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THE SUNDAY SANTAN SUN NEWS | APRIL 24, 2022
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New Casteel girls basketball coach upbeat BY ZACH ALVIRA Sports Editor
Basketball was the way of life for Ryan Whitehorse growing up in Page, a small northern Arizona town near Lake Powell and the Utah border. He grew up playing in youth leagues before enrolling at Page High School where he excelled on the court. He would routinely play in front of thousands, as high school basketball in northern Arizona and its reservations draw large crowds for just about every game. He grew up with a winning culture and carried that on when he began coaching the girls team at Page once his playing career was over. Whitehorse found success in that position, too. But now, after five years leading the Lady Sand Devils and a year away to work toward a degree in nursing while living in the Valley, he’s ready to share that culture with Casteel High School as the new girls’ basketball coach. “Going into Page, the program’s success and culture was already built,” Whitehorse said. “My job was to continue it. Casteel is a newer school. I want to be able to build that same culture we had from Page. “It’s starting already with the coaching staff. We want to expose the girls to that style of basketball by incorporating the fundamentals.”
Left: Ryan Whitehorse, who led the Page girls’ basketball team to three state championships and five total appearances in the big game, has been hired to lead the Casteel girls’ basketball program. Right: Whitehorse grew up in Page, a small town near Lake Powell and the Utah border. He coached there for five seasons before moving to the Valley to finish his degree in nursing. Now after a year, he aims to get back into it at Casteel, a school two conferences higher than where he used to coach. (Courtesy Ryan Ridenour)
Whitehorse has been living in Phoenix for a year while attending the University of Arizona. While his primary focus was his education, he quickly began to miss coaching. He thought about routes he could take to get back in the game but wasn’t sure which was best for him. Then the job at Casteel opened.
He admits it was a “let’s go for it” moment. He didn’t expect much but hoped to at least land an interview to get a chance at impressing school Athletic Director Ryan Ridenour and the rest of the hiring committee. He did that, and more. He was publicly named head coach April 4. “We started this process two
months ago. I’ve met with multiple candidates and each of them multiple times,” Ridenour said. “Each time, he’s shown why he has been successful, and I think it is going to translate. It’s a different culture, here versus there, but at the same time, the things he speaks See
WHITEHORSE on page 30
Catarina ‘CC’ Maccagnano preparing for Elite 11 showcase BY ZACH ALVIRA Sports Editor
Football has become a way of life for Hamilton sophomore Catarina “CC” Maccagnano. She grew up listening to her father, Mike, share stories of his time at Glendale Community College. She’s been there as he continued his football career in a semi-professional setting with the Phoenix Phantoms, an adult team currently playing in the Arizona Cactus Football League held at Bell Bank Park in Mesa. She’s become part of the team herself and has absorbed the terminology and everything else that comes with the game. “With me playing and her being around me and my family, it helps her out and she learned a lot about the game,” Mike said. “It’s a part of our family. It’s something that she has sort of grown up naturally with. “She works extremely hard. I’m proud of her.” While football has always been there, so has softball. It was her first love as she played on various club teams in the East Valley and now plays junior varsity at Hamilton. There was a time where she thought
Hamilton sophomore Catarina “CC” Maccagnano will be the only girl representing Arizona at Elite 11 in Las Vegas, a showcase for high school quarterbacks that has added girls’ flag football to the mix as the sport continues to grow across the country. (Dave
Minton/Staff)
softball would be her future. But an opportunity in football presented itself last year with the Chandler Unified School District launching girls’ flag football programs at all of its schools.
CC was skeptical at first and didn’t join until this season. Her throwing mechanics were so in tune with softball that she struggled with a football. But she continued to work not only with
her father but her younger brother, Mike III, who is a freshman at Hamilton. She also worked with head flag football coach Matt Stone. It took some convincing from Stone, but CC eventually gave in and went out for the team. It’s now opened a new realm of possibilities as the sport continues to grow. “It took a little convincing but now I’m here and I love it,” CC said. “Even though I’m going back and forth (with softball), I love playing football. There’s so much competition in softball and in football I feel that I’m different from everyone else. “Here, I feel like I can shine a little bit. Then with the Elite 11 opportunity, I knew I had to focus on this a little bit.” CC was one of two girls from Arizona invited to compete in the Elite 11 regionals in Las Vegas. On May 1, she will join other girls from around the Western region in a showcase for female high school flag football players. They will go through various footwork and throwing drills while competing for accolades from the camp’s staff. It’s also likely that college coaches will be in attendance as more and more schools are beginning to offer scholarSee
ELITE11 on page 30
