Konerko rose to All-Star in the big leagues
Scottsdale Chaparral Firebirds
This is as hard as any school in Arizona to condense into five incredible athletes of all time. This could easily go to 50. For three women to make this list shows how strong this school was for producing top athletes, male and female. This is my stab at finding Chaparral’s Five: 1. Paul Konerko, 1994
He was the Player of the Year his senior year, when he played catcher for Jerry Dawson, leading the Firebirds to the first of what would be 10 baseball state championships. He was taken by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first round of the Major League Baseball Draft in 1994. He turned into a first baseman and reached his peak with the Chicago White Sox, where he played from 1999-2014, making six All-Star Games. He finished with 439 career home runs, 1,412 RBIs and a lifetime batting average of .279.
2. Susie Parra, 1991
There may be no better softball pitcher in Arizona high school history. She had games humming along with her ability to strike out the sides and keeping them to not much more than an hour. At the University of Arizona,
she became not only an All-American and national champion but etched her name in the school’s Hall of Fame, winning 111 games in her fouryear college career with an ERA below 1.00. She was the 1994 National Player of the Year, pitching the Wildcats to a third national championship in her career.
3. Taylor Ruck, 2018
She swam at Chaparral only her first three years, before moving to Canada to train with its national team. Before her junior year in high school, she qualified for Canada’s national team at the Summer Olympics and won bronze medals in 2016 as part of Canada’s 4x100-meter and 4x200-meter freestyle relay teams. She was a three-time Female Swimmer of the Year in Arizona at Chaparral, setting a state record in the 500-yard freestyle. She starred her freshman year at Stanford, where she led the Cardinal to the national title in spring of 2019. She was named the Pac-12 Swimming Newcomer of the Year and was part of Stanford’s national championship 800-yard freestyle relay team. She was national runnerup in the 200 free and 200 backstroke.
4. Taylor Lewan, 2009
He played football only one year at Chaparral, and hadn’t played offensive line until his senior year, when coach Charlie Ragle converted the 6-foot-6, 275-pounder from defensive lineman, the position he played at Cave Creek Cactus Shadows. He quickly asserted himself, helping the Firebirds reach the state title in 2008, before he grew into a force at the University of Michigan, where his father Dave played. A two-time
All-American with the Wolverines, Lewan has made himself a force on the offensive line with the Tennessee Titans, where he’s been a three-time Pro Bowl selection in 2016, ‘17 and ‘18.
5. Christy Nore, 1985
She was all-state in four sports: volleyball, tennis, track and field and softball. She was the only female athlete in Arizona preps to break 43 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles, a state record she held for 27 years, until Canyon del Oro’s Jaide Stepter ran faster in 2012. Volleyball was Nore’s ticket into Arizona State University Sports Hall of Fame, a phenom at outside hitter, who set the school record for digs during her career from 1985-88. ASU reached the NCAA Tournament all four years she played. In ‘88, she was named first-team AVCA AllAmerican.