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Arizona football fan sees Fisch departure as success story

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Arizona football fan sees Fisch departure as success story


TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Long-time supporters of Arizona athletics are already feeling Jedd Fisch’s departure but it isn’t a total loss.

Fisch’s success at Arizona both earns the university more attention and shows the next aspiring head coach what can be accomplished here.

“It’s nice to have someone go to the elite and move up because that’s good for Arizona overall,” said Ed Ackerley.

The lifelong Arizona football fan saw Fisch’s departure as no surprise after what he did with the football team and doesn’t blame him for moving to the University of Washington, which has a program with momentum.

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Ackerley, who is a professor at the Eller College of Management, said that the U of A, with its budget challenges, has to be careful about how much it spends on a football coach.

“Maybe you’d like to get a really top quality coach but the price tag of that is probably more than what the faculty would accept and the community would accept,” Ackerley said. “We’ve got to be careful that we don’t overspend our, get out of our lane, if you will, so, that’s why I think the best thing to do would be to get an up-and-coming offensive or defensive coordinator who has not had head coaching experience per se but is ready to do that just like Jedd Fisch was.”

Ackerley is also a booster as a Wildcat Club member and said that other top-tier athletic schools have stronger financial backing from their booster clubs.

He said that the situation shows Arizona’s boosters an opportunity to up their game as the competition takes notice of the talent here.

“We’re entering a different era and I do think the boosters need to step up,” he said. “It’s tough in a town like Tucson where we don’t have a lot of corporate headquarters. We’re relying on small business and that’s a little bit of difficulty, but we have a lot of fans that are very passionate about Arizona football and a lot of alumni who like to support the program.”

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Ackerley said that he hopes the talent that Fisch attracted will stay but that he understands that not all of them can be expected to do that.

He said that this could be an opportunity to attract new talent because of what has been done here.

Be sure to subscribe to the 13 News YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@13newskold



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Bear attacks Arizona teen watching videos inside cabin

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Bear attacks Arizona teen watching videos inside cabin


ALPINE, Arizona — A bear walked into a cabin through an open door and attacked a 15-year-old boy who was watching YouTube videos, authorities say.

A news release from the Arizona Game and Fish Department says the teen suffered injuries to his face and arm in the attack Thursday night. The boy was treated at a hospital for his injuries.

“This really could have been a lot worse,” the boy’s mother, Carol Edington Hawkins, tells NBC News. “We’re still in disbelief that this happened, but we’re also feeling very blessed.” She said the door had been left open to allow cool air inside.

Wildlife officials say the teen, named Brigham, was sitting inside the cabin when the black bear, estimated to about 3 years old, entered and attacked. It briefly left the cabin and chased Brigham’s 19-year-old brother, Parker, but then entered the cabin again and again swiped at Brigham, injuring his arm.

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When wildlife officials arrived at the cabin, they were able to quickly locate the male bear and kill it, the news release says. The carcass will be examined and tested for disease.

The injuries to Brigham were not life-threatening but he is receiving shots for rabies as a precaution, reports say.

“So many miracles worked together to keep Brigham safe. … Not many kids can say they got in a fight with a bear and came out on top,” Hawkins writes in a post on Facebook.

This is the 16th recorded bear attack on a person in Arizona since 1990. Two of the attacks were fatal, the most recent occurring last year.

“Black bears are predatory animals and should always be considered unpredictable and dangerous,” the news release says.

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Boy, 15, Survives Bear Attack in Arizona

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Boy, 15, Survives Bear Attack in Arizona


“Not many kids can say they got in a fight with a bear and came out on top,” says Arizona woman Carol Edington Hawkins, whose 15-year-old son survived an attack last week. In a Facebook post, Hawkins shared photos of her injured son, Brigham, the Arizona Republic reports. She tells NBC News that Brigham was watching YouTube in a cabin on her parents’ property in Alpine on Thursday evening when a black bear “walked in through the front door and swiped him across the head.” She says Parker, Brigham’s 18-year-old brother, heard Brigham’s screams and ran over from a second cabin to help.

Hawkins says the bear chased Parker—who initially thought it was a large dog—but he managed to get to the other cabin just in time. She says the bear also chased her husband, Shane, when he ran to Brigham’s cabin, but he “slammed the door in the bear’s face.” Arizona Game and Fish Department officers killed the bear, believed to be a 3-year-old male, at the scene, the Republic reports. Hawkins say the family is saddened by the bear’s death but understands that it was acting abnormally and had to be put down. “For whatever reason, there was something wrong with this bear, something was off,” she says.

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Brigham, who has a rare neurological disorder, was treated for injuries including gashes to his face and arm but is expected to make a full recovery, reports the New York Post. He has been given rabies shots as a precaution. “We’re extremely blessed and feel that somebody was most definitely watching over him,” Hawkins tells 12News. “He’s very small and has lots of medical issues and there was nothing he could have done to chase off this bear or fight off this bear.” (More bear attack stories.)





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NCAA Baseball Tournament: Arizona gets No. 13 seed, to open vs. Grand Canyon

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NCAA Baseball Tournament: Arizona gets No. 13 seed, to open vs. Grand Canyon


It won’t just be familiar confines for Arizona as it gets to host an NCAA Baseball Tournament regional. There will also be familiar foes.

The Wildcats (36-21) earned the No. 13 overall seed and will begin play Friday against Grand Canyon (34-23), a team they’ve faced three times this season and lost to twice, including once (badly) at Hi Corbett Field. The other teams coming to Tucson are Dallas Baptist (44-13), whom the UA lost to at the Frisco Classic in March, and West Virginia (33-22), which took two of three in a series at Hi Corbett to open the 2023 season.

“It was a no brainer,” UA coach Chip Hale said of Grand Canyon, which was also sent to Tucson in 2021. “We knew that, and it makes sense. It’s good, their fans and get down here no problem.”

The 4-team regional has a double-elimination format, with Friday’s winners and losers meeting on Saturday. The regional final is set for Sunday, with a potential second game (if needed) on Monday.

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The Tucson Region is paired up with the Chapel Hill Region, hosted by No. 4 seed North Carolina (42-13). If both Arizona and UNC advance to Super Regionals it would be played in Chapel Hill, but if the Wildcats win their regional and anyone other than the Tar Heels take the other the Supers would be played in Tucson.

Among those in the Chapel Hill Region is defending College World Series champion LSU, led by former UA Jay Johnson. Ex-Wildcat outfielder Mac Bingham is on the Tigers after spending four seasons with Arizona.

Arizona is 10-1 in NCAA Tournament games played at Hi Corbett, advancing to the World Series from there in 2012 and 2021. This will be the fourth consecutive season the Wildcats have played in the NCAA tourney, the longest streak since making it 14 years in a row from 1950-63.

“I haven’t played in a regional where there hasn’t been a weather delay,” said infielder Garen Caulfield, who was part of the UA teams that dealt with stormy conditions in Coral Gables, Fla., in 2022 and Fayetteville, Ark., last season. “I’m hoping that the Tucson Regional provides some good weather for us.”

Despite an RPI of 31, Arizona not only got to host but was considered by the selection committee to be better than three other seeds. No. 14 Santa Barbara had an RPI of 13, while No. 15 Oregon State (18) and No. 16 East Carolina (22) also were ranked ahead of the Wildcats.

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“I’m not as surprised as most people were, because of what we’ve done and our body of work,” Hale said, noting Arizona’s Pac-12 regular-season and conference tournament titles.

Dallas Baptist, which has an RPI of 17, won the Conference USA tourney title on Sunday after finishing second in the regular season. West Virginia was fourth in the Big 12 but went 0-2 in its conference tourney, while Grand Canyon also went 0-2 in the WAC tourney but because champ Tarleton State is ineligible due its transition from Division II the Antelopes were awarded the automatic bid by virtue of winning the regular season crown by five games.

GCU took two of three from Arizona this season, with the Wildcats winning 6-4 at home on March 19 before losing 5-4 in Phoenix on April 16 and then getting run-ruled 24-8 at home on April 30. Those were all midweek contests, however, when teams tend not to pitch their weekend starters.

“This will be different,” Hale said. “We’ll face they’re supposed Friday night starter and we’ll have our our best pitcher going against them. So it will be a little bit different, but they put good at-bats together, they put the ball in play with two strikes. As we know, with our weather and our fiel there’s a lot of hits to be had in this field. So when you put the ball in play have a chance.

“They’re a good team, and we’ve always said that, that’s what we play them three times a year. They’re very tough team. We know them well, they know us well. So it’s going to be a good battle.”

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Arizona is one of three Pac-12 schools to make it in the conference’s final season. Besides the Wildcats and OSU, Oregon got in as the No. 3 seed in the Santa Barbara Region, while Cal was among the first four teams out of the field.

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