Don Ketchum, a talented sports writer who covered Arizona's prep scene during his 40-plus year career, died Wednesday afternoon.

Ketchum was battling a recent health issue. He was 69.

For the past 10 years he worked at Xavier Prep, highlighting the successes of its sports programs. Sister Lynn Winsor, the school’s athletic director, and Xavier staff members Thuhashini Selvaratnam and Susan Contreras visited Ketchum while he was in the hospital this week.

They hung up posters signed by Xavier’s athletes in his room.

“This is really sad, because Don was really a good guy,” Sister Lynn said. “He loved his days with (The Arizona Republic) and (azpreps365.com), but I believe he loved his days with Xavier Prep the most. He was with the kids all of the time. We lost a wonderful member of our Xavier Prep family. Our sympathy goes out to his wife Carol and his family.”

Don Ketchum, standing behind Xavier Prep's athletic director Sister Lynn Winsor, covered the state's most dominant high school athletic program for girls for the past 10 years. Photo by Jose Garcia/azpreps365.comKetchum’s sports writing career began with The Arizona Republic in 1978 and continued with azpreps365.com before landing at Xavier.

He also worked for The Phoenix Gazette, where he served as a high school sports editor. In 2008, Ketchum joined the AIA as one of its first staff writers for azpreps365.com.

“Don helped the AIA start a new adventure of running a dedicated high school sports website,” said Brian Bolitho, the AIA’s chief business development officer. “His contributions and dedication helped shaped the success of azpreps365.com as it is today. He will surely be missed.”

During his tenure with the AIA’s high school sports fan website, Ketchum posted more than 1,200 stories.

Don Ketchum (far right) covered many professional sporting events during his career. But covering high school sports was also very important to the very talented writer. In the photo above, Ketchum is interviewing the late, great Paul Moro of Blue Ridge in 2012 along with former azcentral colleagues Jason Skoda (in red) and Richard Obert. Photo by Todd Shurtleff/maxprepsWhile at The Arizona Republic, Ketchum became the first Arizona Diamondbacks beat reporter for the state’s biggest paper.

But he was never too far from one of his passions, prep sports.

“We will truly miss him,” Sister Lynn said.