The Doc Wright wrestling tournament wrapped up its 61st annual event last weekend with several East Valley teams like Corona del Sol, Campo Verde, ALA Gilbert North, Casteel, Mesa and Basha making the three-hour drive to northeast Arizona.

It is one of best run tournaments in the state and has developed into a 39-team event.

In the boys tournament Corona del Sol finished second and Desert Ridge was 10th, while on the girls side Campo Verde won it with Red Mountain finishing second and Higley finished 10th.

East Valley champions in the girls tournament were Desert Ridge’s Rebekha Ponce (100), Basha’s Hannah Naccarati-Cholo (120), Campo Verde’s Braylin Hermes (126), Campo Verde’s Rebekha Hodges (132), Eastmark’s Brylee Colwell (138), and Poston Butte’s Rianna Tate (152).

Winning titles in the boys tournament were Corona’s Caden Morris (175) and Desert Ridge 126-pounder Alexander Bermudez, who beat two state champions on the way to the top of the podium,

When the local schools return next year, the competition level and the cool trophies will remain, but the feel of the tournament will be different as the Hartmans and their many family members have run their last Doc Wright.

Justin and Jeff Hartman have decided to take a step back after running the tournament for 27 seasons.

“It’s hard,” said a tearful Jeff after the finals concluded Saturday night. “We feel like we built something special, and stepping away is difficult. It’s time to focus on some other things, but we will keep watching from afar.”

Justin started as tournament director in 1999, and Jeff joined him a year later. It put the tournament into super charge. They’ve wrestled for Winslow, coached at Winslow, have been referees, and now have a company that runs tournaments in and out of Arizona.

The Hartmans have a very good reputation not only as tournament directors, but as ambassadors for wrestling. (Jason P. Skoda/AZPreps365)

It was a 16-team tournament when the Hartmans took over, and since grown to 40 plus teams at times with out of state teams joining the field on the boys side and another 30 on the girls side, which has been around close to a decade.

It doesn’t stop with the brothers as wives, parents, mothers-in-law, and many others contribute to give it the family feel, like the whole town of Winslow contributes to the tournament, the award ceremonies, the hospitality room, and support system.

They’ve let teams stay over night in the gym, supplied wrestling shotes, eat in the Winslow cafeteria and anything else they could do save a team or individuals money.

It’s a complete family affair, including Jeff’s wife Jackie, and mother-in-law Debbie Martinez, and anyone who happened to find themselves in the gym that weekend were brought into the famly circle.

“Once we got a team here and they saw how good the hospitality room was plus how we pride ourselves on getting everyone out early Saturday they usually stayed,” Jeff said.

The tournament may have a new director, but the Hartman legacy will always remain imprinted on the Doc Wright tournament.

Doc Wright, the man

The tournament started out as the Winslow Invitational but switched to the Doc Wright in 1972 after athletic director Myron G. Wright, who originally organized the event, passed away.

Wright was a teacher, football, and basketball coach at the junior high and high school level in the Winslow district before becoming the athletic director.

He was nicknamed Doc because there also happened to be a popular local physician named Dr. Myron G. Wright in the area at the time.

First of three??

The Hamilton and Perry girls basketball teams entered Thursday’s action 20-1 combined in regular season games as Premier Region play begins to heat up.

The first of two regular season games takes place Monday at Perry with the Huskies ranked No. 1 and Perry No. 3 in state rankings.

They will meet again Feb. 6 and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the two teams meet late in the postseason as well.

“It’s one of those where there is so much familiarity because they play each other over summer and club so they all know each other,” Hamilton coach Trevor Neider said. “It’s going to be a good. We know each well, although they have a new coach so it should be interesting.”

Darren Fenn took over the Perry program from Andrew Curtis, who left to coach at BYU after going 157-92 in nine seasons, and inherited a team ready to compete from the start after finishing as the 6A runner-up in the 2023-24 season and qualified for The Open last year before losing to Hamilton in the 6A quarterfinals.

The Huskies lead the series 21-6 in the MaxPreps era, but Perry won the first regular season meeting last year.

Perry is led by senior Bella Burcar at 11.8 points along with 1.8 assists, and 2.2 steals, and senior Novelle McQuiston at 10.1 points and 7.7 rebounds a game.

Hamilton, which won the 6A state title last year, is led by Sage Henry at 21.2 points, and 6.5 rebounds, while sophomore Destinee Benway averages 19.0 points, 5.1 points, 2.3 assists and 2.2 steals.

Coaching carousel

There will be several new football coaches in the fall in the East Valley.

• Scooter Molander returns to Eastmark where he won a 3A state title in 2022. He has coached several other places including Brophy and Desert Vista. He was the offensive coordinator at Queen Creek in recent years.
• Arizona College Prep is looking for a new coach after Derek Zellner stepped down after going 9-3.
• Miles Smith, who coached in the NFL with his father Lovie, is the new coach for Desert Ridge, which went 0-10 under Jeremy Beamon.
• Seton Catholic selected Matt Hanshaw, the offensive coordinator at Pinnacle, as head coach to replace Pete Wahlhiem.
• Jeremy Hathcock is taking over Perry after Joe Ortiz resigned. Hathcock has been successful at Desert Ridge, Blue Ridge, Verrado and Mesa over the last two decades.

Nationally known

Westwood coach Meg Bowman and Sandra Day O'Connor coach Jamey Spartz have been named the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) National Coaches of the Year for Unified Sports and Girls Volleyball, respectively, for the 2024-25 school year.

Both coaches beat out seven other national finalists representing their programs from around the country for this honor.

Bowman believes a coach’s most important task is to teach character and build relationships.

As a Unified Sports coach in several sports at Westwood in Mesa, she has proven to have a lasting impact on her students. Under Bowman’s leadership, Westwood’s Unified Sports teams have state championships in girls track and field and basketball.

However, her five years as the school’s Unified badminton coach have expanded her influence on her students. Bowman was selected as head coach of the Special Olympics Arizona team to compete in the Special Olymics USA Games in 2026.

She also led five badminton teams to qualify for the state tournament, finishing as runner-up helping Westwood earn a spot on the ESPN Honor Roll for Unified Champion Schools in 2023. Bowman was named Westwood High School Coach of the Year in 2023 and Special Olympics Arizona Coach of the Year in 2025.