New England linebacker and ex-UA All-American Tedy Bruschi, right, will concentrate this week on playing in his fourth Super Bowl.

Stephan Savoia / The Associated Press 2008

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Arizona's 1993, 1994 and 1995 All-American Tedy Bruschi won't be able to make it to Tucson before Super Bowl XLII, but his family — wife, Heidi, and sons Tedy Jr., Rex and Dante — plan to spend much of the week here with Heidi's family.

Heidi's father, Bill Bomberger, is a physician's assistant in Tucson. Her mother, Victoria Bomberger, is a Tucson real estate executive.

You can pardon Heidi, a former Sahuaro High School and UA volleyball standout, if she is a bit hesitant to return to Glendale, site of the Giants-Patriots Super Bowl.

Bomberger was Sahuaro's top volleyball player when the Cougars reached the 4A state championship matches in 1991 and 1992. Both games were played in Glendale. The Cougars lost both games. Her final high school volleyball game, on Nov. 14, 1992, not only was played in Glendale, but it was a loss to Glendale Cactus High School.

The Bomberger family was steeped in football before Heidi and Tedy met while student-athletes at the UA. Bill was a fullback/kicker on those great Nebraska teams of the late '60s and early '70s. His son, Rex, who died while in high school, was a quarterback at Sahuaro. The Bruschis named their second child after Rex.

Moments after Arizona lost to Purdue in a 2007 first-round NCAA tournament game, Lute Olson vowed to change the way the Wildcats trained.

He then pursued and was successful in getting Neil Rampe to take charge of the UA's strength and conditioning endeavors. Olson was so adamant about Rampe's ability that when the vast Cirque du Soleil operation of Las Vegas tried to hire Rampe last spring, Olson spearheaded a drive to increase Rampe's financial package.

Alas, Rampe's reputation in therapy, strength training and performance enhancement became so well-known that he accepted a position with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He left the UA basketball program on Friday.

"It's a big loss for us,'' said UA volleyball coach Dave Rubio, whose team also trained under Rampe. "But I knew he was destined for bigger things. He had a tremendous impact here.''

Santa Rita High School football coach Jeff Scurran will be going to Indianapolis on Feb. 22 for the NFL Scouting Combine. In conjunction with the gathering of NFL people, Scurran will be honored as the 2007 national high school coach of the year by the Pro Football Strength and Conditioning Society at the Westin hotel. In his first year at Santa Rita, Scurran took charge of an 0-10 team and coached it to an 11-2 record and the 4A-II state semifinals. … After a short-lived career in the NBA's D-League a year ago, former Wildcat guard Chris Rodgers appeared to have a good start on a European career. He signed with Liege, currently in second place in Belgium's EuroLeague. But after starting the first 16 games of the season, averaging 11.7 points and 32 minutes a game, the sometimes controversial Rodgers was released by Liege last week. … It wouldn't be much of a surprise if Miami made contact — or has already made contact — with UA athletic director Jim Livengood as it connects to the soon-to-be-vacant athletic directorship in south Florida. Paul Dee is to retire on June 1; a likely front-runner is Washington Huskies administrator Jeff Compher. Livengood would seem to be a much more attractive possibility.

Last week, I listed 13 sets of Tucson brothers who had received Division I football scholarships. Sabino tight end Lucas Reed, who will sign with New Mexico, and his brother, UA sophomore Brooks Reed, are the latest such combo.

The list now has grown to 16. Former Tucson High School standouts Sean Harris and Lamar Harris were starters during Arizona's Desert Swarm years. And Tucson's Osia Lewis played at Oregon State, and his late brother, Marvin Lewis, signed with USC but later broke his neck in a swimming accident.

In the 1960s, brothers Al and Fernie Mendoza were among the leading athletes in Arizona. Al was a state championship swimmer at Tucson, and later played college football at Wyoming and Arizona. He is now a real estate executive in Boston and Cape Cod, Mass.

Fernie, a state championship wrestler at Salpointe, spurned offers from Nebraska and Michigan State to play football at Arizona. He is now in property management in the Flagstaff area.

Edgar Soto's Pima College baseball team opened its season Friday in Yuma and will play next week in Las Vegas before returning to Tucson. The Aztecs will open at home Feb. 10 with their annual Alumni Game, which features a clinic for players aged 6-15 from 9-11 a.m. It will be followed by a home run derby, an autograph session, a cookout and expected appearances from ex-PCC major-leaguers such as Jack Howell, Gil Heredia, Jason Jacome and former Aztec coaches Rich Alday and Jim Fleming, who now is the assistant general manager of the Florida Marlins. A golf tournament and dinner are also scheduled. Information: 206-6005. … Tony McAndrews, who was part of Lute Olson's coaching staffs at Iowa and Arizona (1989-94), is now the coach of the Pope John Paul II High School team in Boca Raton, Fla. He spent the last few seasons coaching small-college Nova Southeastern near Boca Raton. … Tucsonan Larry Smith, Arizona's football coach from 1980 to 1986, has been at Northwest Hospital in Tucson suffering from both leukemia and lymphoma. He is a world-class human being who is battling for his life. If you believe in the power of prayer, the former USC, Missouri and Tulane coach can use your help.

Much was made — too much, perhaps — when Arizona signed pass rusher Louis Holmes, rated by some recruiting services as the No. 1 junior college football prospect of 2005.

Holmes had two unproductive seasons at Arizona and was involved in off-field disciplinary issues. Coach Mike Stoops is again recruiting the nation's No. 1 JC prospect, pass rusher Simi Kuli, who is making a recruiting visit to the UA this weekend.

Kuli, who initially committed to Nebraska, has reneged on that promise and has since visited Kansas State, Oregon State and now Arizona. He is a 6-foot-4-inch, 270-pounder from Hawthorne, Calif., who played last season at El Camino (Calif.) College.

Stoops and his staff are in the final stages of the recruiting season. Super Prep magazine, the best of its kind, ranks four of the high school players committed to Arizona among the Top 100 in California/Hawaii: No. 11, cornerback Robert Golden of Fresno; No. 15, defensive tackle Solomon Koehler of Honolulu; No. 38, quarterback Matt Scott, of Corona, Calif.; and No. 62, running back Keola Antolin of Las Vegas.

That is not exactly a breakout year of recruiting, although if Scott is as good as projected, the rankings will not matter much. Super Prep maintains that Arizona is getting spanked in-state, landing no better than the state's No. 19 prospect, lineman Chris Merrill of Scottsdale Saguaro.

Stoops is attempting to improve his local recruiting. He has already offered a scholarship to Ironwood Ridge junior linebacker Jake Fischer, who is likely to be one of the state's handful of marquee players in the fall. Fischer, a good student, also has been offered a scholarship by Colorado. Coach Gary Minor's standout is also getting attention from, among others, Nebraska, Northwestern, Stanford and Boston College.

Fischer was the UA's guest at Saturday's Arizona-Washington basketball game.

Because of a change in the NCAA baseball calendar, Arizona coach Andy Lopez opens practice this week. It is almost a month after the traditional starting date.

Lopez's team is ranked No. 1 by Collegiate Baseball and by the Perfect Game scouting organization. The Wildcats are No. 2 in the Baseball America poll and No. 5 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll.

The Pac-10 figures to be ridiculously tough. Arizona State is No. 1 in the writers' poll, and UCLA is No. 1 in Baseball America rankings. Oregon State, two-time defending NCAA champion, is ranked as high as No. 7.

Arizona overflows with pitching resources. Its batting order quietly became better — much better — when Lopez added Yavapai College third baseman Dillon Baird over the summer. Using wood bats, Baird led the ACCAC with 10 home runs last year. He was the home run derby champion in the college summer league at Wenatchee, Wash. In four games against Pima College last spring, Baird hit .438 with two homers and eight RBIs.

Baird is a left-handed hitter, which should make the middle of the order, which includes standout righty C.J. Ziegler, imposing.

One of the casualties of the revamped baseball season is that Arizona will not stage its traditional All-Pro Alumni Game early next month. The Wildcats instead will prepare for their Feb. 22 opener at Georgia.

There has not been this much buzz about a UA baseball season since 1989. It would be a surprise (and a disappointment) if the attendance for Pac-10 games at Kindall/Sancet Stadium do not often exceed 2,000.