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After a week off from USA Softball's interminable, six-month, Bound for Beijing pre-Olympics Tour, UA coach Mike Candrea embarks today on his final testing period — eight states in 20 days, from Oregon to Virginia and to California — before leaving for China on July 28.

Candrea turns 53 next month, and I remember him telling me a decade ago that he "couldn't see himself coaching'' when he was 50.

Asked last week by the Daily Oklahoman if he expects to be coaching in five years, he said: "I don't know. I've been doing this for a long time, and it's been great to me. But on the other hand, there comes a time when I want to be able to enjoy life and maybe have a chance at helping the game grow."

His team has been so dominant on this tour, 51-1 overall, that in recent weeks Candrea has periodically instructed the opponent's leadoff batter to start the inning at first base so his team can work to sharpen its defensive situational instincts. Who else would have thought of that?

By the time Candrea retires from coaching, be it at Arizona or on the national level, he will have been the most significant force in the game's arrival as a mainstream college and age-group sport. His legacy is assured.

Over time, Sahuaro High School senior Caitlin Leverenz will get past the hurt of her maddeningly close pursuit of a berth on the USA Olympic swimming team.

In a few weeks, she will understand how much she accomplished by finishing third, fourth and fourth in three events at the trials. By 2012, she projects to be a marquee swimmer on the USA team in London. She has her pick of the nation's top college swimming programs awaiting her signature, and it seems a safe guess that she will not swim at Arizona.

Leverenz is not the first local swimmer to miss the Olympic team by an eyelash. In 1992 and 1996, UA grad Seth Pepper finished, respectively, third and fourth in the 100 butterfly by .02 of a second and .07 of a second.

"I did, however, experience everything else a swimmer could ever dream of," Pepper said last week, including an NCAA title and being ranked as high as No. 4 in the world.

How did he turn out? Pepper earned a degree in psychology, became a successful model for Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger and has worked in the media/movie production industry in Southern California and in the real estate market in Southern Arizona.

College basketball recruiting season officially launches today and runs through the month. To his credit, Lute Olson has adapted to the new way of acquiring players. At the Top 25 level, players are fluid. More to the point, they are temps. Thus, expect to see associate head coach Mike Dunlap recruiting exclusively in Europe and Australia this month.

Dunlap is probably a step ahead of the game in international recruiting. His final Metro State team in Denver included players from Lithuania, Australia and Mali.

He had four Division II All-Americans at Metro State, and three of them were Lee Barlow and Mark Worthington of Australia and Patrick Mutombo of Belgium.

The trouble with recruiting foreign players is that you do not get to evaluate them in person as much as American players. Ivan Radenovic is the best foreign player to suit up for Arizona. Most of the rest, including Marty Barmentloo, Mohamed Tangara and Robertas Javtokas, were busts, either via their performance or by departing because they failed to make the adjustment to American life. Daniel Dillon was a career sub, and it does not make any sense to recruit an Australian (or foreign) player to sit on your bench.

Two of the Mount Rushmore figures from Tucson high school sports coaching, Dick McConnell and Vern Friedli, were together last week in Colorado Springs, Colo. They were inducted into the National High School Athletics Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Combined, Friedli and McConnell have won more than 1,075 games in Arizona. McConnell retired last October; Friedli will return to Amphitheater this year. At the ceremony, 41 coaches from 27 states were enshrined by the NHSACA. … While a student at the UA, Esko Mikkola won the NCAA javelin championship. Since then, he has really distinguished himself. After receiving his doctorate from the UA in electrical engineering in May, Mikkola applied for the European version of NASA in an attempt to become an astronaut. Last week he learned he has been chosen from a field of about 20,000 applicants to be one of 200 finalists for the program. In the meantime, Mikkola has the world's 11th-best throw in the javelin this year as he works toward the Beijing Olympics. … It was insensitive for former UA All-American Amanda Beard to wear a UCLA Bruins swim cap at the Olympic trials this week. It was during her five years at the UA that her career was revived, putting her in position to be a wealthy young woman. She is a good kid, and probably did not understand it was perceived as a slight to her former school, but someone should have told her.

I love Mike Stoops' decision to spend four days of August training camp in Fort Huachuca, a place where his squad will have a chance to bond and come together much more than at the dreary, day-after-day existence at the Rincon Vista facility. Plus, it's considerably less hot in Sierra Vista and the camp will get more media and fan attention than at any time during his UA years. … Twenty and 30 years from now, Tucsonans will reflect on the running career of Abdi Abdirahman with amazement. He has quietly qualified for his third straight USA Olympic team, winning national title upon national title. He is a stud. … In the 1990s, left-hander Mike Crawford won 32 career games as a Salpointe Catholic pitcher, most in Tucson prep history. He became a successful pitcher for Jerry Stitt at Arizona and then went into coaching at Pima College, Cochise College and Yavapai College. Last week, he was hired as a Division I pitching coach at Utah. Well deserved. … NBC sports broadcaster Dan Hicks, a Sabino High School and UA grad, went from the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines to the Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, Neb. While watching the morning preliminaries Wednesday, he wore an "Arizona Athletics'' T-shirt.

Here is one of the most encouraging stories of the year: Tucsonan Joe Kay, who suffered a major stroke after making a winning basket in a Tucson High School-Salpointe Catholic basketball game 4 1/2 years ago, has become bullish on life. Although still somewhat physically impaired, the indefatigable Kay is working a summer fellowship in Barack Obama's presidential campaign. He will work in Washington, D.C., in a government internship in the fall semester and then move to Berlin, Germany, to study and work after Christmas. He expects to earn his Stanford degree in June. … E-mail of the week comes from UA grad ('65) Steve Sutherland, a Tucson businessman involved in various age-group softball tournaments of a national scope, including the ongoing Triple Crown World Series in Park City, Utah, a tournament that includes a dozen Tucson teams. He has been a UA basketball season-ticket holder for 20 years and does not like the one-and-done trend, a la Jerryd Bayless. Sutherland wrote in an e-mail Thursday: "I am tired of hearing about Brandon Jennings and others like him. I do not want a single new player that talks about anything other than staying four years and getting an education. I pay $5,000 a year to see the troubled basketball program we have had the past few years. I would love to continue to pay the $5,000 just for the hope of a possible 20-win season, finishing in the top four in the Pac-10 and having a chance to go to The Dance every year. Maybe one or two seniors might even get drafted. Let's have some fun again.'' Well said, Mr. Sutherland. … A year ago today, Sabino High grad J.J. Hardy was headed to the All-Star Game as a National League shortstop. But the Milwaukee Brewers' standout is having a better run now. In the last 10 games he has gone 21 for 42 (.500), with five homers and 11 RBIs to boost his season batting average to .289. Last year he finished at .272. … Aaron and Stacey Nymeyer, parents of Tucson Olympic swimmer Lacey Nymeyer, plan a welcome home celebration for their daughter Monday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Mountain View High School. The public is invited.

Entering today's final events in the Olympic trials, swimmers trained by Tucson coaches Frank Busch, Franz Resseguie, Rick DeMont, Greg Rhodenbaugh, Roric Fink and Augie Busch have produced an amazing 18 top-10 finishes.

The depth of swimming in Tucson goes beyond that. In addition to the top 10s, there were another 17 swims from Tucson-affiliated athletes to make the semifinals (top 16).

And on top of that are 12 foreign-born swimmers training at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center who have already qualified for the Olympics. Tucson used to be a baseball town, then it became a basketball town. Now, by force and results, it is a softball-swimming town.

If sizzling UA junior Lara Jackson, who set a short-lived American record in the 50 freestyle Saturday, makes the Olympic team tonight, Busch would be a near-lock to be added to the Olympic team coaching staff to help coach Nymeyer, Jackson and Matt Grevers.