Arizona

Arizona swim instructor aims to help others after witnessing drowning

Published

2 years ago

May 15, 2024

Arizona swim instructor aims to help others after witnessing drowning

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – “I witnessed a drowning when I was 10, and it affected me,” said Tracy Richards. “I saw the mom’s face afterwards, and I vowed that I would never see that again. I was 10, and I vowed at that point I would never watch another child drown.

At 15, Tracy started teaching swim lessons. Today, she is a swim instructor at the Village in Gainey Ranch.

“I mean, you hear about the near drownings and people say, ‘oh, but they survived.’” Sometimes, that’s not the quality of life that anyone would like,” she said.

Woman helps others after witnessing drowning

May 15 is International Water Safety Day, which is geared toward spreading awareness and water safety education by any means possible. A Valley swim teacher takes this goal very seriously. FOX 10’s Anita Roman reports.

Statistics from the Children’s Safety Zone show that from Jan. 1 to May 11, 2024, 18 deaths resulted from 43 water-related incidents. That includes seven children up to the age of 5.

“I mean I think every parent’s worse fear is you walk outside, and your kid is in the pool, and you didn’t see it – whether they’re still trying to kick or God forbid, there is a drowning because especially in Arizona, you hear about it so much,” Taylor Bellow said. “We have so many pools.”

Taylor Bellow didn’t want to take any chances with her 2-year-old son, Brexton. He started lessons a few months ago.

“My parents live very close to us. We are over there all the time, and they do not have a pool fence, so we opted to make sure that, even though he is not really interested in the pool before we started swim, there’s just always that maybe, so we wanted him to learn to maybe flip over, float and get to the side,” said Bellow.

Group swim lessons vary in size, anywhere from two to five kids. Richards starts her lessons at 9-months-old because the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says children ages 1-4 have the highest drowning rate.

“It’s a process for everyone, but they all learn to get to the wall. They learn to roll and float on their back,” she said. “All those things not necessarily in the same order, but learning those things is important because most kids don’t fall into the middle of a pool, they fall by the side, so if you teach them to roll over and get to the side right away, it’s a good thing.”

Richards runs a number of different programs that teach children the importance of water safety, including mommy and me classes and a unique swim and read program, where she uses phonics and familiar words for the fun of swimming.

All these years after witnessing that drowning, Richards is even more passionate about saving lives because she says drowning is 100% preventable.

“It’s OK for them to be uncomfortable to learn the process because crying during the process is a lot better than never crying again,” she said.

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Arizona

HIGHLIGHTS: Rams WR Puka Nacua with a one-handed touchdown catch against the Cardinals

Published

2 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Press Room

HIGHLIGHTS: Rams WR Puka Nacua with a one-handed touchdown catch against the Cardinals

On today’s Digital Pregame Show presented by Little Caesars, J.B Long, D’Marco Farr, and Maurice Jones-Drew preview the Los Angeles Rams’ Week 18 matchup against the Arizona Cardinals at SoFi Stadium. The trio discuss key players to watch, game predictions, and more. Tune in for kickoff at 1:25pm PT on FOX.

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Arizona

QB Cutter Boley lands with ASU after Kentucky transfer

Published

14 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Press Room

QB Cutter Boley lands with ASU after Kentucky transfer

Arizona State is bringing in Kentucky transfer quarterback Cutter Boley after he played 10 full games as a redshirt freshman in 2025, FootballScoop’s John Brice first reported with SunDevilSource’s Chris Karpman confirming.

He gives the Sun Devils a signal-caller with three years of eligibility who had major flashes as a young starter in the SEC, including a career-high 330 yards and five touchdown passes on 74.3% passing against Tennessee on Oct. 25.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Boley had 2,160 yards (65.8%), 15 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions on the season with 85 rushing yards and two scores on the ground.

He was expected to take a two-day visit beginning on Saturday, but he committed before getting to the second day.

ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham extended an offer to Boley as a high school junior while he was the 24th quarterback in the 2024 class and the coach was serving as offensive coordinator at Oregon.

Dillingham took more of an active role in the offense during the Sun Bowl on Wednesday, and he said postgame recent changes in administration have allowed him to focus more on football. It would make sense the active role carries over to the development of Boley.

He gets to ASU after the departure of Sam Leavitt, who has fittingly been linked to Kentucky in what could be a 1-for-1 transfer swap of quarterbacks.

More about ASU transfer QB addition Cutter Boley

The youngest SEC quarterback to get substantial time this season, Boley played mostly as a game manager with quick passes behind or near the line of scrimmage.

His six big-time throws — tracked by PFF as passes with “excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tight window” — were tied for last among 15 qualified SEC passers.

His 18 turnover-worthy plays, another PFF-tracked stat, were tied for fourth out of 15.

Comparing the stats to ASU’s quarterbacks this season, Leavitt had 18 big-time throws and 12 turnover-worthy plays in seven games. Jeff Sims had eight big-time throws and nine turnover-worthy plays in eight contests.

Because he has three years of eligibility remaining, Boley could eventually have to compete with young ASU quarterbacks Cam Dyer and Jake Fette, who will be redshirt and true freshmen, respectively, in 2026.

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Arizona men’s basketball cruises to win at Utah in Big 12 opener

Published

1 day ago

January 3, 2026

Press Room

Arizona men’s basketball cruises to win at Utah in Big 12 opener

Weird things have happened to Arizona in Salt Lake City in recent years. In 2022, an unbeaten Wildcats squad fresh off a dominant performance at the Maui Invitational laid an egg against Utah, and two years later the UA needed triple overtime to get past the Utes.

No such drama this time around.

Top-ranked Arizona jumped out to a 17-point lead before the second media timeout and then coasted to a 97-78 win at Utah on Saturday afternoon to open Big 12 play.

The Wildcats (14-0, 1-0) saw their streak of wins by at least 20 points end at eight, tying the school record set in 1928-29. But the victory was no less dominant than the previous seven, with the UA shooting 53.6 percent, finishing plus-13 on the boards and again getting five scorers in double figures.

Tobe Awaka and Jaden Bradley led the way with 18 points apiece, Awaka going 6 of 7 from the field and 2 for 2 from 3 while adding 12 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Bradley was 7 of 11 from the field and added five assists.

Brayden Burries and Koa Peat each scored 17 and Ivan Kharchenkov added 13 for Arizona, which scored in the 90s for the 10^th time this season including eight of the last nine games.

Utah (8-6, 0-1) got 26 points from Terrence Brown and 15 each from Keanu Dawes and Don McHenry but shot 44.3 percent overall and just 5 of 17 from 3. The Utes turned it over 12 times, leading to 18 points for the Wildcats, who had 11 steals for their seventh game with at least 10 swipes.

The UA led 58-39 at halftime, its most points in the first half of a conference game since dropping 63 on ASU in 1998. That offensive explosion did not immediately carry over to the second half, though, as Arizona didn’t make its first post-halftime field goal until 17:06 left.

But then things went back to normal, with an 8-0 run to extend the lead to 70-46 with 13:56 to go. Utah followed with a 12-3 run to get within 15 but that was the closest it would get.

The only real drama down the stretch was if Arizona would again win by 20. It led by 21 after a Burries basket with 51 seconds remaining but Bradley fouled Utah’s Brown with 49.8 seconds to go in order to let backups come in and Brown made two free throws.

Utah scored the game’s opening basket and then Arizona followed with 14 in a row, which included a few baskets off Ute turnovers. Six of those points were byKharchenkov, who scored twice off steals.

The rout appeared to be on early, withAwakanailing a 3 to put the Wildcats up 27-10 with 12:16 left in the first half. But the UA went three minutes without a field goal, allowing Utah to cut the deficit to single digits.

A second-chance 3 by Brown got the Utes within 34-26 with 7:49 left in the half. But Arizona righted the ship on both ends, using a 10-0 run (with another Awaka 3) to build a 46-28 advantage. The Wildcats made their final six shots before the break, shooting 61.1 percent overall in the first half.

The UA plays its Big 12 home opener Wednesday against Kansas State. K-State (9-5, 0-1) fell 83-73 at home to No. 10 BYU on Saturday.

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