Clyde Volz, a high school track and field coach at Sunnyslope and Greenway high schools in Phoenix for more than 30 years, had the kind of impact on athletes that still is being felt today.

Volz, who won two Arizona Interscholastic Association state titles and created the Great Southwest Classic, passed away last month at the age of 85. 

He coached many athletes during his time.

Tim O’Neil is one of the athletes who felt the most impact from his head coach. Volz took in O’Neil, a talented all-around sophomore track and field athlete at Sunnyslope who was living from couch to couch while in high school after a rough home life. 

“He took me under his wing and made me realize there’s some bigger and better things out there for me,” said O’Neil.

O’Neil, who never had a family member graduate high school and planned to hang drywall for a career, had his life significantly changed by meeting Volz. Eventually, O’Neil morphed into one of the top-ranked athletes in the country for the high jump and went on to Mesa Community College before competing at the University of Nevada. O’Neil then competed professionally for Adidas after college.

But, like his mentor, O’Neil made his biggest impact as a coach. 

It was O’Neil who convinced a young Devon Allen to first try out the hurdles while at Phoenix Brophy Prep. Allen, under the tutelage of O’Neil, became one of the greatest high school hurdlers Arizona has ever seen before taking the NCAA by storm at Oregon and making two Olympic teams in 2016 and 2020. 

After a stint with the Philadelphia Eagles, Allen recently returned to the track as one of the athletes signed by Michael Johnson’s new professional track and field league, Grand Slam Track. 

Allen isn’t the only Olympian that O’Neil has coached. This past summer, Freddie Crittenden III – who moved to Arizona specifically to be coached by O’Neil – made the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 110-meter hurdles. And it all started with O’Neil, which started with Volz.

“Clyde Volz saved my life,” O’Neil said. “I wouldn’t have been in college. I definitely wouldn’t be coaching track. I would have never met my wife. My life would be so drastically different without that guy, and that’s not an exaggeration. That’s the impact he made – he left the world in a better place for me.”

‘Pushing me out there’

It was in 1993 when Ron Smith was convinced by Volz to pick up a microphone while at the Glendale Invitational. Smith had announced some sporting events before, but it was just in his neighborhood near Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix.

Volz helped the upstart announcer’s name and phone number get out into the community and hired him to call meets. 

Now, 31 years later, Smith has become the preeminent voice of the sport in the state.

“He was the one that started pushing me out there,” Smith said. “He’s the one who put me in bigger venues in front of much larger crowds, which then led other people asking me to come to their place. He’s the one who put me in those significant situations. I felt like all of a sudden, I was on the ‘inside.’”

Smith, who was a coach before he started announcing, was heavily influenced by Volz and his determination to track and field. So too was Ron Mann, whose own coaching career was started by Volz back in 1972. 

Mann’s first coaching job came with Volz at Sunnyslope.

After leaving Sunnyslope, Mann eventually became the director of cross-country and track and field at Northern Arizona University, following stops at Thunderbird High and Mesa and Glendale community colleges. Mann’s teams made history in 1998, as NAU became the first school in conference history to win all four cross-country titles (team and individual) in the same year. He produced at least one Olympian in every summer Games from 1984 to 2004.

“I wouldn’t be where I was without Clyde Volz giving me that opportunity,” Mann said. “The modeling I got, he was representative of somebody who had ethics and morals, did everything the right way and had a vicious love for track and field. That formed my career from that point.”

Volz will best be remembered for his loyalty to his athletes. He used to film Super 8mm footage of his team working out, develop the film, cut it up and show it back to them – in the 1970s. Volz also used to take a school bus and drive it around the cinder track to compress the surface, making it firmer for his athletes. 

On the track, Volz coached legendary in-state athletes, like Brian Muir (shot put), Doug Reynolds (discus) and Jeff Cannada (distance), to name a few. Volz was the founder of the Arizona State High School Decathlon and Heptathlon Championships. The Great Southwest Classic, his creation, became a premiere showcase for track and field talent.

“There’s no question that Clyde is paramount in his legacy the sport in Arizona,” Mann said. “There are very few that could even come close to equaling him in terms of what he did. He’s right at the very top in the way that he approached the sport and his complete dedication.”

Logan Stanley is a sports reporter with The Arizona Republic who primarily focuses on high school, ASU and Olympic sports. To suggest ideas for human-interest stories and other news, reach out to Stanley at logan.stanley@gannett.com or 707-293-7650. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @LSscribe.

Houston looks to resume play out of a BYE week building on its second double digit upset of the season against Kansas State with a road game at Arizona. 

The Cougars are two wins away from a bowl appearance and a win on Friday as a small underdog against a struggling Arizona team can go a long way for first year head coach Willie Fritz, who has found a ton of success with Zeon Chriss at quarterback. 

With two teams apparently trending in opposite directions, will it keep up on Friday night? 

Here’s our betting preview. 

Spread

Moneyline

Total: 46.5 (Over -110/Under -110)

Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook

Houston

Zeon Chriss: When Chriss is on the field, this Houston team is a different group, winning all three full games that he has played in. Chriss left due to injury in the team’s blowout loss to Kansas in the first quarter, so in three full starts he has passed for 305 yards while adding 217 yards on the ground. A dual-threat quarterback has provided a different dimension to this Cougars offense that has been able to lean on its defense to shorten the game and pull it out late. 

Arizona 

Tetairoa McMillan: In what appears to be a lost season for Arizona, the team needs to win its last three games to go to a bowl game, McMillan continues to produce at an incredibly high level. Arguably the top wide receiver in the country has 63 catches for 1,066 yards with six touchdowns. 

Houston is better than Arizona, so I’m interested in taking the small road underdog in this Friday night matchup. 

The Cougars will be able to push around the Arizona defensive line that is outside the top 90 in both defensive line yards and EPA/Rush, meaning that Houston can move the ball in its preferred method and stay on the field. 

Meanwhile, this Houston defense should force Arizona into a ton of mistakes. Quarterback Noah Fifita has regressed a ton this season amidst a scheme change under first year head coach Brent Brennahn and his staff, and Houston’s first year head coach Willie Fritz has this defense humming, ranking top 50 in havoc rate. 

This matchup sets up nicely for Chriss and Houston to dictate the terms of engagement and continue its ascent up the Big 12 standings. 

Arizona has been a nightmare all season for bettors, 1-8 against the spread and 0-4 as a favorite. 

Take the team that is trending up towards the end of the season. 

PICK: Houston +2.5

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

Follow Reed on Twitter @ReedWallach and get all his college football bets on betstamp @rw33

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.

PHOENIX — Democrat Ruben Gallego has been elected Arizona’s first Latino U.S. senator, defeating Republican Kari Lake and preventing Republicans from further padding their Senate majority.

Gallego’s victory continues a string of Democratic successes for the Senate in a state that was reliably Republican for those seats until Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. Arizona voters had rejected Trump-endorsed candidates in every election since, but the president-elect won Arizona this year over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris

“Gracias, Arizona!” Gallego wrote on the social platform X.

With Gallego’s win, the GOP will have 53 seats in the 100-member Senate.

Gallego is a five-term House member and an Iraq War veteran with an up-by-the-bootstraps life story that he featured prominently in his public appearances and ads. He will replace Kyrsten Sinema, whose 2018 victory as a Democrat created a formula that the party has successfully replicated ever since.

Sinema left the Democratic Party two years ago after she antagonized the party’s left wing. She considered running for a second term as an independent but bowed out when it was clear she had no clear path to victory.

“Yes, he could!” several Gallego supporters shouted in Spanish as he offered his first comments after the race was called.

“I will fight for Arizona in Washington,” Gallego told the cheering supporters, saying that he would fight as much for the people who did not vote for him as the ones who did.

In his brief remarks, Gallego several times mentioned the single mother who raised him, crediting her with his success. He promised to work to fix what he said was the nation’s broken immigration system, and would continue to fight for veterans and for women’s reproductive rights.

The Associated Press left a voicemail and email message seeking comment from Lake’s campaign Monday night.

With Gallego’s win, there was only one more major race left uncalled in Arizona. The race between Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani and Democrat Kirsten Engel for the 6th Congressional District remained too early to call.

Gallego ran ahead of Harris, suggesting a substantial number of voters supported Trump at the top of the ticket and the Democrat for Senate, a pattern seen in Sinema’s victory and both of Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly’s wins in 2020 and 2022. Ticket-splitters also were decisive in the Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada Senate races this year, which Democrats won even as Trump won their states.

Republicans flipped Democratic-controlled Senate seats in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Montana. In the latter three cases, defeated Sens. Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey and Jon Tester also ran ahead of Harris but couldn’t overcome their states’ shifts toward the GOP.

Gallego led comfortably after the first results were released on election night, but his lead narrowed as more ballots were counted. Arizona is notorious for a drawn-out count because most people vote by mail—which takes longer to verify and process—including many who drop off ballots on Election Day.

The son of immigrants from Mexico and Colombia, Gallego was raised in Chicago and eventually accepted to Harvard University. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve and fought in Iraq in 2005 in a unit that sustained heavy casualties, including the death of his best friend.

Gallego maintained a significant fundraising advantage throughout the race. He relentlessly attacked Lake’s support for a state law dating to the Civil War that outlawed abortions under nearly all circumstances. Lake tacked to the middle on the issue, infuriating some of her allies on the right by opposing a federal abortion ban.

Gallego portrayed Lake as a liar who will do and say anything to gain power. He downplayed his progressive voting record in Congress and leaned on his personal story and his military service to build an image as a pragmatic moderate.

Lake is a well-known former television news anchor who became a star on the populist right with her 2022 campaign for Arizona governor.

She has never acknowledged losing that race and called herself the “lawful governor” in her 2023 book. She continued her unsuccessful fight in court to overturn it even after beginning her Senate campaign.

Her dogmatic commitment to the falsehood that consecutive elections were stolen from Trump and from her endeared her to the former president, who considered her for his vice presidential running mate. But it compounded her struggles with the moderate Republicans she alienated during her 2022 campaign, when she disparaged the late Sen. John McCain and then-Gov. Doug Ducey.

She tried to moderate but struggled to keep a consistent message on thorny topics, including election fraud and abortion.

Lake focused instead on border security, a potent issue for Republicans in a border state that saw record border crossings during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration. She promised a tough crackdown on illegal immigration and labeled Gallego a supporter of “open borders.” She also went after his personal life, pointing to his divorce from Kate Gallego shortly before she gave birth. His ex-wife, now the mayor of Phoenix, endorsed Gallego and has campaigned with him.