When A.J. Steimel sent a long drive deep into the night last week to break a 5-5 tie in the fifth inning and beat Horizon 8-5, the loudest cheers came from his mother, Tami.
Tami has never missed one of her son’s Brophy Prep baseball games, and she isn’t about to let the return of cancer keep her away now.
Brophy players wear pink shoelaces and wrist bands, and have pink ribbon stickers on the back of their helmets – all in a way to show their support for Tami and others in the program who have been stricken by cancer.
In late February, Tami Steimel was diagnosed with cancer – again.
She had beaten breast cancer two years ago. now it is under her sternum and in her liver, a.J. said.
She undergoes chemotherapy and cheers for her son – a 6-foot-5, 245-pound senior slugging catcher – and his teammates.
“She’s really an inspiration,” said a.J., who lives in the Arcadia district in east Phoenix. “She never misses a game. She said this is her best medicine.”
A.J, a tight end in football who wants to pursue baseball in college, writes on a Web site to get people aware of cancer and to help fight it.
“A.J. is a tough kid,” Brophy coach Tom Succow said. “He is battling through it. I spoke to her about a week and a half ago. She’s got a great attitude. She’s resilient and believes she is going to beat this.”
“She’s a fighter,” he said. “She won’t be beat.”
Hoops commit
Arcadia sophomore guard Larry Lewis wasted no time in accepting Southern California’s basketball scholarship offer last week. Lewis, a 6-2 scorer, who averaged 23 points and eight rebounds last season, gave the Trojans a commitment.
Lewis said that he had always liked USC and wasn’t about to let the offer “go by.”
Chaparral gets even
Chaparral’s baseball team bounced back from a loss earlier in the week to Mesa Desert Ridge with a victory over Desert Ridge at the end of the week. In the 10-2 victory over the defending 5A-II champion, catcher Nate Sherman hit a grand slam and Konner Wade pitched five strong innings.
Fountain of youth
Despite starting only one senior, Fountain Hills’ baseball team is off to a 6-0 start, in large part because of three juniors.
Pitcher Jake Tant is 2-0 and has two complete games, yielding one earned run and striking out 13 in 14 innings.
Catcher Mike DeGroote is hitting .625 with 15 RBIs in five games.
Second baseman Andrew Fett is hitting .667 with two homers and seven RBIs and a 1.389 slugging percentage, batting in the two-hole.
Charter girls title
Tesseract School, which serves Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Phoenix students, was 18-0 and won the Charter Athletic Association girls basketball state championship in the Varsity B Division.
It opened a middle school and high school campus in 2008.
Ben Boyd coached the team in its first season.
Woods honored
Horizon junior guard Collin Woods was selected boys basketball Player of the Year in Class 5A Division II by the Arizona Basketball Coaches Association.
Brophy baseball team wears pink to support catcher’s mom