Coffee with Coaches
Coffee with Coaches
Mar 21, 2022
Every quarter, we host ASU coaching staff for a “Coffee with Coaches” event to learn more about Sun Devil Athletics and the fantastic student athletes we get to see in sporting events all year long. In early December, we hosted Women’s Basketball Coach Charli Turner Thorne and Hockey Coach Greg Powers.
In her 25th season at ASU, Coach Turner Thorne is the winningest coach in ASU women’s basketball history and No. 2 in the Pac-12 for career wins (476). Under her leadership, ASU women’s basketball has qualified for the postseason all but one year since 2001, including a school record of six consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances (2014-19), two Elite Eight appearances, and three Sweet 16 finishes.
Coach Powers is in his 14th overall season on the Sun Devil Coaching Staff and his seventh as head coach of ASU’s NCAA Division I hockey program. Coach Powers talked about how he guided the Sun Devil hockey program through an unprecedented all-road schedule in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic which he described as a unifying experience for the team.
In early February, ASU Wrestling Coach Zeke Jones joined a group of Mirabella residents for breakfast to talk about the ASU wrestling program, which attracts world champions and Olympic hopefuls because of its unique partnership with the Sunkist Wrestling Club in Phoenix. This partnership ensures support for student athlete success in the sport even beyond graduation.
Coach Jones is a multi-time world champion; NCAA champion; ASU graduate, and at the time of his hire, was the sitting coach for the United States Olympic Team.
Wrestling is expanding its fan base, particularly because it will soon be housed at the new ASU multipurpose arena on the east end of campus along with hockey and gymnastics (where the Arizona Coyotes will also play).
Mirabella residents and Coach Jones brainstormed how they could educate more residents about the sport: how it’s scored, what to watch for in games, etc. A group of 8 residents went to see the Sun Devil wrestlers take on Stanford.
Residents cheered on the ASU women’s basketball team v. University of Arizona at Desert Financial Arena. This is an important historical rivalry. Prior to the game, we participated in a special “Chalk Talk” event with coaching staff at the beautiful Desert Arboretum Park to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of both teams. Two of the residents who attended are University of Arizona grads and wore their red and blue gear, but we think they’ll be donning maroon and gold soon enough!
