Busing supervisor, umpire and officer honored as unsung athletic heroes
There were many industries affiliated with high school sports in Southern Nevada that struggled to find workers as a full-schedule of games returned for the 2021-22 school year after pandemic closures.
The Sun Standout Awards honored three of those workers Tuesday night at the South Point Showroom with the Unsung Hero award, which is reserved for someone who works diligently behind the scenes to make sure games are played.
Our hope is that by bringing attention to their good works others will join their ranks.
Let’s meet them:
Marshall Cohen, official
Don’t let Cohen’s age fool you. He’s 81 years young and works five sports for the Southern Nevada Officials Association, including this spring when he was often the lone umpire for a baseball game. The association faced a shortage of workers so significant that it barely had enough officials to staff games. But Cohen, and his colleagues, didn’t let the kids down, even when met with verbal abuse from fans and coaches — which is part of the reason why the shortage persists.
Cohen never turned down an assignment, even if it meant a two-hour drive to Alamo.
Kathleen Eakins, CCSD transportation department
A shortage of bus drivers added a wrinkle to the challenge of getting athletes from nearly 40
schools to all corners of Southern Nevada for competition, and on
some days Eakins had as few as 10 buses at her disposal.
But she’s being hailed as a savior by her supervisors, who say that without her quick action, the crunch would have been so impactful that games would have been canceled.
It’s been the most challenging year of her 23-year tenure, but she proudly says the games were still played. She also has a plea to the community: We need more drivers.
Laquedra Parks, CCSD Police
Parks begins her day at the crack of dawn as an officer with CCSD Police, assigned to Clark High School.
But after the bell rings, she grabs a whistle and leads the Chargers’ girls basketball team. This winter, they won their final 15 games to capture the state title.
Whether it is law enforcement or coaching, Parks has found her niche mentoring students in the Clark community. She passionately refers to them as her kids and takes pride in the role of being a protector.
Scholar-athletes of the Year
Jeffery Morosini, Durango football and wrestling:
Morosini won a wrestling state championship at 220 pounds, and was
named a Mountain League firstteam offensive tackle in football. His best work came in the classroom, where he’ll graduate with a 4.9 weighted grade-point average. Morosini is the son of a Marine and says he learned at an early age the value of time management and organization. Those skills helped him land a spot at the Colorado School of the Mines, where he’ll join the wrestling program in the fall.
Zoey Robinson, Boulder City, volleyball: Robinson had a 4.3 weighted grade-point average, was the student body vice president, and a volunteer coach with the Boulder City youth volleyball team. She’ll attend Utah State in the fall. Her advice? “I learned at a young age that if I worked my hardest, there was nothing I couldn’t overcome.”
Male Athlete of the Year
Justin Crawford, Bishop Gorman baseball: Batted .503 with 60 runs scored, five home runs and 52 RBIS, plus he added 20 stolen bases. He’s committed to LSU and is expected to be a first-round MLB draft selection. Finalists
Nathan Carlin, Foothill cross country: Won the 5A state championship by 17 seconds with a blistering time of 16:29.
Germie Bernard, Liberty football: Scored 20 touchdowns between receiving, rushing and returning while starring for the Patriots. Committed to Michigan
State University.
Joshua Jefferson, Liberty basketball: Led the Patriots to a state championship by averaging nearly 18 points, 10 rebounds and four assists per game. Committed to St. Mary’s University.
Darrion Williams, Bishop Gorman basketball: Won the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year award after averaging more than 15 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals per game. Committed to UNR. Female Athlete of the
Aaliyah Yeargayles, Spring Valley basketball: A fivestar recruiting prospect, Gayles played in the Mcdonald’s All-american game and Jordan Brand Classic. The USC commit averaged 13.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 3.5 steals per game for the Grizzlies. Finalists
Kelcey Aczon, Desert Oasis bowling: Averaged a 206.3 score on the way to running away with the individual state championship.
Charelle Aki, Sierra Vista softball: Finished the season with a .576 batting average, .649 on-base percentage and 61 RBI.
Caroline Edgeworth, Bishop Gorman volleyball: Won the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year Award en route to leading the Gaels to a third-consecutive state championship with a
state-leading 1,330 assists. Rising Star, female (best freshman or sophomore)
Rebecca Diaconescu, Palo Verde swimming: Diaconescu won the state championship in the 100-yard butterfly, took second in the 200-yard freestyle and was on a pair of state-placing relay teams.
Finalists
Ashley Duckworth, Bishop Gorman volleyball: Set the state record with 250 blocks to help the Gaels win a state championship.
Grace Knox, Spring Valley basketball: Rated as one of the top 25 freshmen in the nation by ESPN after averaging nearly 14 points and 10 rebounds this season.
Kaylie Phillips, Liberty flag football: Gained more than 5,500 combined passing and rushing yards while also accounting for 82 touchdowns to help the Patriots take the state title.
Rising Star, male
Yuval Cohen, Palo Verde soccer: The sophomore had 40 goals and 14 assists to help Palo Verde win the class 5A state championship. He was also the Mountain League Offensive Player of the Year, including one game where he scored seven times. And in the state championship game, he had a goal and an assist — in the initial six minutes of a 3-0 win.
Finalists
Micah Alejado, Bishop Gorman football: Continued in the long line of standout Gael quarterbacks with 2,669 passing yards and 31 touchdowns to only two interceptions as part of a large-classification state championship team.
Sanjeev Chundu, Clark tennis: Rated as the sixth-best tennis prospect in the nation for the Class of 2024, according to tennisrecruiting.com, after easily winning the state singles championship.
Dedan Thomas Jr., Liberty basketball: Drew scholarship offers from the likes of LSU, UNLV and Washington State after helping lead the Patriots to the first state championship in school history.
Melvin Whitehead, Liberty wrestling: Went undefeated in his freshman season to win the 195-pound state championship as well as claim a slew of tournament titles.
Team of the Year
Coronado girls golf: Shattered a state record for team score at the state tournament with a 2-under-par 566, breaking the previous team mark of 600. Yes, they beat the record by an amazing 34 strokes in cruising to the state title. Coronado golfers — Yana Wilson, Brynn Kort and Ali Mulhall — finished in the top-3 spots at state.
Finalists
Bishop Gorman volleyball: Won a third consecutive state championship and finished ranked No. 55 nationally with five players who reached the allstate team.
Silverado football: Went undefeated and prevailed by more than 20 points in all but one game while rewriting the school record book en route to a 4A state championship.
SLAM Academy wrestling: Placed 11th out of 106 teams at the prestigious Doc Buchanan Invitational in Clovis, Calif., the best finish for a Nevada program at the event in 21 years, while also producing six individual state-championship winners at various weight classes.
Citizen of the Year
Nykita Rustad, Spring Valley cross country: Nykita regularly volunteers at Opportunity Village and Las Vegas Rescue Mission. And with the Spring Valley Environmental Club, she has helped with campus and community cleanups. Her most significant work came with the peer suicide prevention group, Hope Squad. She helped to organize a weeklong, schoolwide event to raise mental health awareness. The club’s work drew national acclaim, and she visited with the U.S. secretary of education.
Finalists Derrick football:
Lyons, Silverado Volunteered at Cartwright Elementary School and mentored classmates in an afterschool
program while maintaining a 4.5 weighted grade-point average and earning an academic scholarship to the University of Arizona.
Joshua Rudisill, Mojave football and volleyball: Named the “Cultural Changer” at Mojave after emerging as a leader on campus by attending nearly every home sporting event to encourage all his classmates.
Coach of the Year
Kevin Soares, Liberty basketball: Long considered the area’s top boys basketball coach, Soares in his first year at Liberty finally won a state championship with a thrilling overtime win against Gorman. It was vintage Soares. One week after a double-digit Southern Regional championship-game loss, Soares instructed players to slow the pace of the game. It worked, and Gorman’s state championship streak was halted at nine. Finalists
Bart Black, Basic tennis: Led the Wolves to a pair of state tennis titles, their first in both boys’ and girls’ tennis, as he approaches 30 years at the school.
Matt Kranz, Arbor View bowling: Oversaw an Aggies’ team that didn’t lose a match en route to the 5A state championship.
Andy Ostolaza, Silverado football: Guided the Skyhawks to the 4A state championship and an undefeated season with a 12-0 record and 628-128 season-long scoring margin.
Moment of the Year — Small-town team gets big time celebration
The Moapa Valley football team’s bus pulled onto the town’s main drag in Logandale for the final leg of the team’s commute back to campus after winning the class 3A state championship over rival Virgin Valley and was immediately greeted by supporters
in an over-the-top celebration.
The final 6-mile leg of the drive home was led by the trucks from the town’s volunteer fire department, whose sirens and lights took the celebration to an unheard level. Fans lined both sides of the street for miles, many honking the horns of their vehicles, letting off fireworks and displaying homemade congratulatory signs.
Even when the bus turned into Overton by Lin’s Market a few miles into town, fans were still prevalent — like the entire town of about 5,000 people was there. Not bad for 12:30 a.m.
Between the turnout at Allegiant Stadium for the 27-13 win over Virgin Valley and the greeting at home, it felt like everyone in the community was involved in the support.
Game of the Year — Gorman basketball wins double OT thriller with Liberty
This night of basketball had a little bit of everything: Multiple buzzer-beaters, two overtimes, undefeated rivals, plenty of Division I talent and much drama.
Bishop Gorman’s 97-95 win against Liberty in double overtime is more than the game of the year — you could argue it’s the game of the decade.
Gorman trailed Liberty by 18 points in the first half of the championship game of the Tarkanian Classic and could not contain the Patriots’ Joshua Jefferson, who tallied a game-high 41 points.
Gorman cut its deficit to nine points by the fourth quarter and used a team-best 28 points from Ryan Abelman to force overtime — although the Gaels never had the lead in regulation.
In overtime, Abelman again hit a big shot, this time a 3-pointer in the final seconds to even the game and eventually bring a
second overtime. But first, Gorman had one more shot at the end of the first overtime, and Ryan Elisaldez’s heave from beyond midcourt went down to cue a massive celebration.
But time had expired, and the celebration was put on hold until John Mobley Jr. drained a 12-footer at the buzzer of the second overtime for the two-point win.
Hank Greenspun Lifetime Achievement Award — Retiring referee made impact
John Kennedy would referee a professional indoor soccer game in Monterrey, Mexico, on Friday. The next day, he would be assigned to a game in San Diego.
By the time Monday would roll around, Kennedy would be exhausted from the travel — but never too tired to help the Southern Nevada Officials Association.
It’s rare for a professional referee to officiate a high school match, as those pay significantly less and aren’t as exciting. But if there was a soccer game being played in Kennedy’s adopted hometown of Las Vegas, the Scotland native wanted to be front and center calling the action. He worked an association-best 17 state championship games.
“I owed it the kids,” Kennedy, 72, said. “I never thought I was better than anyone else.”
Kennedy, who retired last fall after nearly 40 years, estimates working more than 50,000 games in his career, including the eight-overtime NCAA championship game between UCLA and American University in 1985. UCLA won 1-0 after 166 minutes, 5 seconds in the longest game in soccer history. He jokingly says he’s fortunate that he was only a linesman that day.
Kennedy in 2009 was inducted into the National Soccer Hall
of Fame, but that’s not why he is so popular here. Rather, it’s because he never turned down an assignment in becoming an ambassador for the sport.
At the end of his career he had another honor: Working games of players whose parents played in games he had called.
“Yeah, man, that makes you feel old,” he jokingly says.
Sun Standout Award of Excellence — Female wrestler medals at boys state event
Centennial High senior wrestler Jenavi Alejandro registered a pin in the third-place match of the 113-pound division at the state tournament to become the first girl all-time to medal in the boys event.
She broke gender barriers in her four-year prep career in accomplishing the rare feat of winning more than 100 matches, and three seasons ago, becoming the first girl to win a match at the boys tournament.
There are a growing number of females joining the sport, especially in Nevada where this winter an all-girls state tournament was sanctioned by the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association. Alejandro won her third consecutive girls state title.
She long had said gender was unimportant and that once the referee blew their whistle to start a match, it was two wrestlers competing, and whoever had the best skills and dedication would win. That was usually Alejandro.
In a rare showing of emotion, she proudly bowed after winning the third-place match. “That was my way of saying, ‘Look what this girl just did,’” she said.