year, helping the Vikings to two Open Division state final appearances, both losses to Perry. His long arms and ability to stay in front of his man frustrate opposing players.
An ultimate team player, Portela doesn’t need to be the main scorer for a team that has jumped in the national rankings since winning two major holiday tournaments from No. 38 to No. 4 by MaxPreps. He’s the ultimate team guy.
Juniors Delton Prescott and 6-foot-11 Darius Wabbington have been the team’s top two scorers this season. That’s OK with Portela, because they’re winning and playing cohesively. It might be Ray Portela’s most complete team and it starts with Rider’s leadership and defensive prowess.
It’s easy to find Portela on the court, because he’s the guy nearly inside the jersey of the man he’s covering. He’s diving for loose balls, making steals and leading breaks with dunks. He can fill it up from beyond the arc, too.
Portela is confident he can fill into his tall frame at Colorado, which, he feels, will be great for his development. Defense will get him on the court faster than most at a high major, and there might not be a better defender in the state. Learning from his dad will be beneficial at the next level.
Always wanting to challenge himself, Portela feels Colorado will do that. He’s looking forward to escaping the 100-degree summer days in Phoenix and seeing his game take off in Boulder.
Here’s where to find Portela’s next five games, all times MST:
Jan. 21, at home against Millennium, 7 p.m.; Jan. 27, at Desert Vista, 7 p.m.; Feb. 3, at home, against Tempe Corona del Sol, 7 p.m.; Feb. 6, at Brophy Prep, 7 p.m.; Feb. 10, at Millennium, 7 p.m.
Richard Obert has been covering high school sports since the 1980s for The Arizona Republic. Catch the best high school sports coverage in the state. Sign up for Azcentral Preps Now. And be sure to subscribe to our daily sports newsletters so you don’t miss a thing. To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert
Arizona
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MESA – Mary Salcedo is the executive director of Arizona Roller Derby, but everyone on the team knows her as MaryMorphosis, or Morph for short.
A derby name is as good as a legal name once you join a league. Arizona Roller Derby – the second-oldest flat track roller derby league in the world – has plenty of unique monikers on its two home and travel teams.
During a doubleheader homestand, players introduce themselves.
“What’s your name?”
“Mecca,” said Sara Mecca-Whitlock, an interior architect in Phoenix.
“Brooklyn Dodge-her,” said Kristi Baptiste, a grandma and senior project manager from Ventura, California.
The rules surrounding derby names are loose. Some players have nicknames bestowed upon them when they join.
“Since I was wearing a Brooklyn shirt, they started calling me Brooklyn, and we added the Dodge-her later,” Baptiste said. “The funny thing is, I am not an L.A. Dodger fan. I don’t even watch baseball.”
It’s clear Roller Derby isn’t like other organized sports. There is no professional threshold to work toward as a goal. Players show up year after year, paying to participate, paying to travel and returning to the community they find along the way.
Across the country, including in Phoenix, teams find a way to organize players and facilities to play the sport.
Selecting derby names is part of the process.
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MAXimum HOverdrive of the Bad News Beaters poses for a photo as she skates at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Photo by Samad Khan/Cronkite News) -
Goldy Knocks, left, and Hella Naughty of the Bad News Beaters pose after their match at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Photo by Samad Khan/Cronkite News) -
Bad News Beaters skater Dr. Doctor flashes a hand sign while posing for a photo at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (Photo by Samad Khan/Cronkite News)
“Sure, man,” said Rachel Sherman, a 13-year veteran of Arizona Roller Derby and an electrician training in an apprentice program. “My dad, with the perfect dad joke, was like, ‘Well, I guess if you’re going to change your name, you should probably change your number to four. So I am four sure, man.”
Elaina Bryan, a 25-year-old receptionist in Phoenix and lifelong derby player, said her nickname is Squeezer.
“There was a particular one of my mom’s friends, who I would give a really good squeeze, big hug to,” Bryan said. “So my name actually used to be a little squeezer, but now that I’m an adult, it’s just squeezer.”
The names used outside of derby are not relevant on the track. Official rosters are submitted only with the players’ derby names.
“You think about the parts of you that you want to foster that can handle the intensity, the eyes on you, the attention, the strength, the perseverance and determination,” Sure, man said. “You give that a name and it becomes this kind of alter ego that then you’re allowing it to blossom and grow in this space.”
Roller Derby’s history
Roller derby was officially born on Aug.13, 1935, when promoter Leo Seltzer debuted the first Transcontinental Roller Derby event at the Chicago Coliseum. Initially created as endurance marathons during the Great Depression, the event evolved into the full-contact sport we know today.
After peaking in popularity on television in the 1950s and 60s, the sport largely faded out, but in 2001, a modern revival took place in Austin, Texas, which popularized the grassroots, flat-track format that is played globally today.
“We (will) hit our 25th season in 2028, which is pretty significant,” MaryMorphosis said, “We’re hoping to go out huge.”
Arizona Roller Derby is older than the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, which was founded in 2004 as the United Leagues Coalition and formally changed its name to the WFTDA in 2005. WFTDA is the international governing body of the sport. Today, it has over 400 member leagues on six continents.
Arizona Roller Derby doesn’t compete on a bank track. They can play on any flat surface if they have a way to lay down track boundaries.
A bank track is a raised and curved surface, like a NASCAR track. It’s the kind of roller derby played in the 2009 movie with Elliot Page, “Whip it.”
After the COVID-19 pandemic, Arizona Roller Derby lost the warehouse space it rented full-time and the participation numbers dwindled. Now the group rents temporary spaces across the East Valley to accommodate practices and competitions, like Saturday’s doubleheader.
“I would hope that we would have our own space again, “ MaryMorphosis said. “We need to double our membership to do that.”
On a Saturday afternoon in June, players began arriving at the Broadway Recreation Center in Mesa. The same people that would be competing on track in a few hours used thin rope and white electrical tape to lay down the track borders on top of the gymnasium hardwood.
The rules
The Saturday doubleheader featured two Arizona Roller Derby home teams, and two travel teams from California.
Bad News Beaters are the first home team. They go against the West Coast Derby Knockouts.
Derby games last one hour. Two 30-minute halves are broken up by a 15-minute intermission. The intensity on the track lasts for two-minute jams before lines switch off and new players sub in for the next jam.
Mecca, a jammer on Bad News Beaters, points out that “there’s four blockers from each team that get on the track and one jammer from each team.”
A jammer’s helmet cover, a large polyester cap with stars on both sides, indicates they are the one person on the track who can score points for their team.
One blocker is known as the pivot. They wear a similar, bright-colored cap, but theirs has a line running through the center. At any point, a jammer can remove their star and pass it to the pivot. For the remainder of the jam, the pivot acts as the Jammer to score points.
“I’m a pushy jammer, and I like being strong,” MaryMorphosis said, “and I like breaking people apart.”
The jammers line up behind a jam line while the eight blockers stand anywhere in the box in front of the jam line but behind the pivot line.
Waiting in the box is Californian blocker Brooklyn Dodge-her, and her daughter, Rocky Bye Baby. They are there to throw their bodies into the Bad News Beaters jammer to stop them from scoring points.
Brooklyn Dodge-her was recruited to derby 12 years ago. She volunteers as a coach for the West Coast Derby youth travel team on top of training and competing herself.
“Mondays for the kids, Tuesday for myself. Wednesday I get a break,” Brooklyn said. “Thursday for myself. Friday for the kids. Saturday if we don’t have a game, I get free. And Sunday in the morning it’s the kids and in the evening it’s the adults.”
At 51, she is competing in her last season of roller derby.
“I became a grandmother,” Brooklyn said. “I have to start spending some time with a grandbaby. I’ll probably get bored and be like, ‘Y’all want me back?’”
The officials blow the whistle to signal the start of a jam and the jammers push off their line straight into the bodies in front of them.
“If I get through the pack first I get what’s called lead jammer,” Mecca said. “On the second time through, they get one point for every blocker from the opposite team that they pass legally with their hips. That can go for two minutes.”
The lead jammer can call off the jam at any point, especially if it prevents the other jammer from scoring any points for the opposing team.
“Does it matter if the jammer is behind me? Do I have two or more blockers in the box? Then don’t call it,” MaryMorphosis said, “because it might be worth losing the points just to have your teammates out.”
A player in the penalty box at the end of a jam will remain in the box during the start of the next jam.
The ways to receive penalties include hitting someone in the head, hitting someone in the back, or getting back on the track in front of somebody that was in front of you when you left. All penalties must be served for 30 seconds.
A game requires a whopping seven skating referees and even more non-skating officials. Those positions are entirely filled by volunteers.
Robert Cushman began 17 years ago in Nebraska when his wife started competing in roller derby. Years after their divorce, he continues to enjoy participating in the sport while living in Tucson.
“Most of us don’t get paid anything,” Cushman said. “Usually Phoenix will give us like a gas stipend.”
Even as an official he uses a derby name. He goes by Manosaur, a reference to the animated series “Venture Bros.”
“I usually go once a week to the scrimmage down in Tucson, and then I usually come up here for whatever games they have,” Cushman said.
During jams, Manosaur skates around the inside of the track, monitoring the action to keep the play fair.
“Watch the pack,” Mecca said. “Don’t worry too much about the jammer when they’re by themselves. But once we enter the pack again, then it gets crazy.”
Mecca is a mom of five who started playing roller derby in North Carolina. She said she retired for six years as she finished up her military career and went back to school. Eventually she began coaching the ASU derby team. Two years ago, she began playing again.
The West Coast Derby Knockouts dominated, 223-53.
“They were taking the pivot line constantly instead of the jam line,” MaryMorphosis said after the game. “They were just really big. And both our blockers and our jammers were thrown off.”
Game two
Morph sits in the stands after the early afternoon loss and watches the second match of the day. The home team, Skate Riot Project, took on Orange County Roller Derby.
She became executive director in January and takes on the administrative responsibilities on top of competing and working full time.
“I love building and growing community,” MaryMorphosis said. “It was an opportunity to do that and step into just a significant leadership role.”
She began playing derby in 2022 when she still lived in upstate New York.
“I broke my leg three months in,” MaryMorphosis said, “like shattered it. Recovery was rough.”
After two surgeries and a cross-country move to start a new job as a project manager at Arizona State’s School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, MaryMorphosis had her first uninterrupted derby season in 2025.
“I don’t know what kept me coming back,” she said. “I guess it was the community.”
Meanwhile, Elaina Bryan, or Squeezer, is another recent Arizona transplant and a blocker on Skate Riot Project.
“My mom started playing back in 2008, actually, and we went to practices with her,” Squeezer said. “Eventually, they had enough kids’ interest that they started a kids team.”
She was 9 when she started playing in Bakersfield, California. She played on her college team and then moved to Arizona in October. Now she plays on a travel team as well as the home team.
“I was just kind of trying to see where I fit in and started to find people at that same level to start connecting with,” Squeezer said, “and just kind of started building up my social circle.”
Teams are comprised of players of all ages, but everyone is connected to the community that exists in Derby. It’s more everlasting than the final scores.
“I went to a yard sale,” Brooklyn Dodge-her said. “We didn’t even get across the street and they were like, ‘You want to play roller derby? It was a West Coast yard sale.”
MaryMorphosis did not hearing back from one roller league before she stumbled on the practice of another team.
“I was literally in the mall because my old league had taken over an Old Navy, and they were skating in the mall,” MaryMorphosis said. “I was buying yarn at Michael’s, and I was like, ‘OK, that’s the sign.’”
When Skate Riot Project lost to Orange County Roller Derby 125-100, the teams shook hands and huddled together. Orange County picked its MVP Jammer, blocker and MVP overall from SRP, and SRP picked its players from Orange County. They hugged each other as they presented the awards.
“We’re playing the game against another team, and it’s really intense and like we’re very serious and focused with our team,” Squeezer said. “But afterwards, we all hang out and we goof around.”
With the games over, the players begin clearing out the temporary space. The track gets peeled off the gymnasium floor and the tape is put into trash bags.
The four teams get in their cars and head to the after-party together.
“If the only thing we do for the next five years is become the place for people to be themselves, that’s a win,” MaryMorphosis said.
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LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Reno and Las Vegas are the two fastest-warming cities in the entire country.
Tonight we take a look at what neighboring Arizona is doing to address similar heat challenges, and whether those steps can work in Nevada.
Las Vegas has several areas called urban heat islands, which are hotter than the surrounding areas because of less vegetation, such as trees, and more concrete development.
Residents in East Las Vegas, one of the areas considered an urban heat island, say they’re not surprised that temperatures continue to rise, especially in their part of town.
“Definitely, when you go more to outskirts, there’s definitely more shade, more trees everywhere, but more in the center of town it’s very much less,” said Anthony Flores.
He believes there could be more relief from the heat.
“More water accessibility, more shade overall,” said Flores, whose line of work causes him to be outside every day. “I usually drink over two gallons of water a day just to keep not getting heat stroke.”
Charlie Ponce agrees with him.
“Definitely more trees that are useful, not like palm trees or anything like that. Parks that have like the water parks in them,” said Ponce. “Yeah, splash pads.”
Valley cities and Clark County have implemented steps like having cooling stations and tree-planting campaigns to help address heat challenges.
Phoenix and other parts of Arizona are also experiencing extreme heat every summer, as well as drought issues.
UNLV Public Policy Professor Dr. Ben Leffel says there are steps in the neighboring state that can be useful here in Nevada, where temperatures historically continue to be on the rise.
“For example, Phoenix has an ordinance that says that tenants must have rooms that are coolable to at least 86 degrees Fahrenheit,” said Dr. Leffel. “And that’s then also that first responders are equipped with chilled IV therapy and cold water immersion and things like that.”
News 3 spoke with heat mitigation and management experts in Arizona to see what they believe has been working for them.
One thing they mentioned was that Arizona has the first state-level chief heat officer.
“We have much better and much more accurate numbers now about who’s actually getting sick and who’s dying from heat-related deaths, and what the causes and kind of contributing factors are. So, if you don’t track something, you can’t understand what’s going on with it,” said Dr. Ladd Keith, Heat Resilience Initiative Director at the University of Arizona.
Ponce thinks it would help in Las Vegas.
“Like, let them know to tell the public like, hey, in these areas it’s getting out of hand, and this is what we can do as a community, or just have someone like regulated or watch over it,” she said.
And the city of Phoenix also has an entire heat office, something that can be beneficial on a local level, like being able to coordinate between different groups like homeless outreach, the hospitals, etcetera.
“Statewide coordination of cooling centers, lessons learned that are shared across different working groups, and so just a lot of cooperation that really creates a lot of efficiency too, and so I think that’s an important thing to note, is there is a cost to this, but the efforts are saving lives, and I think it’s making government more efficient,” said Keith.
Amy Scoville-Weaver, the Healthy Cities Program Director in Arizona for The Nature Conservancy, says the Phoenix Metro has done well with increasing vegetation, including in areas where there’s drought.
“So we’re looking at supporting and planting hardy trees, drought-tolerant trees, trees that are already designed, designed to live and thrive in water-scarce environments,” said Scoville-Weaver.
She says they also look at improving infrastructure to support it.
“So when it does rain, the water doesn’t just go down asphalt, get polluted, and go through a storm drain; rather, that water is being diverted to vegetation that needs it,” said Scoville-Weaver.
Leffel says another thing to keep in mind is heat safety can also come from indoor policies.
“For example, Phoenix has an ordinance that says that tenants must have rooms that are coolable to at least 86 degrees Fahrenheit,” he said.
A new Nevada law that went into effect last week requires larger jurisdictions to come up with heat mitigation plans.
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