Follow Dave Heeke on Twitter | Sign Up for the Wildcat Wednesday

I'd like to welcome back the Wildcat Family to our Wildcat Wednesday emails as we begin the 2022-23 academic year. Our athletics department is coming off a historic year of championship excellence in the classroom, in competition and in our Southern Arizona community. This momentum has carried us to the start of a new year, and I am excited to cheer on all our programs and student-athletes as they compete and proudly represent the Block A.

In this week's Welcome Back BBQ for our student-athletes and staff, I was able to share my pride in all that we accomplished last year. Arizona Athletics is a program that strives for and achieves greatness in everything we do. That defines the standard for our whole athletics department as well as how we fulfill our mission of developing student-athletes into academic, athletic and life champions
 
WOMEN'S TRIATHLON



We began this week with our official announcement of Women's Triathlon becoming our 22nd sport, beginning official competition in 2023-24. Triathlon is one of the emerging sports in college athletics with tremendous popularity throughout our nation. Southern Arizona provides an elite training environment for triathlon, which will help the program grow. Announcing a new women's sport during the 50th anniversary of Title IX allows us to highlight, yet again, the profound impact that landmark legislation had on women's sports and our own athletics department.


As we begin another year, we are thrilled to welcome our tremendous alumni, fans and supporters back into the stands to Bear Down. There is much excitement surrounding our entire department and 22 athletic programs, and I know the Wildcat Family is ready to cheer on all our student-athletes. I can't wait to join you in the stands at our venues as we watch our Wildcats achieve true excellence. Bear Down and Go Cats!
 
VOLLEYBALL OPENS 2022 SEASON AT HOME 



Coach Rubio and the Wildcats open up the 2022 regular season this week with the Cactus Classic – a two-day, six-match event at McKale Center. The Wildcats return all but one starter and 14 total letterwinners from last year's team that advanced to the postseason. This will be a dynamic season of Arizona Volleyball under Coach Rubio, Coach Stubbs and the newest member of our staff, Coach Chan.

The Cats open up the weekend with a day/night doubleheader on Friday vs. LIU at 10 a.m. and New Mexico State at 6:30 p.m. before closing the weekend vs. Alabama State on Saturday at 2 p.m. MST. Tickets for this weekend's matches can be found here.
 
THE COUNTDOWN IS ON 



We are officially 10 days away from the Arizona Football season opener at San Diego State on Sept. 3. Coach Fisch and the Wildcats have had an incredible offseason, and now it's time to carry that momentum into the 2022 college football season.

As we move toward game week, we want to thank all of those who attended our open practices/scrimmages and our Fan Fests during fall camp. The community engagement with Coach Fisch and his program is very apparent, and we're excited to see Arizona Stadium full when we open our seven-game home schedule vs. Mississippi State on Sept. 10!

Season tickets remain our best ticketing option, so get yours now for as low as $70!
 
ARIZONA SOCCER'S HOT START



Arizona Soccer kicked off our 2022-23 athletic season last week and is already turning heads two matches into the year.

After a thrilling 2-1 win on opening night vs. Iowa State in front of a packed house at Mulcahy Stadium, the Wildcats went on the road and defeated Texas Tech to improve to 2-0 on the year. Madison Goerlinger was named the Pac-12 Defender of the Week and Hope Hisey was named the Goaltender of the Week, marking the first time ever Arizona Soccer has earned multiple weekly Pac-12 honors in the same week.

The Wildcats are one of two teams in the country to be 2-0 with both wins coming vs. Power 5 opponents. They will try to make it 3-0 when they head to Lincoln tomorrow to take on Big Ten opponent Nebraska.

Shoutout to Coach Moros and Arizona Soccer on their excellent start! The team is back in Tucson next weekend. Get your tickets now!
 
JUST A MONTH FROM TIP OFF


We announced last week that Arizona Men's Basketball's First Watch Red-Blue Game will be held Sept. 30 in McKale. This will be the first opportunity for our fans to see the reigning Pac-12 champions under the conference and national coach of the year Tommy Lloyd. The Red-Blue Game is always one of our most exciting and entertaining events on the calendar, and we're eager for you all to see what we have planned this year.

Tickets go on sale online this Saturday at 10 a.m. MST, so check your email or head to arizonawildcats.com on Saturday morning to reserve your seats!
 
CATS IN THE PROS: SUMMER RECAP


This summer was full of our Pro Cats shining on the biggest stages and we couldn't be more proud of all our alumni playing professionally.

·       Andre Iguodala, Steve Kerr, Bruce Fraser and the Warriors took home the Larry O'Brien trophy, defeating the Celtics in the NBA Finals. The Wildcat trio has now won four titles together with the Warriors, while Kerr's ring count is now at nine as a player and a coach.

·       Arizona Softball is dominating at Athletes Unlimited. In the first league of the summer, Danielle O'Toole finished first and Dejah Mulipola finished third at AUX. Currently, the Wildcats have three of the top five in the Summer Softball league, with Mulipola in first, Alyssa Denham in third and O'Toole in fifth heading into the final week. Watch the final week on the ESPN family of networks beginning on Friday.

·       Incoming Arizona Soccer freshman Angela Baron competed and started for the Colombia National Team at the U-20 World Cup this summer. After winning the group, Colombia fell to Brazil in the knockout stage this week, completing an incredible summer of international soccer for Baron. She will now head to Tucson to join the Wildcats.

·       Arizona Men's Golf alum Trevor Werbylo earned his 2022-23 PGA Tour Card as one of the top finishers in the Korn Ferry Tour this year.

·       Three Wildcats – Bennedict Mathurin, Dalen Terry and Christian Koloko – were drafted in this summer's NBA Draft. Mathurin went sixth overall to the Pacers, Terry went 18th overall to the Bulls and Koloko was selected 33rd by the Raptors. This marked the first time in school history that the Wildcats had three players selected in the first 33 picks.

·       In the MLB Draft, Arizona Baseball's Daniel Susac was a first-round selection of the Athletics, going 19th overall. Tanner O'Tremba went in the 15th round to the Giants. 

·       Sam Thomas was named to the WNBA All-Rookie Team and Aari McDonald averaged over 11 points per game in her sophomore season.
 
JALESSA CAROCCIO AND CARLIE SCUPIN INTERN AT NIKE



Arizona Volleyball's Jaleesa Caroccio and Arizona Softball's Carlie Scupin each earned the prestigious Nike Internship this summer. The highly sought-after internship is chosen after a very competitive interview process that both Caroccio and Scupin trained for with the help of our C.A.T.S. Student-Athlete Development.

Both were selected and represented Arizona Athletics at Nike Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon this summer. The two are excellent representations of everything being a Wildcat embodies and are proud examples of the Arizona Athletics Strategic Plan in motion.

Caroccio, who is a business management major at Eller with a 3.67 GPA, talked about her experience here.

WEAR THE COLORS – SHARE THE PHOTOS


Chuck Cecil, Ricky hundley and UA football letterwinner Craig Vesling at the PCA Golf Tournament! 

Send us your photos of you wearing the colors!

Thank you for wearing the colors and sharing your Arizona pride! Make sure to take a picture the next time you are wearing the colors and send it to us, we just might include it in next week's Wildcat Wednesday! And even if your photo submission doesn't make  next week's edition, please check our "Wear the Colors" album at facebook.com/ArizonaAthletics on Fridays.
 
NOTE: Please submit photos for Wildcat Wednesday with an original email to uofaad@arizona.edu using the subject line 'Wildcat Wednesday photo.' Also, please ensure all submissions are clear and properly lit. We also ask that you identify everyone in the photo so we can highlight them accordingly.

Bear Down and Go Cats!
 
Dave Heeke
Vice President and Director of Athletics
University of Arizona
uofaad@arizona.edu