Palo Verde was on pace to beat the once-proud Santa Rita basketball program, 124-0.

It was far beyond sad. Santa Rita dressed only his six players for this match. Cedric Martin’s club is 0-12 this season, averaging 72-31 per game. Surprisingly, the final score on Monday was 73-31.

Playing in the smaller Class 2A division, Santa Rita has lost games evenly skewed to Morenci, Benson, Wilcox and Bisbee.

“It’s challenging. It’s really hard to compete,” says Tony Gabusi, Santa Rita’s athletic director who knows how the other side lives. He has an illustrious career coaching USA Baseball and coaching Arizona Hall of Fame coach Jerry Kindall.

we will do our best. That’s all we can do,” says Gabusi. “It’s up to me and the coaches to be a good example for the kids, to never give up and to keep encouraging them. But it’s hard. It’s just tough.”

It wasn’t always like this in Santa Rita.

From 1980 to 1986, Santa Rita won eight state championships in baseball, track, women’s basketball and cross country. His TUSD school on the far southeast side produced NBA player Dave Feitl and perhaps the greatest women’s basketball player in Tucson history, Paula Piers.

From 1999 to 2010, it can be argued that Santa Rita’s men’s basketball program was the best in Tucson. Coach Jim Ferguson has led the Eagles to his five state championships in his 11 years, winning them all in 1999 and 2010.

And demographics began to change. Santa Rita has his one win in the men’s basketball season, going 24-84 since 2017. The Eagles’ women’s basketball team has suffered her 11-171 loss streak over eight seasons.

Student numbers at Santa Rita High School have dropped from 1,700 to about 450. One wing of the school was closed. Football His program, recently led by state championship coaches Richard Sanchez (Sunnyside) and Tom Joseph (Mesa Mountain View), saw Jeff Skalen beat the Eagles in his 2008 and his 2009 state championship games. Since I coached them, they’ve gone 11-88-1.

Santa Rita had to withdraw from eight football games last fall because they didn’t have enough players.

From 2012 to 2015, Tucson Conquistador Joe Hickle eagerly replaced Ferguson as Santa Rita’s basketball coach as tournament chairman of the 2024 PGA Tour Champions Coroguard Classic.

Hickl could not have imagined that Santa Rita would be embarrassed from 40 years of sporting importance and at the beginning of an unexpected downfall.

“Everything got worse,” he recalls. “I had three of his athletic directors and two of his principals in his four years. I had to get rid of the freshman team because we didn’t have enough kids. First he I was exhausted after four months.”

His first team lost 1-24, but he fought back. In retrospect, Hickl’s last three seasons (36-43) have been very successful considering what has changed in the last decade.

“We didn’t have the money,” says Hickle, who coached Brian Peabody at Pima College from 2016 to 2022 and is now an insurance executive in Tucson. “After road games to Thatcher, Morenci and Safford, we stopped at McDonald’s and ordered from the dollar menu. That’s seriously all we could afford.”

Santa Rita’s decline in high school sports is no one’s fault. The school’s location near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and its sprawling plane “Boneyard” is surrounded by mostly 1960s-built homes. For nearly two decades, there has been little or no population (or business) growth near schools.

This is a key issue that has affected other TUSD schools such as Catalina, Palo Verde and Sabino.

When Santa Rita played Palo Verde on Monday, the antiquated gymnasium crowd could not exceed 75 people. The heating system was not working perfectly. His two players on the Palo Verde bench wore winter jackets during the match.

The 2010 Santa Rita vs. Palo Verde match was a must-see event, and it seemed decades ago when it took place in front of a house filled with nearly 1,000 fans.

“It was a must-see match,” says Hickle. “Standing only”

Santa Rita and Palo Verde met in the state semi-finals that season. The Eagles were led by future Maryland star and ACC leading scorer Terrell Stoglin. Palo Verde’s star power came from point guard Bryce Cotton. Bryce Cotton then went on to become a player in the All-Big He East with Providence, Utah he played for the Jazz and the Phoenix Suns before being named MVP three times in the Australian Pro League.

Stoglins and Cottons are no longer in hard-to-get TUSD schools.

“Kids who used to be in Santa Rita now go to Cienega or Saguaro, or their families move to schools on the northwest side of town,” says Hickle.

When Santa Rita lost 31-0 to Palo Verde on Monday, SRHS coach Martin didn’t crack or lose his composure. At his break in the quarter, Martin could be heard encouraging his six diminutive players, though he could be heard in a lowly attended game.

“Let’s try to win this quarter,” he said. “Let’s show them we’re not smokers.”

Santa Rita has games left for Tombstone, Bisbee, Pima and Willcox, but on the surface it looks like a winnable game. But the Eagles have already lost to those schools, including a forgettable 83-15 game at Pima, a small Graham County high school.

“It can be very emotional, both for the kids and for the coaches,” says Gabusi. “We coach them and try to make it a positive experience. There is nothing more we can do.”