Our 2024 top athletes, voted by the class of 24, are Nicholas “Nick” Ponds and Cassandra “Cassie” Coolidge. These two athletes are mainly basketball players but indulge in many other sports, and they are a huge part of the Cougar culture on campus. Nick and Cassie serve as amazing examples of student-athletes.

Nick Ponds is a dedicated athlete, leaving behind a vast legacy on the court, track, and in his own class. He’s the senior class president and works on all of the senior activities including the senior gift. He says Mrs. Trujillo is one of the teachers who made a big impact on him in high school because she was always nice and helped him out with his presidency.

For Nick, finding out he was the top athlete felt, “…good you know, because I thought I deserved it. Like I’m not trying to be cocky, but I thought I deserved it…I work every day for playing basketball, doing track, and just being athletic, so it felt good to be top athlete.” He’s been playing basketball since he was three years old, and he started track his junior year, although he did it for one year in 6th grade. Basketball is his main sport and the one he prefers, but he thinks he’s better at track, and his coaches have told him to start looking at colleges to run for. He plays as a small forward, power forward, and shooting guard in basketball, and does the 100, 200, 4×1, high jump, and long jump in track.

His sister, former Cougar and basketball player Nelly Ponds, is one of his biggest inspirations. She graduated last year, and he said, “She’s turning out to be someone that’s like really good, and a big role in my life and she’s leading me in the right light, so yeah I’d probably say she’s the most inspiring to me,” He also gave credit to his coaches saying,”… my coaches too, they’ve guided me my whole high school career.” Nick has noticed his growth from his freshman year and said, “I had a good jump from my sophomore to junior year, then a big jump from my junior to senior year. My coach told me that it was one of the reasons, main reasons, why we made that state championship.” He has been on varsity since his sophomore year.

“It was unreal…our coach always told us we were good…he was telling other people like, ‘yeah we’re going to be good this year’ but I think we were great, you know,” Nick said about the team’s playoff run. The Cougars unfortunately lost by two points, but they still had an outstanding season, and he said, “…we stuck as a team and grew together, and we made a deep run, so yeah it was a good season. One of the best in 20 years.”

In the offseason, he plays club basketball, works out, and he likes to game. After high school, he wants to go to Mesa Community College and major in welding. Playing sports is something he’d like to continue, saying, “I do want to play basketball, but I also want to just get into my major right away, and then just like, get on the road with that.”

Cassie Coolidge is another outstanding Cougar who’s not only a great athlete, but an amazing student and person. Cassie is a member of Student Council, and plays volleyball, basketball, and tennis. Cassie has been playing sports since she was a toddler. She started basketball at 5, along with tons of other sports, and once she got to high school, she had to choose which ones she would play as her main sport. Along with her sister, Carly Coolidge, they decided that basketball would be their main sport. Cassie explained, “Honestly I think it was just the one I had the most fun in and the one.  I loved all my sports, but I was the most passionate about basketball.” 

Family is important to Cassie, and only being 11 months apart, she and her sister have always been on the same team and have shared their love of sports with each other. When she’s not busy being an athlete, she’s either watching sports or hanging out with her family and friends. She loves, “…watching movies, I love eating sweets with my mom, and then just hanging out with my sister and my friends.” Her favorite movies are the Rocky series, and she likes to watch college sports. “I definitely like college sports better than professional sports. I don’t really know why. I think it’s just because my whole goal is to make it to college.” Cassie also has a job, and she says it’s hard to do everything, but having time management is important.

She says her mom is her biggest inspiration, and when you’re a student-athlete, you don’t have time to mess around, so her passion for the game has also helped her stay motivated. When reflecting on her time at Sahuaro, Cassie said she’s going to, “…miss my team a lot.” She’s also going to miss Coach Botkin.  “I’ve been playing for him since like freshman year, and it feels like it was only yesterday I was a freshman, but I’ve been playing with him for a while, and we’ve been through some good times.” Outside of her coaches and teammates, she’s going to miss the bonds she’s made with her teachers and playing with her sister, as well as Mrs. Trujillo, who she’s gotten close with this year, and the office staff, who are always at her games and supporting her.

When Cassie won top athlete for senior superlatives, she said she felt, “…really good because I feel like athletics have been a huge part of my life at Sahuaro, like I’ve done a sport each season, so I just thought it was really cool for people to vote and say that I was the most athletic.” She’ll miss being a Cougar, and said, “I’m still going to wear Sahuaro shirts and everything like that, don’t get me wrong, but I’m just going to miss the home games, and traveling with my team, and going up for different kinds of tournaments and everything like that. It’s really a special bond, so I think that’s probably the thing I’m going to miss the most.”

Cassie is ready for the next chapter, playing college basketball. She isn’t committed yet, but she’s narrowed it down to three schools and wants to stay close to home. She’s been grateful for the offers she’s gotten, and she said, “It’s been really cool just creating these relationships with the coaches, it’s very fun, but it’s also very sad because you can only commit to one school.” In college she plans to take classes to see what she’s interested in, but she is currently interested in becoming a fire fighter, and she’d be happy doing anything in law enforcement. She’s also thought about education and coaching a high school basketball team one day. She explained, “I just think that’d be great…being around basketball even if you’re not playing it.” After college, she doesn’t think she’ll continue playing basketball because she wants to focus on her family. She said she’ll do what her mom did and put her kids in sports, but she’ll support them in anything, even if it’s chess! 

She encourages students to, “Just play a sport. It’s so much fun – you could make lifelong friendships and it can help you pay your way through college. I mean if you’re really passionate about it and good at that sport, definitely go out and do something.  Don’t be afraid to try out. Everyone makes mistakes.” Who knows, you could be the next top athlete of your graduating class.

Congrats to Cassie and Nick for being awesome student-athletes. The class of 2024 recognized the dedication and love you show for your sport. Your teams, and Sahuaro, are going to miss you!