Sports

HopeKids isn’t in the business of granting sick children one last wish. Instead, the nonprofit strives to make children feel special at every stage of their illness by providing ongoing activities and sending the message that continual hope is the most powerful medicine. Grant Hill hears this message loud and clear; the Phoenix Suns forward volunteers with HopeKids and won the 2008 NBA Sportsmanship Award for his work with the group. Hill donated his time to shoot hoops with HopeKid Robby (pictured above) in May, who said the experience “opened more doors than I could’ve ever asked for.” And that’s all we can ask of someone in Hill’s position. hopekids.org.

 

Coach Charli Turner Thorne has built ASU into one of the premier women’s college basketball programs in the country, leading ASU to seven NCAA tournaments in the past nine years, including the past five seasons. Fans can watch games for less than the cost of a beer at most professional sporting events. General admission tickets are just $7, and group tickets for 15 or more can be had for just $3 each. 480-727-0000, thesundevils.com

 

The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player wears Nikes made from the company’s manufacturing waste, drives a hybrid, stars in APS commercials trying to persuade more customers to use renewable energy and lobbied hard to get the Suns to install solar panels on one of the team’s Downtown parking garages. Nash also has solar panels on his home. Oh, and he recently opened an all-green fitness club in Vancouver, Canada. How about Earth’s MVP instead?

 

The D-backs’ southpaw quit baseball nearly three years ago after his father died. He had to help provide for his family, and he wanted to fulfill a promise to his father: Finish college. Last year, after graduating with a business degree, a friend convinced him to try out for an independent team in his native Illinois, which was where the Diamondbacks, who’d first drafted Zavada in 2006, saw him and re-signed him. He cruised through the minors and made his big-league debut May 21. Go ahead – call it a comeback.

 

Paradise Valley resident and former NFL place kicker Nick Lowery set NFL records. And he’s the first professional athlete to graduate with a master’s from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Today, he focuses his time and energy on public service, particularly in the public interest of children. The Nick Lowery Youth Foundation promotes programs such as Adult Role Models for Youth, Youthfriends, Native Vision and Nation Building for Native Youth. His foundation’s newest program, New Extraordinary Transcendent Leadership, is a program that will use the lessons of native culture to reach out to all at-risk youth. “We know youth respond to encouragement and support as they learn how to be leaders,” he says. “And that’s what we’re really excited about.” nickloweryfoundation.org

 

Largely because he’s been hurt and because Kurt Warner hasn’t been, Matt Leinart has played in nine games and thrown only 141 passes the last two seasons for the Arizona Cardinals. When he signed a six-year contract in 2006 for $14 million guaranteed and up to $50.8 million, he couldn’t possibly have envisioned how little of it he’d actually end up earning. Perhaps that’s why Leinart spent much of the off-season training in mixed martial arts with Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer to prove he can still come in and kick some butt. Until he gets back on the field, he’s officially our favorite clipboard QB.

 

The 2005 Major League Baseball draft may go down as one of the best, and Justin Upton, the No. 1 pick that year, may go down as the best from that draft. Frankly, he may go down as the best of the last 10 drafts. Baseball America rated him as the best 14-year-old in 2002, the best 15-year-old in 2003, and he’s only gotten better. As low as the Arizona Diamondbacks may sink, the insanely talented Upton always is worth the price of admission.

 

The most underappreciated coach in Valley sports landed here in 2006 because, well, it’s not the first time he’s been underappreciated. Herb Sendek led North Carolina State to five NCAA tournaments in 10 seasons, holding his own against North Carolina and Duke and the rest of a very tough Atlantic Coast Conference. Wolfpack boosters still weren’t impressed, so ASU swooped in to show Sendek a little love. He returned the favor, winning a tournament game in just his third season. Forget Phoenix – Sendek may be the most underrated coach in America.