Chandler, AZ—Coyote Athletics had another incredibly strong year, perhaps its strongest collection of seasons to date. Across the board, for the large number of varsity sports that CGCC supports, one could argue that no other school in the ACCAC had the overall amount of success across all sports like CGCC did.
Six of seven traditional team sports teams made the postseason, not including the Men’s golf team who also earned a spot at the National Tournament. Coyote student athletes were named ACCAC Player of the Week an outstanding 18 times throughout the course of this school year. Additionally, 18 Coyotes were named to the All-Conference or All-Region 1 award teams and three Coyotes were named Conference Player of the Year as voted on by the coaches as the best player in the league, respectively. Coyote coaches earned one ACCAC Coach of the Year and one ACCAC Assistant Coach of the Year as well.
The Volleyball team went 14-11 this year and earned the 2 seed at the Region 1 Postseason tournament. Head Coach Jeff Nelson earned his 500th career win during the year and Kennedy Dastrup was named the ACCAC Player of the Year.
Coyote Men’s soccer was under a rebuild but earned a late win over Paradise Valley and held some of the best teams in the conference to low scoring efforts, that team is on the rise! The Women’s soccer team on the other hand made the playoffs and has a strong core of freshman returning for next season. Watch out for the soccer teams next Fall as they will be making some noise!
The Women’s basketball team increased their win total for the third consecutive year and made the playoffs for the second year in a row, first time since at least 2017. Sophomore Steph Da Silva led the team the whole way and recently signed a full athletic scholarship to continue her education and basketball career at Western New Mexico University, a very competitive Division II institution.
The Men’s basketball team had a historic year, winning a program record 27 games. They were the ACCAC Regular Season champions and even played in the Region 1 championship game. Andre Harris was named the ACCAC Player of the Year and Steve Silsby was named ACCAC Coach of the Year.
Coyote softball earned a playoff spot too; that program continues to display just how much of a model of consistency it is each and every season. Coach Bry gets her teams to peak at the right time year in and year out and has a knack for driving her teams into the playoffs just about every single year she has coached at CGCC.
The Yote baseball team played in the Region 1 Championship and despite the loss they had the ACCAC Player of the Year in Easton Bryant and the Assistant Coach of the Year in Mike Campbell; a long overdue recognition for someone who has devoted thousands of hours to Coyote baseball over the years.
The golf teams both had strong years as the Women’s team earned a spot at the District championships in Texas and the Men’s team, who went through a large roster overhaul under first year Head Coach Leo Maes played so well in tournament after tournament this year that they earned the right to participate in the NJCAA National Championship tournament in Joplin, MO later this month.
Russell Luce, Coyote Athletic Director said, “We had so much success from so many of our Coyotes this year on the court and on the field. We tried every single day to make this great school proud. We had over 40 of our sophomores graduate and had an overall student athlete GPA of over a 3.0 as well. A big thanks goes to our administration who has supported our endeavors of continuing to create a first-class experience for these student athletes like putting TV’s in the locker rooms, improvements to the baseball and softball fields and a makeover of our gym floor. We can’t wait to get going again next year as I know we have the potential to reach new heights.”
