Best Local Athlete
READERS' PICK: We knew basketball player Damon Stoudamire was going to be good when he arrived four years ago, but no one knew he'd be this good. Stoudamire put together a stellar senior year, leading the University of Arizona Wildcats to their umpteenth-straight NCAA appearance, garnering first-team All America honors along the way. Stoudamire then went seventh in the NBA draft, an almost unheard-of accomplishment for someone of his, well, stature. Stoudamire's deadly combination of unlimited-range three-point shooting ability, a killer first step to the basket on drives, brilliant dribbling, and pinpoint passing skills make him easily the second-best basketball player in UA history, right behind Sean Elliott.READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP AND STAFF PICK: University of Arizona sports fans were spoiled this past year. Not only did they have Damon Stoudamire in basketball and Ontiwaun Carter breaking the school's long-standing rushing record in football, they also had the most dominant athlete in UA history, softball's Laura Espinoza. The power-hitting shortstop shattered school, conference and national records while leading the Cats to their fourth-straight appearance in the national championship game. Her accomplishments are staggering. She holds the national record in home runs, runs batted in, total bases and slugging percentage. She hit more home runs in one season than the previous record-holder hit in her career. In some cases, she not only broke the records, she doubled or even tripled the previous marks. And she ended her career at home by blasting three homers out of Hillenbrand Stadium, the last one a towering shot to dead center--which still hasn't come down.
CAT'S MEOW: Some of us think it's Tedy Bruschi, on the University of Arizona football team. This consensus All-American defensive fireball is what college football should be about--plus he has Tucson's best beverage-like last name. Through maximum effort built on seemingly average athletic prowess, Bruschi exemplifies achievement as the ultimate yardstick of ability. He has a chance to be the all-time NCAA QB sack leader at the end of this season-in-progress, and if that happens, it surely means the Wildcats will be back in bowl-land. The smell of roses would be sweet, but a sweaty marauding Bruschi will have to do.
CAT'S MEOW: Okay, okay, Kerri Strug recently moved to Colorado to make her final run at the Olympic games, but the former Green Fields Country Day School student is still a Tucsonan in our hearts. Now, in her late teens and therefore relatively long in the tooth for the rather perverse world of gymnastics, Strug has had to overcome serious injuries and the Machiavellian system of scoring and blatant favoritism to remain near the top of the sport. She recently placed fourth in the U.S. Nationals and hopes to make the U.S. team next year to compete in the Games in Atlanta.
CAT'S MEOW: If you're one of the people who leaves after the sixth inning, you might've thought Tuffy Toro wasn't much of an athlete, seeing as how he always seems to lose those Dash for Cash races. But those of us who've stuck around to see the Toros win it in the ninth have been treated to the spectacle of the great red bull making a lap around the infield, doing jumping jacks here, one-handed push-ups there, sit-ups in the on-deck circle, until he finally clambers over the home-team dug-out and charges up those monstrous steel bleachers--all while the stadium's sound-system belts out the theme from Rocky. Makes us wonder if he didn't throw those races just 'cause he's got such a big heart.
