Hardy and Kinsler headline Pima County Sports Hall of Fame class

TUCSON, AZ - For the first time in its 30-year history, the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame includes two of Tucson’s leading high school teams.

The undefeated 1972 Tucson High School baseball state championship team, 25-0, and the undefeated 1972 Catalina High School girls volleyball team, 18-0, were enshrined at a luncheon Sunday at the Hilton DoubleTree Hotel.

Pat Darcy, chairman of the PCSHF, said that a boys high school team and a girls high school team will now be inducted each year.

PCSHOF introduced Class of 2018 in September (VIDEO)

The THS and CHS teams were joined by a 10-person class that includes the father-son entry of two-time Baltimore Orioles All-Star shortstop J.J. Hardy of Sabino High and his father, Mark Hardy, a former state champion singles and doubles tennis standout at Catalina High.

Two more major-league players will be inducted in the Class of 2018: Salpointe Catholic grad Mark Carreon, who played eight seasons with the New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants, will join Boston Red Sox second baseman Ian Kinsler, a Canyon del Oro High grad who has hit 248 big-league home runs for the Red Sox, Tigers, Angels and Rangers.

The Class of 2018 will feature Julie Brase Hairgrove, the state’s all-time leading girls basketball player, who led Catalina Foothills to a 31-2 state championship in 1997, and later played four seasons at Arizona.

Salpointe Catholic grad Rich Ellerson, who designed the Desert Swarm defenses for Arizona, and later became the head football coach at Army, will be inducted. Ellerson played college football at Navy and Hawaii.

Palo Verde High and UA grad Nanci Reid will be honored with the Class of 2018. She lettered in basketball, softball and volleyball at Arizona and later became the interscholastics coordinator for the TUSD athletic department, 1985-2010.

Jerry Carrillo, a UA and Salpointe grad who has coached Cochise College to 511 basketball victories, was voted into the Class of 2018. Carrillo was also an all-city basketball player.

Dave Feilt, who played five years in the NBA and was the second-leading career scorer at UTEP upon his graduation in 1986, is part of the 2018 class. Feitl led Santa Rita High to the 1979 state championship game and was Tucson’s 1980 basketball player of the year, averaging 24 points and 14 rebounds.

Softball pitcher Courtnay Foster, who pitched Sahuaro High to the 2000 state championship and later pitched Northwestern to its only Women’s College World Series berth, is part of the Class of 2018. Foster won 64 games in her final two seasons at Sahuaro before becoming an All-Big Ten Conference pitcher.

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