Familiar faces
Cibola’s Baumann, YC’s Henderson, Kofa’s Rivas win top honors at banquet
The Yuma Sun’s Male Athlete, Female Athlete and Coach of the Year winners have all been a part of the local sports scene for quite some time.
Cibola softball coach Shelly Baumann is the area’s longest-tenured varsity head coach (30 years), and first won Coach of the Year over two decades ago.
Yuma Catholic senior J.R. Henderson earned 12 varsity letters during his four years as a Shamrock, and won three Yuma Sun Player of the Year awards.
Kofa senior Karen Rivas earned nine varsity letters during her four years as a King, and was named Yuma Sun all-region six times.
Baumann (Coach of the Year), Henderson (Male Athlete) and Rivas (Female Athlete) were announced as the big winners Monday night at the Yuma Civic Center at the Yuma Sun/Yuma Rotary Club Annual Sports Banquet presented by the State Farm Agents of Yuma.
Baumann, who last won back in 1994, and Henderson, who also won last year, were repeat winners, while Rivas was a firsttimer.
“I was really excited and surprised,” Rivas said.
Baumann was named Coach of the Year after guiding a relatively young Cibola team — the Raiders had only one senior on their roster — to yet another successful regular season, and even more impressively to two wins in the 6A state tournament.
After a 16-2 regular season, No. 6 Cibola reached the final six at state thanks to wins over No. 11 Mountain Pointe and No. 2 Hamilton. It was the furthest that Cibola has made it at a big-school state tournament since 2000.
“(Credit) the girls, number one;
their hard work, their dedication,” Baumann said. “(And credit) my coaching staff, and a lot of years of experience.”
Baumann’s assistants this year were Andres Preciado, Myliah Ramirez, Amanda Hernandez and Sarah RayEverett.
“I couldn’t be doing this without the help of our assistant coaches,” she said.
Gary Mauldin (Antelope football), Duncan Phillips (Cibola boys tennis), Rhett Stallworth (Yuma Catholic football) and Jeff Welsing (Yuma High wrestling) were the other Coach of the Year nominees.
Henderson, a three-sport standout for the Shamrocks, became only the fourth repeat winner in the 30-year history of the Male Athlete of the Year award.
He had a record-breaking football season in the fall, catching 84 passes for 2,101 yards (a 3A state record) and 29 touchdowns (another 3A state record). He was named the Yuma Sun Offensive Player of the Year for the second year in a row, and also was selected all-region as a defensive back. He was also named the 3A Conference Player of the Year.
In basketball, Henderson put up 10.5 points, 4.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game to garner all-region honors. In the spring, he joined the Shamrocks’ baseball team, and hit .322.
All told, Henderson earned four varsity football letters, four varsity basketball letters, two varsity baseball letters and two varsity track and field letters.
What he’ll remember most, he said, was reaching the 3A state championship football game this past fall.
“Everything was firing on all cylinders and having a great time with all my friends and taking it as far as we could have,” he said.
Henderson will continue his football career at Lake Forest College.
Yuma High senior Shane Garcia (football, wrestling), Gila Ridge junior Devin Graham (football, wrestling, track), Cibola junior Zeke Guerrero (football, wrestling) and Yuma Catholic senior Randal Voutt (football, basketball, baseball) were the other Male Athlete of the Year nominees.
Like Henderson, Rivas also played three sports — and was actually the only male or female athlete in the area this school year to garner Yuma Sun all-region honors in three sports (volleyball, soccer, track).
Arguably her best sport was track and field, as she was the only local individual to qualify for the Division I state meet in three events. She finished sixth at state in the 300-meter hurdles, 11th in javelin and 15th in the 100-meter hurdles.
But she said she actually felt best about her soccer season: “We may not have done really well in our season (as a team), but it really brought out what type of athlete I really should be and how I should be.”
And soccer is the sport that Rivas has chosen to play at the next level, at Arizona Western.
She also was an all-region selection in volleyball as a libero.
Cibola senior Cielo Echols (volleyball, softball), Kofa senior Keiley Sharp (volleyball, track), Gila Ridge senior Hanah Sims (basketball, track) and Cibola senior Arlyssa Underwood (basketball, track) were the other Female Athlete of the Year nominees.
Also, a new award was presented at this year’s banquet, given to the top scholar athlete in the area. Antelope senior Shelby Jones (volleyball, basketball, softball) won the award.