D-backs, Rising FC return: Best quotes from Day 2 of Newsmakers Week

If there’s a decision being made in Arizona sports, there’s a good chance someone involved in that decision is on Arizona Sports’ Doug & Wolf this week.

Newsmakers Week continued on Wednesday with some of those top names across the Valley’s sports scene, including Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo and Arizona Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet.

Here are all the interviews from the show on Wednesday, including a quote from each guest:

Torey Lovullo, Arizona Diamondbacks manager

On his offseason: “I was able to sit back at the end of the season, I kind of self-isolated, I stayed away from a lot of the people and a lot of the friends I normally associate with because I wanted to soul-search a little bit. What I discovered is there were some things I didn’t do that I (usually) do very well. I wasn’t sure why, but I answered those questions internally.”

Rick Tocchet, Arizona Coyotes head coach

On Clayton Keller: “Clayton’s a great kid. I’ve been hard on him this year. Two weeks ago we had some conversations that were tough on him but he responded. Keller’s not the biggest guy but he’s got to play inside, he’s got to play situational hockey. He’s got to understand the right time to do things and the wrong time.”

Rick Schantz, Phoenix Rising head coach

On the mentality of the squad: “I do know that the returning players are very, very motivated and very focused. Every single one of them talks about unfinished business and we have some work to do. So we’re definitely going to go after it and do everything we can to get back.”

Bryce Drew, Grand Canyon University men’s basketball head coach

On the chances of making the NCAA Tournament: “Well, I think we’re good enough to be in the NCAA Tournament. I’d love to play some of the teams that are going to get at-large bids. I definitely think we can compete with them. Right now our NET ranking (113) isn’t high enough and won’t get high enough this year to be an at-large team, so we’ll have to get the automatic bid.”

David Hines, AIA executive director

On the challenges in the future: “Trying to get kids back into activities. A lot of kids have not been involved this year because of the concern, whether it was their parents or they were concerned with COVID. Our numbers are down as far as participation somewhat. Really, we would love to be able to get back where we have all of our kids participating with all of our fans in attendance and celebrating high school sports as they were meant to be, which is a support to the community.”

Scott Jenkins, Waste Management Phoenix Open Tournament chairman

On this year’s event: “It went very well. We were sort of tasked by the PGA Tour to go first with an event with a sizable amount of fans … with the city of Scottsdale, the state of Arizona and the PGA Tour, everybody working together, we were able to pull it off. Although it’s 5,000 fans, and as you guys know we have much more than that in a normal year, it was exciting to get people out there on the golf course to watch beautiful weather, a fantastic leaderboard … we’re very happy with the result.”

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