We all love sports, how fun and exciting it can get watching the players compete against other schools and watch them show off their skills that their coaches taught them. For Coach Botkin, basketball is the sport that he likes to coach.Coach Botkin is the girl’s basketball coach for Sahuaro High School. He has been coaching since 1988 when he started at Sahuaro as a Junior Varsity Girls Basketball Coach. He has been the head coach since 2000-2001. He played Football and Basketball in high school.

Every year, he coaches a different number of players every season.  From JV to Varsity, he watches them grow and develop the skills that they need for the varsity level.  “Every new year brings new expectations, challenges, and excitement.” They graduated 8 seniors from a team that was one win away from the final four.  Even though they are young, it does not mean they aren’t talented. One player Elena Ariagga, is starting her 4th year on Varsity and should have over 1000 points in her whole career by the end of this season. Carina Mendoza started on Varsity for 3 years now, Shayla McCraney, and Destiny Zaragoza, have played many Varsity minutes. “This year the captains will be Senior Elena Ariagga, Senior Destiny Zaragoza, and Junior Carina Mendoza.”

The Varsity girls basketball program has made the State Playoffs 29 years in a row, and he hopes and strives to make it to 30 this year. “Our schedule will be tough, but it should help us in the power point rankings for the State.” They played in the Boyd Baker Tip-off classic on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving week. One key game that Coach Botkin strived to fill the stands full of spectators was their 1:30 game against Salpointe on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Another key game will be Cienega (Coaches vs Cancer game) where they raise funds for the for the American Cancer Society.

Coach Botkin and his players strive for the success and to overcome challenges that will be in the way during the season. They hope to make it to state playoffs for the 30th time in a row. He hopes for a good season and they are really excited to see what they can do this season.