NEW YEAR EXCITEMENT: Junior pitcher Mitchell Lambson, shown jogging, is one of several returning players from the Pac-10 champion squad excited for the upcoming season. ASU coach Tim Esmay, coming off a 52-10 record in his first year at the helm, understands the winning expectations associated with his team, and the pressure that accompanies it. (Photo by Nick Kosmider)

At first glance, it seemed like an odd time for a grin.

Sitting in a room beneath the hallowed stands of Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb., freshman Deven Marrero stared out at a horde of reporters and faced questions – along with teammates Mitchell Lambson and Kole Calhoun and coach Tim Esmay – about a loss to South Carolina that eliminated the ASU baseball team from the College World Series.

Sure, Marrero was as disappointed as the rest of his teammates who were hoping to lift ASU’s first national championship plaque since 1981. After a stellar regular season in which the Sun Devils earned their record fourth-straight Pac-10 title, there were plenty of reasons for optimism when the team stepped onto college baseball’s largest stage.

But something occurred to the star freshman during those trying moments: The season had been one heck of a ride, and it was only getting started.

“I’d say this is one of the best years as a team that I’ve been a part of in my life,” Marrero said in the aftermath of that June loss to the eventual CWS champions.

It was an experience that, despite the disappointment the ending brought, had Marrero anxiously anticipating the future.

Now in the middle of his team’s fall practice schedule, Esmay, entering his second season as ASU’s coach and first without the interim label, says he has thought often about the words of his young player that day.

“You remember the excitement Deven Marrero had after the [College] World Series in saying it was the most fun he had ever had playing baseball … a lot of guys felt that way,” Esmay said. “We have kind of adopted that as our mindset.”

It was a mindset, though, that Esmay had already brought to the team when he took over last season in a pinch for longtime coach Pat Murphy, who resigned under fire amid NCAA accusations. An ASU lifer  — he played in Tempe in the ‘80s and then spent nine seasons as an assistant coach — Esmay immediately injected calm into what could have been a stormy atmosphere. The players repeated a phrase similar to this one all year: Playing baseball for Esmay makes the game fun.

The test for Esmay and the program, though, is now approaching. The skipper knows as well as anyone the expectations that come with playing for and coaching at ASU. Winning Pac-10 Coach of the Year honors and guiding the Sun Devils to a 52-10 record last season has only increased fervor among a loyal fan base that is desperate of a CWS title.

With Esmay in attendance during one of his weekly press conferences earlier this season, football coach Dennis Erickson, who won a share of the Pac-10 title in his first season as ASU’s coach in 2007, playfully reminded his baseball counterpart that the first conference title is the easy one. It only gets tougher after that, Erickson mused.

But Esmay believes his team will be able to handle the heat and is confident he is even better equipped to coach the squad with one year as its skipper under his belt.

“I think what I learned most the first year is just about how to understand these kids,” Esmay said. “You learn that each one of them is different. That was the biggest thing, just trying to understand them and mesh all of that talent.”

One of Esmay’s tasks for the fall is selecting a starting pitching rotation to replace the three starters from last season – Seth Blair, Merrill Kelly, Jake Borup – who all passed up their senior seasons to join the professional ranks.

Esmay pointed out Brady Rodgers, owner of a 2.11 ERA in 72.2 innings pitched as a freshman last season, as a player he expects to develop into a solid starter. Lambson, a junior, could also move into the rotation after flourishing the past two seasons as the staff’s dominant setup man.

“For me, it really doesn’t matter [what my pitching role is],” said Lambson, who is resting his arm during fall practice after pitching well in the Cape Cod League during the summer. “[Pitching coach Ken] Knutson does a great job handling the pitchers, and we’ve got a lot of talented arms coming in this year with freshman and junior college transfers. We’re just trying to see where everyone fits in, and wherever I fit in, whatever I can do to help the team win, that’s my main focus this year.”

Left-hander Kyle Ottoson, a junior college transfer from South Mountain Community College, is a three-time Major League Baseball draftee who Esmay said could also figure into the rotation.

ASU lost key position players to the MLB draft, but the Sun Devils return the reigning Pac-10 Player of the Year in junior Zach MacPhee and a host of other talented offensive players, including juniors Riccio Torrez, Zach Wilson, Johnny Ruettiger, sophomores Andrew Aplin and Marrero and senior Matt Newman.

It’s a group chomping at the bit to get back to Omaha and determined to have fun along the way.

“There were a lot of accomplishments last year, but our main goal was to win in Omaha and we didn’t do that,” Lambson said. “So there’s definitely a lot of work to be done and that’s motivating. It keeps us working hard every day.”

Reach the reporter at nkosmide@asu.edu

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Alexandra Elston (No. 13) will be relied upon for leadership during her senior season.

The career path that Alexandra Elston hopes to one day find herself on is all about communication.

Nearing a degree in speech and hearing, the senior on the ASU women’s soccer team has devoted her studies to learning how to guide and teach others.

Now, in her final season on the pitch in Tempe, Elston’s coach is hoping to see lessons learned in the classroom can be used on the field.

Last season, as the Sun Devils made their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2003, Elston led the team in points (20), scoring seven goals with six assists. She scored a pair of goals in the team’s regular season finale against Oregon that helped assure ASU a postseason berth.

While the forward will be heavily relied upon for scoring once again this season, which kicks off with an exhibition at Loyola Marymount on Aug. 13, fourth-year coach Kevin Boyd expects the senior to take on an enhanced leadership role as well.

“He’s been trying to get me to talk more on the field,” Elston said of Boyd.

It is a transition for Elston, who despite being a fierce competitor, said she is typically one to let her game do the talking.

“I’m kind of one of the quieter people. I’m trying to get there, and hopefully it will come naturally just being one of the older players on the team and being around the players that are just starting out.”

Elston played her high school soccer locally at Moutain Pointe High School in Phoenix, but she said ASU wasn’t her top choice of college destination.

“When I was younger I always wanted to get out of here,” Elston said. “Go to California and be one of those players. But as time ticked down, ASU was right next to me, and it’s a great school.”

Elston began her career with the Sun Devils in 2007, the same season that Boyd took the reigns of the program.

She has watched as the coach has attempted to create a winning confidence in a program both believe is now headed in the right direction.

“I think [Boyd] did a great job of weeding out players who didn’t want to be here and keeping people focused on the goal of making the postseason and being there to win,” Elston said. “He did a great job of coming in and sorting it out, making us the team that we are.”

Elston knows she will play a key role in ensuring a continued cultivation of the confidence around the program, the reason, she said, she spent the offseason working tirelessly to improve her game.

That effort included a stint in training camp with the U-23 Women’s National Team earlier this spring in Florida.

With nine new additions to the roster for the Sun Devils this season, Elston said she has been impressed with the newcomers, anxious to lead the way in her final season. After bowing out to Wisconsin in the first round of the tournament a season ago, the senior, who hopes to become a speech pathologist, wants to finish her career with a taste of victory in the postseason.

“We know that we can get there and beat that first team,” Elston said. “It’s a feeling of knowing we can win [in the NCAA Tournament] and that’s what we’re going to build upon this year. We’re going to get there again and hopefully we can win that first game.”

Reach Nick at nkosmide@asu.edu

FALL PRACTICE: Junior cornerback Omar Bolden and the ASU football team open up fall practice on Tuesday. (Photo by Nick Kosmider)

The waiting game is finally nearing an end for the ASU football team.

On Wednesday, the Sun Devils will put the pads back on as they officially begin fall practice, anxious to wipe the slate clean following two straight disappointing seasons that kept the team out of the bowl picture.

“I’m so excited to start and get rolling,” said junior cornerback Omar Bolden, who missed most of last season with a knee injury he suffered during a practice. “I’m ready to get back out there again.”

Bolden has taken charge as one of the team’s vocal leaders — a role he occupied even as he spent most of his time on the sideline last season — but the California native said he’s elated for an opportunity to lead on the field again, adding he’s “eager and hungry” after so much time away from the game.

“I’m just ready to get back out there and make plays again,” Bolden said. “It’s been a long time. I hadn’t missed any football [before last season] since I started playing, so it sucked. I’m ready to get back out there.”

The cornerback will be a welcomed addition to a defense that figures to be one of the Pac-10′s best, if not one of the nation’s top units. Anchored by the Corona, Calif., trio of linebackers Shelly Lyons (junior), Bradon Magee (junior) and preseason All-American Vontaze Burfict, plus junior Lawrence Guy on the defensive line, the defense, No. 13 in the country in 2009, has its sights set on becoming the top unit in college football.

For ASU to find its way back to a bowl game for the first time since 2007, the defense might have to be.

The Sun Devil offense has been a major reason for the team’s downfall the past two seasons, finishing seventh or worse in total offense in each.

This season, new offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone is hoping to turn things around by implementing a fast-paced, no-huddle system, predicated on short quick throws in the passing game that relies on wide receivers to make plays in open space.

One player who feels he will benefit greatly from the new approach is junior wide receiver Aaron Pflugrad, a transfer from Oregon who sat out last season, per NCAA rules.

“Coach Mazzone has been awesome and he brings so much energy,” said Pflugrad, who also is a candidate to return kicks this season. “We just have to keep progressing and I’m sure Sun Devil fans are going to see a totally different offense out there.”

Like Bolden, Pflugrad said it was difficult not being able to suit up for games last season, but the time on the scout team had its benefits, including timing he developed with junior quarterback Steven Threet, a candidate for this season’s starting job who also sat last season after transferring from Michigan.

“It was extremely difficult [to sit out],” Pflugrad said, “but it is what it is and you use it to get better. Now that year is over and I’m looking forward to this year.”

Battling Threet for the starting role at quarterback will be sophomore Brock Osweiler and junior Samson Szakacsy, who missed all of spring practice with a lingering arm injury.

Threet and Osweiler each struggled at different times during spring practice, but neither emerged as a clear favorite after the annual spring game.

ASU opens its season at home against Portland State on Sept. 4.

Reach Nick at nkosmide@asu.edu

Dymond Simon will return to the court for ASU this fall after missing all of last season with a knee injury. (Photo Courtesy of Steve Rodriguez)

As Dymond Simon begins talking about her excitement to return to the court, it’s easy to see what the ASU women’s basketball team was missing last season.

Simon, a redshirt senior guard, was ASU’s leading scorer in 2009 before an ACL tear, the second of her career, sidelined her for the NCAA Tournament and forced her to miss all of last season.

“I won’t say it was a hard year for me, because I learned a lot sitting on the sideline with my coach, but it was definitely an eye-opener,” said Simon, who is using her extra time at ASU to complete a Master’s degree. “It humbles you in a way and just let’s you know that you can’t take a lot of this stuff for granted. Right now, I’m just enjoying my time.”

The injury did test Simon’s resolve, though, and came at a time when she was playing the best basketball team of her career on one of ASU’s most talented teams to date.

It wasn’t until the Sun Devils were about to square off against Connecticut in the Elite Eight that the emotions began to truly her.

“I just started crying,” Simon said. “I was kind of empty inside and I didn’t know what to feel. I was mad, depressed, sad, any feeling you can imagine. … But it’s true what they say, God does have another plan for you, and maybe he wanted this to happen to say, ‘Hey, there’s some things you need work on before you get to that next level.”

In addition to her faith, Simon said she has relied on a her friendship with former ASU guard and current WNBA player Briann January, as the two talk on a near-daily basis.

Simon was ASU's leading scorer when she went down with an ACL injury at the end of the 2009 season. (Photo Courtesy of Steve Rodriguez)

The rehab process has been a slow one, the team’s medical staff aiming to help Simon strengthen the knee in an effort to prevent future injuries. Taking it slow has been, at times, difficult for a player who often operates at a frenetic pace.

“She wants no [knee] brace, no restrictions,” ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “Our medical staff is taking it really conservatively, so that’s been hard for her.”

Still, Simon said she has tried to make the most out her time away from the court, watching countless hours of film in an effort to improve the mental side of her game.

Now able to scrimmage with her teammates, Simon has been a vocal leader during summer workouts, something an inexperienced ASU team missed desperately last season — one in which ASU missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004.

“If we get a rebound, she’s always yelling, ‘Set it up!” senior forward Becca Tobin said of Simon. “She’s always talking to us and telling us what to do.”

For a team that returned just three players with significant experience last season, on-court leadership was often hard to come by. Simon’s return has already begun to fill that void during summer workouts that players say are much more intense this season than a year ago.

“I’ve always said that your internal leadership is huge,” Turner Thorne said. “Dymond is a floor leader. The way she plays her position just gives you so much more poise and consistency. … She should be a huge boost to our team.”

ASU opens its season at home on Nov. 7 against Fort Lewis, and Simon is understandably anticipating the excitement she will feel when she runs back out on the court and hears her name called. But her injury has taught her, she said, to enjoy the present, and even in the dog days of summer, Simon is certainly enjoying basketball.

“I’m anxious and excited,” Simon said, “but at the same time I’m letting the days go by as slow as they can so I can prepare.”

ASU sophomore goalkeeper hopes to improve upon her experience as a freshman a season ago. (Photo Courtesy of Steve Rodriguez).

Alyssa Gillmore expected to learn plenty as a freshman on the ASU soccer team last season. She just didn’t anticipate the tutelage being so up close and personal.

Playing behind senior goalkeeper Briana Silvestri, the school’s all-time leader in goals against average (0.78), Gillmore, as many freshman do, was biding her time, learning from the experienced player in front of her.

But on the eve of ASU’s first Pac-10 game, Silvestri went down with a season-ending knee injury, pressing the freshman into action against some of the country’s top competition.

“The first part was I was sad to see [Silvestri] go down that way, especially being her last year,” Gillmore said. “Then it was, ‘Oh, I’m actually going in now.’”

It was trial by fire for Gillmore, who faced Pac-10 powers USC and UCLA in her first two starts, tying a school record with 14 saves in a 3-2 overtime loss to the former.

“The first couple games were totally different than anything else I’d ever played,” Gillmore said. “I think once I figured out how the back line played and they figured out how I played, we all just started clicking and playing together as a team.”

Gillmore’s transition between the posts for a Division I program wasn’t without its struggles. Luckily, the freshman had an experienced mentor guiding her over some of the rough patches.

When she found herself frustrated over her play or struggling with the pressures of the position, Gillmore would go to lunch with Silvestri, who offered her younger teammate some sage advice.

Gillmore said former ASU goalkeeper Briana Silvestri played a big role in building her confidence a season ago. (Photo Courtesy of Steve Rodriguez)

“She said, ‘You’ve played this since you were 4, and it’s still the same game,” Gillmore recalled. “She said it’s just different people you’re playing with and once you get to know them and they get to know you, it’ll be fine. It was a big learning experience.”

Her confidence building as the season went on, Gillmore allowed just one goal in the final weekend of the season against Oregon and Oregon State, pacing two victories that earned ASU its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2003. Gillmore posted a razor-thin .031 goals against average in the team’s final three games.

“I think she was nervous at first,” senior forward Alexandra Elston said, “but as soon as she got into and started playing and made that first save she played awesome. She started to guide people and show some leadership.”

Despite the experience gained as a freshman, though, the goalkeeper job won’t be handed to Gillmore when ASU kicks off its season this fall. Vittoria Arnold, an incoming freshman from Mesquite, Texas, is a talented player who will push Gillmore for the starting role.

Elston believes the stiff competition will benefit both players.

“More than one player there is always a good thing,” she said. “Both of them are going to be competing back and forth to win that spot, so as long as they can both stay healthy, the best one’s going to play.”

Gillmore said she appreciates the challenge, one that is constantly pushing her to get better.

“Obviously if I didn’t need improvement I wouldn’t be here,” the goalkeeper said. “I just want to help my team.”

Quarterbacks Steven Threet and Samson Szakacsy rally youngsters at the First Annual ASU-San Carlos Football Camp. (Photo by Nick Kosmider)

As he veers left into the carpool lane on U.S. 60, Samson Szakacsy punches a couple more buttons into his Blackberry.

After nearly five months of preparation, the ASU junior quarterback wants to make sure everything goes right.

“So much stuff has gone into planning this,” Szakacsy says. “It’s been an insane journey.”

A couple phone calls later, Szakacsy is content the caravan of his ASU football teammates is headed in the right direction. He takes a deep breath, sets his phone down and focuses on the road ahead.

Szakacsy and 14 other Sun Devil players are making a nearly two-hour drive to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation to conduct a youth football camp in connection with the local Boys and Girls Club. But this scorching Saturday afternoon in July is about more than football.

A lasting encounter

Even after an engaging, inspired conversation, Robert Howard said he didn’t expect to hear from the long-haired football player he met outside the Memorial Union.

Five months later, Howard knows it’s what he should have expected all along.

Howard, a 37-year-old double major in accounting and American Indian Studies at ASU, is a San Carlos native who commutes to Tempe three times a week for school, an effort he balances between raising a family and working on the tribal council.

During a break between classes one day last semester, Howard was listening to an evangelist preacher shout about his beliefs outside the MU. Szakacsy, a religious studies student always aiming to soak up the world around him, was there too.

The two met, and Howard shared with Szakacsy some of the troubles facing people on the reservation.

Szakacsy texted Howard later in the afternoon. I want to learn more, Szakacsy said.

A couple days later the two met on campus and headed east to San Carlos to begin what would become a life-changing journey for the quarterback.

Szakacsy was introduced to Chairman Wendsler Nosie, known to those on the reservation as Chief.

A camper leaps to grab a pass thrown by ASU junior wide receiver Aaron Pflugrad. (Photo by Nick Kosmider)

“We’ve talked to many others before, but when I met Samson, he listened,” Nosie said. “The thing about Samson is, he didn’t come in here telling us [what we should do] or instructing us or any of those things. He said chairman, ‘Tell me.’ I couldn’t believe it.”

Nosie told Szakacsy about the challenges facing one of the nation’s poorest Native American communities, where about 60 percent of residents live below the poverty line, according to U.S. Census data.

The California native learned about the reservation’s fear over mining operations in nearby areas that, depending on potential legislation in the Senate, could soon encroach on the reservation’s 1.8-million acre grounds.

Such operations, Noise said, could lead to contamination of the water in San Carlos, water that Szakacsy calls the “most pure and clear” he’s ever tasted.

Inspired, touched and determined to help, Szakacsy continued to make trips back to the reservation, often as a guest in Nosie’s home. He marched in a parade celebrating Apache heritage and visited and spoke to families in the community. Most of all, he listened.

“He’s a part of this, and people here know him now,” Howard said.

A helping hand

As Szakacsy and his teammates pull into the parking lot at San Carlos High School at about 10 a.m., the field is already full of eager camp participants anxiously awaiting their opportunity to meet ASU football players who, until now, they’ve only seen on TV.

Some of them, Howard says, have been at the field since 8 a.m.

Szakacsy dreamed up the concept of a football camp during one of his early visits to the reservation, aware the sport could be a vehicle to portray a larger message.

When the quarterback brought his idea back to his teammates in Tempe, he was humbled by their response.

“First off, Samson’s a great guy, everybody on the team loves him, so if it’s something for him everyone’s willing to do it,” junior wide receiver Aaron Pflugrad said. “Once you learn more about it and to present an opportunity for these kids, it just made it more meaningful.”

Junior offensive lineman Dan Knapp demonstrates proper blocking technique to campers at San Carlos High School. (Photo by Nick Kosmider)

After leading the same stretches the Sun Devils do in their own practices, Szakacsy and his teammates split 123 campers — more than twice the number Szakacsy said he originally expected — into stations that covered techniques from tossing spirals to learning the proper offensive lineman stance.

The man with the whistle directing traffic was Steven Threet, who visited the reservation with Szakacsy shortly after the latter’s original trip to San Carlos. Threet has helped Szakacsy with planning for the camp ever since.

“We were learning just as much as the kids were,” said Threet, who appeared to be having as much fun as any camper, whether it was throwing deep passes or helping a youngster with a shorter attention span identify the type of bug he’d found on the ground. “Anything I can do to help, I’m right there with [Szakacsy]. We want to connect and let them know people outside the reservation are thinking about them.”

The campers couldn’t get enough of the action. Just ask junior offensive lineman Aderious Simmons, who was climbed like a jungle gym by kids who hoped the players would never leave.

Before they did leave, Szakacsy gave heartfelt thanks to his teammates.

“I can’t tell you how grateful I am for them,” he said.

Then his attention was turned to the children from a community that has welcomed his sincere involvement with open arms.

“Any dreams that you have, you can make those real,” Szakacsy told the campers. “There’s no difference between us. We all bleed red.”

As the camp wrapped up, Nosie’s eyes welled with tears as he reflected on a special day for his community, one he and Szakacsy hope will be have a lasting effect.

“I think we’ve learned something, and it’s going to go along with what we all bring to the table,” Nosie said. “Samson’s listening. And by listening he’s found how he can make a difference.”

Reach the reporter at nkosmide@asu.edu



Former ASU wrestler Cain Velasquez is the next in line to face Brock Lesnar, pictured, with the UFC Heavyweight Championship up for grabs. (MCT)

It’s certainly not an opportunity I’d be yearning for, but Cain Velasquez is licking his chops.

That’s because the two All-American wrestler at ASU has the chance win the UFC Heavyweight Championship and the unofficial title of “Baddest Man on the Planet” that accompanies it.

The only problem?

Half-man, half-beastly animal Brock Lesnar stands in the way.

After holding off an early onslaught from latest challenger Shane Carwin, Lesnar, whose dimensions are incomparable to any human I’ve ever seen, will now look to defend his shiny title belt against Velasquez, who holds a professional record of 8-0, on Oct. 23 in Anaheim, Calif.

Unlike me, Velasquez isn’t plagued by the fear of being punched by a fist packing the power of the hadron collider, and, as a result, has the opportunity to put ASU on the map in a sport that is seeing a growing amount of former Sun Devils join its ranks.

Former ASU grapplers Ryan Bader, C.B. Dollaway and Aaron Simpson — also an assistant coach in Tempe for nine seasons — are among a growing group making a living in mixed-martial arts.

UFC is providing, as current ASU wrestler Bubba Jenkins pointed out last month, a future for collegiate wrestlers who previously were largely unable to use their talents to make money professionally.

“A lot of guys that are doing [the UFC] are really good wrestlers,” Jenkins said. “What intrigues me about it is that wrestlers can now pick a sport and go professional with it with just the basics of what they know already.”

The fever for MMA locally could grow even hotter if Velasquez becomes the first former Sun Devil to win a UFC title.

Here’s hoping he can avoid some of those bruising blows.