Sports banquet award winners announced
Yuma High’s Welsing, Cibola’s Guerrero, Kofa’s Moreno earn top honors
The Yuma Sun/Yuma Rotary Club’s 2019-20 Coach, Male Athlete and Female Athlete of the Year winners all have something in common — each won a wrestling state title in February.
Yuma High’s Jeff Welsing coached the Criminals to their second Arizona Interscholastic Association Division III team state championship in three years; Zeke Guerrero, a Cibola senior, won the Division I boys 145-pound title; and Carolina Moreno, a Kofa junior, went undefeated en route to capturing the Division I girls 125-pound crown.
Welsing (Coach of the Year), Guerrero (Male Athlete) and Moreno (Female Athlete) were announced as the big winners on Monday night. For the first time, the Yuma Sun/Yuma Rotary Club Annual Sports Banquet — presented by State Farm Agents of Yuma — was held virtually, broadcast on Facebook.
Welsing, who also won this award two years ago, is the only two-time winner in this group as Guerrero and Moreno each earned the award for the first time.
Welsing’s Criminals were the only local high school team to win a state title this school year. He coached Jayden Dobson to a 220-pound individual state title, while Mario Bugarin (2nd), Servando Campos (3rd), Justin Perez (4th) and Jacob Navarro (5th) each placed at state.
“It’s always an honor to be nominated with other people that certainly are deserving,” Welsing said. “It’s good for our program and good for our school. That’s one of the things you definitely want to highlight because Yuma High, we haven’t had a (Coach of the Year) since Bob Butcher in 2003.”
“A lot of the credit has to go to my coaching staff and my kids. Obviously, they bought into the vision we had. Nobody expected us to (win a state title), but the people that were inside the wrestling room did.”
Welsing beat out Gila Ridge football coach John Ellegood and Yuma Catholic boys soccer coach Ralph Evans for the award.
Guerrero becomes the fifth Cibola athlete in the last 10 years to win Male Athlete of the Year. Guerrero earned Yuma Sun all-region honors in both football and wrestling. As a linebacker in football, he ranked second for Cibola with 86 tackles.
Guerrero, who acknowledged he had a smile from ear-to-ear after hearing the news, was very excited on Monday night.
“You know, it was a lot different compared to (last year’s banquet at the Civic Center),” he said. “To be honest, it hasn’t hit me yet. I’m just walking around my house thinking about it. It’s pretty crazy. I’ve always seen myself as a pretty good athlete, but the amount of work I’ve put in finally amounted to something. It proves to me a lot of things I’ve thought about myself.”
Guerrero beat out his teammate — in both football and wrestling — Liam Hoffmeyer for the award, as well as Yuma High’s Dobson (wrestling/football). Despite having something to brag about amongst him and Hoffmeyer, Guerrero was humble in the moment.
“Me and (Hoffmeyer) were talking about this a few days ago,” he said. “Even with Jayden, I’m good friends with him. There are no bragging rights. I feel like I would have been just as happy for them as they are for me, but obviously it’s pretty cool.
“I’ll definitely be able to say some things to Liam and Jayden when I see them.”
Hoffmeyer and Dobson, who has since transferred from Yuma High to Yuma Catholic, will each have another crack at the award next season, as both were juniors this year. Guerrero, meanwhile, heads off to Arizona State University as he was accepted into their school of business.
Arguably the most dominant athlete in the group was Moreno, who became the third straight Female Athlete of the Year winner from Kofa (following Karen Rivas last year and Keiley Sharp the year before). After posting a 27-0 record and winning her second straight individual wrestling title, Moreno is now 42-0 in her high school career.
It’s unusual for a one-sport athlete to win this award, but the way Moreno controlled the mat — and her opponents — carried her over the edge, as she beat out Gila Ridge junior Kylee Gerber (golf/wrestling) and Cibola sophomore Emma Amon (swimming) for the award.
“I honestly didn’t expect it,” Moreno said. “At the same time, I was grateful that I was one of the finalists and even more grateful now that I’ve won it. I’m glad they took the time to acknowledge I’m a two-time state champion because they typically don’t (choose) one-sport athletes.”
Moreno will have another opportunity to win the award next season and she’s helping her chances as she’ll also try out for the Kofa volleyball team.