STAFF PICK: We realize that she's sorta one of ours, but this kid did things that no one--boy or girl--had ever done in the 100-year history of high-school sports in the state of Arizona. Of the well over one million athletes who have competed in prep sports in the state over the past century, Darlene is the only one ever to letter in five different varsity sports, and her 14 varsity letters are also an all-time state record. Along the way, she captained her school's first-ever championship basketball team, made All-Conference as a setter in volleyball, and won the conference championship in the shot put. This is like having a ballerina win a weight-lifting contest. The senior-class valedictorian also completed an unprecedented triple by being named the Women's Sports Foundation Athlete of the Year, the 5A-South Conference Athlete of the Year, and then becoming the first Tucsonan ever to win the prestigious Arizona Interscholastic Association State Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award. You might think that if the most-prolific and -honored prep athlete of all time were a Tucsonan, you'd read about it in the Daily Star, which prides itself on covering local people. Didn't happen, reportedly because of her last name, which stinks out loud. If the feat is duplicated in the next century, maybe that kid will get the pub he or she deserves.
