Former UA standout Dominic Johnson has cleared 18 feet 10 inches and thinks 19 feet is possible. He's still training even as he considers life after pole vaulting.

Aaron J. Latham / ARIZONA DAILY STAR 1999

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UA and Amphitheater High School grad Dominic Johnson returned from his third Olympiad a few weeks ago full of uncertainty about the rest of his life.

"I've been training (in the pole vault) for the Olympics ever since I left high school," said Johnson, 32, who competed for his native St. Lucia in Beijing. "I talked to a lot of the Olympians in China and many of them face the same questions that I face."

Johnson earned a UA degree in anthropology. He is married with two young daughters. In order to make ends meet while training, he has remodeled older houses and worked in the landscaping industry.

What comes after the Olympics is a lifestyle/financial issue that confronts almost all Olympians whose names aren't Michael Phelps. In other words, how do you find a real job after 15 years as a basically unpaid athlete?

"I've applied to the International Olympic Committee for a position in the Olympic Solidarity Program in Lausanne, Switzerland, which is basically helping younger athletes get scholarships," said Johnson. "And I'm looking into the possibility of returning to St. Lucia to work in the ministry of sports, among other things."

Yet Johnson believes he still has his best pole vaulting years ahead; he has cleared 18 feet 10 inches and thinks 19 feet or more is possible. He continues to train with UA coach Sheldon Blockburger and two-time NCAA decathlon champion Jake Arnold.

"Ironically, a few years ago I was invited by the IOC to Switzerland for a conference on the transition of Olympic athletes to life after sports," he said. "And now here I am, in that position myself."

It was typical of the impact he would have here.

Howell went on to play a key role for Fred Enke's vintage UA basketball teams of the late '40s and early '50s, steady 20-game winners that reached the NCAA and NIT tournaments. He set a then-UA single-game school scoring record with 33 points.

His wife, Melba, was seven times the leading Arizona bowler of the year and is in the Pima County Sports Hall of Fame. His son, also named Jack Howell, was a major-league third baseman for the Angels, Padres and Astros over an 11-year career. He is now the Arizona Diamondbacks' minor-league field coordinator.

On Friday night, the elder Howell died here after a long struggle with cancer. He was 79.

"I've read some of my dad's old newspaper clippings. They called him 'Cactus Jack,' " his son said. "He worked for 33 years as an engineer at Hughes before retiring in 1986. He was a terrific human being and a great father and husband."

Services for Howell are pending.

Craig Lefferts was the winning pitcher in Arizona's 1980 College World Series championship game against Hawaii. He went on to pitch in 12 major-league seasons, winning 58 games and saving 101 others. His son, Brady Lefferts, a UA freshman, last week made the final roster for the 2008-09 Arizona Icecats hockey team. "Brady's a fighter," said UA coach Leo Golembiewski, "just like his dad." The elder Lefferts, who lives in Anthem, north of Phoenix, is a minor-league pitching coach in the Oakland A's system. … Former UA assistant golf coach Tom Brill, now a chauffeur in Boise, Idaho, was the caddie for Brendan Todd, who won last week's Utah Open Championship. Brill received $9,000, a 10-percent cut, of Todd's purse. Brill left the UA to become the head golf coach at Boise State 10 years ago. … Tucson golfers Sara Brown, a Salpointe grad, and Alison Walshe, a former UA All-American, are in the LPGA Qualifying School this week in Rancho Mirage, Calif. They had to pay $4,000 for a chance to get one of 30 spots (from a field of 156) to advance to the final stage in December. Brown had a terrific year on the LGPA Futures Tour, with three top-10 finishes. She was No. 22 overall on the money list ($18,829) even though she missed the first six events while completing classwork at Michigan State.

Lute Olson last week offered a UA basketball scholarship to California wing forward Keegan Hornbuckle, a middle-level prospect whose earlier offers came from St. Mary's, Oregon State, Nevada, George Washington, UC-Santa Barbara and Loyola Marymount. In previous years, you would ask, "What is the UA doing recruiting this guy?" Now you just hope Olson's evaluation skills remain sharp enough that he knows something the Top 25 programs that rebuffed Hornbuckle don't . … ASU basketball coach Herb Sendek quietly released the Sun Devils' nonconference schedule for 2008-09 last week, and it makes you scratch your head. It is again lacking in strength and name recognition, the same fiasco that prevented ASU from making last year's NCAA tournament. The RPI-challenged list of opponents includes Mississippi Valley State, Jackson State, Pepperdine, IUPUI, Idaho State, Central Connecticut State, Nebraska and BYU. This year, however, the Sun Devils should be good enough to make the field of 65 without RPI help. … USC has quietly moved ahead of all Pac-10 basketball teams except UCLA in the league's basketball-recruiting pecking order. Coach Tim Floyd's club this weekend is playing host to the type of recruiting talent that used to be on display at McKale Center. The Trojans are getting visits from six Top 40 prospects: Kenny Boynton, Tyler Honeycutt, Noel Johnson, Renardo Sydney, Jordan Hamilton and Jeremy Tyler. They are also entertaining prep junior Josh Smith, ranked No. 1 in the Class of 2010. Not good news for Cal, Washington and Oregon, none of which has been able to establish itself behind UCLA.

A pair of Tucson pitchers, Burlington's Luis Cota of Sunnyside High School and South Bend's Daniel Schlereth of the UA, were pitted against each other in the Midwest League championship series. Burlington won the weather-shortened series 2-0. Although neither pitcher played in the title series, both pitchers helped their teams reach the finals. Cota earned the win with seven innings of one-run ball as the Iowa team beat Cedar Rapids in a division title game last Sunday. Schlereth pitched a perfect inning, striking out two, in the division-clinching game against Dayton. … Here's a name to file for future reference: Alex McMahon. He shot a 2-under 34 for Ironwood Ridge High School last week at Oro Valley Country Club. McMahon moved to Tucson last month from Naples, Fla., where he was considered one of the Southeast's top junior golfers. His father, Michael McMahon, is general manager of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel that will play host to the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championships in February. … Chris Brown, a Salpointe grad who last year helped lead UMass to college soccer's equivalent of the Final Four, got his senior season off to a great start last week. He headed in a goal in the 89th minute to beat Siena 1-0, and also was a key part of a 1-1 tie with 11th-ranked Brown. … Tucson PRCA standouts Cesar de la Cruz and Colter Todd won the Puyallup Pro Rodeo last week in Washington, each collecting $11,827 for their team roping performance. That gives them each $58,333 for the year and moves them into the top 10 standings. The top 16 qualify for the National Finals Rodeo, at which de la Cruz and Todd finished No. 2 last year in Las Vegas.

While building Arizona into an NCAA tournament basketball team and a WAC contender in the 1970s, coach Fred Snowden drew attention for his personality and for a remarkable recruiting ability.

Almost all of the attention went to basketball as Snowden regularly filled McKale Center from the day it opened.

But behind the scenes, his wife, Maya — who died in Los Angeles last week at 71 — made an altogether different impact.

"Maya's personal charity went unrecognized," said the UA's most prominent basketball booster, Tucson bottler George Kalil. "I knew she was sending money back to friends in Detroit, sometimes $500 at a clip, from time to time.

"She helped in the rehabilitation of troubled teenagers from Fort Grant. I know of three of the young men she helped get established, setting them on a more positive path. She had no previous relationship with those kids. She just wanted to help and she didn't seek publicity."

Maya Snowden was buried Thursday at East Lawn Palms Cemetery next to Fred, who died in 1994.

"The Snowden era of UA basketball was wonderful," said Kalil. "They're both gone now, but it was nice to see the people who came to pay respects to Maya and remember how much she and Fred meant to the community."