Michael Thompson signed a sponsorship contract with Ping that could be worth as much as $500,000. Thompson became a pro golfer last month.

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After coaching Ironwood Ridge High School to the 4A-I state championship game in 2007, Karl Pieroway resigned to pursue a career at an athletic-performance training center on Tucson's far Northwest Side, among other things.

The training center has since closed, and Pieroway has returned to teaching, at Wilson junior high and middle school, and has become the new men's basketball coach at Pima Community College.

How's this for a challenge: PCC has gone 23-111 the last five seasons.

"We've been in the gym most of the summer and we had a mass tryout that attracted 120 players,'' Pieroway said. "Right now we've got 18 guys and we have to get down to 15. But we're always looking for ballplayers.''

Part of restoring PCC basketball to health requires finances that Pieroway doesn't have. He says the locker room facilities are "so bad that we are desperate.''

Changing the culture of Pima College men's basketball will require not just coaching acumen, timely recruiting and hard work, but also some significant fundraising.

"Obviously, we have our hands full; men's basketball in the ACCAC can really bring it to you every night,'' Pieroway said. "We've got a lot of work to do and we're just getting started. We plan to make this a program the community can rally behind.''

Tucson golfer Michael Thompson, runner-up at the 2007 U.S. Amateur, turned pro in late July. He has five exemptions available on the PGA and Nationwide tours if he can persuade a sponsoring group to give him one before he goes to the second stage of Qualifying School in mid-November.

The Rincon/University High School and Alabama grad signed a sponsorship deal with Ping, which is often worth as much as $500,000 to a high-profile young golfer such as Thompson. He also was signed to endorse Titleist and has agreed to be represented by the Los Angeles-based Wasserman Media Group, which will conduct his marketing and business affairs.

The Wasserman group represents, among others, Chase Utley, Brandon Roy and many of the USA's leading female soccer stars.

Had Thompson been a pro when he played in the U.S. Open and the follow-up Traveler's Championship, he would have earned $63,000.

Arizona 2007 All-Pac-10 linebacker Spencer Larsen had an emotional start to his NFL career. His 3-year-old niece drowned in a Chandler backyard swimming pool on July 26. Her funeral and the birth of Larsen's second child, Gunnar, both took place Aug. 1 in Chandler. After missing six workouts with the Denver Broncos, Larsen opened his career Saturday against Houston — as a backup fullback. He also played linebacker. … Former UA shortstop Jason Donald went 0 for 14 on the USA Olympic baseball team's exhibition tour that took it to Beijing. It is now uncertain if he will start when Olympic baseball competition begins Wednesday against South Korea. … Here's a streak the UA would like to end: Team physician Don Porter wore a 1998 Culligan Holiday Bowl cap — Arizona vs. Nebraska — to football workouts last week. Once, collecting UA bowl game caps was a busy affair. From 1989 to 1998, Porter would have acquired seven such caps.

In addition to coaching Tucson-affiliated swimmers Lacey Nymeyer, Amanda Beard and Matt Grevers at the Olympics, UA coach Frank Busch has been given the daily responsibility of coaching USA freestyle sprinters Cullen Jones and Ben Wildman-Tobringer. That's so ironic. It is Jones and Wildman-Tobringer who will try to beat longtime Busch pupil Roland Schoeman of South Africa in the 50 freestyle and the 4x100 relay, which is an all-Arizona Wildcats team coached by Busch's assistant, Rick DeMont. … After sitting on the bench for most of last season in Girona, Spain, averaging 5.3 points per game, former UA power forward Ivan Radenovic is moving to a new job. Radenovic last week signed with Greece's Panellinios Athens, the fifth best team in the top Greek pro league last year. Radenovic was released from his Spain contract when his team had difficulty meeting payroll. … Good news for those worried about the preparation of the new Ritz-Carlton Golf Club for February's WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. The grassing and construction of the course is complete. Club officials have scheduled a Jan. 17, 2009, grand opening, about a month before Year 3 of the WGC event in Tucson/Marana. More worrisome is the rehab of defending champion Tiger Woods' knee.

Look for UA football team to fill a nonconference schedule date for 2009 with Central Michigan. That would give the UA pre-Pac-10 home games against NAU and CMU, and a trip to Iowa. It would behoove the Wildcats to schedule a (winnable) home-and-home series against a Texas school, Rice or Houston, perhaps. The Wildcats have 22 Texans on their roster this year. The trouble with getting someone like Rice or Houston to agree to a series is that they are not financially blessed and would seek close to $1 million out of the deal. … The Oakland Athletics have until Friday to sign UA third baseman Brad Glenn, a 17th-round draft pick, and pitcher Preston Guilmet, a 22nd-round choice. If not, they will return to Arizona for their senior seasons and dramatically change and upgrade the outlook of Andy Lopez's 2009 team. The A's have signed 18 of their first 22 draft choices and are likely to take a final run at Glenn and Guilmet this week. … Former UA receiver/returner Syndric Steptoe, who spent the 2007 season on the Cleveland Browns' practice squad, has been taking reps with the Browns starters in training camp. He is projected as part of the Browns' opening day roster. … Keep UA jersey No. 42 in mind this season. It belongs to former Sabino High School linebacker Brooks Reed, who is now a 263-pound sophomore pass rusher who has impressed virtually everyone at training camp. If all goes well, Reed projects as a three-year starter.

UA 1983 Hall of Fame linebacker Ricky Hunley will return to Tucson on Oct. 3 to be honored by the Southern Arizona Chapter of the College Football Foundation and Hall of Fame. The dinner will be held at Tucson Convention Center and will also honor former UA football coach Jim LaRue for his contributions to college football. LaRue is retired and living here. Hunley is not coaching this year for the first time since his NFL career ended in 1990. … Pima College women's basketball coach Todd Holthaus is bringing Olympic gold medalist and WNBA standout Jennifer Azzi to Tucson for a clinic/presentation Sept. 21 at the PCC west campus. Young female basketball players wishing to participate can contact Holthaus at 206-6709. Azzi's production is titled "Taking Your Game to the Next Level.'' … At the end of July, Canyon del Oro grad Ryan Hietala had won just $14,000 on the Nationwide Tour. But by winning last week's event in Omaha, Neb., he was paid $126,000. Before Omaha, Hietala's wife, Boise State grad Jennifer Hietala, had recently gone back to work as a speech pathologist to help support the family. In 2007, Hietala was on the PGA Tour, but he struggled and earned $31,707 while missing the cut in 12 of 23 events. Now he can regain his PGA Tour card by moving up from 26th on the current money list to a spot in the season-ending top 25. UA grad Ricky Barnes is 28th.

Two years ago, Tucson resident D.J. Carrasco was pitching for the Fukuoka Hawks in Japan and spending his winters pitching in the Venezuelan league. He then spent 2007 with the Sidewinders. He seemed to be finished; he was 5-14 and yielded 185 hits in 134 innings. But Carrasco, a former Pima College right-hander, is back in the big leagues as a middle reliever with the White Sox. He mostly works the seventh inning and has earned four "holds'' and a 2.70 ERA in 11 appearances. Talk about never giving up. … After finishing second in the Gateway Tour's 2008 Summer Series, ex-UA and Sabino golfer Nate Tyler came back a week later and was 10th in a Hooters Tour event in Houston, earning $4,700. … Jason Stanford, a former CDO lefty who has pitched for the Cleveland Indians, is back in American baseball with the Class AAA Iowa Cubs. After being released by the Indians in May, Stanford pitched for Tijuana in the Mexican League going 4-1 in seven starts. The Cubs liked what they saw. At 31, Stanford is hopeful he will be recalled to the Cubs when rosters expand Sept. 1

As Mike Stoops enters his fifth season as a college football head coach, he seems to have reached a peace with himself.

Training camp practice sessions are no longer screamfests. He goes about his business with a healthy intensity, but the atmosphere is now a professional one. He does not seem to be paranoid about things out of his control. He does not try to coach all 22 positions at once.

The break-in period is over, long over, and Stoops appears to have evolved into a coach who knows he has surrounded himself with capable people and a winning roster; he has done all he can do to end Arizona's awful streak of bad football.

"This is a very confident team,'' he said. And for perhaps the first time, it reflects on the coach as well.