By Don Ketchum

It wasn’t that long ago when Leslie Saulsby was the girls’ basketball coach at Peoria High School, pacing the floor in the pressure-packed Division II state tournament.

Now he faces a different challenge, as the new athletic director at Avondale Agua Fria.

Saulsby was coach at Peoria for seven years, was at Phoenix North Canyon for four with a stop as a Phoenix College assistant in between.

“But my ultimate goal was to be an athletic director,’’ said Saulsby, a graduate of the University of Arizona. “There is never a good time to leave coaching, but this opportunity presented itself and I applied and was fortunate to be able to come here to Agua Fria. It has worked out well so far.’’

The girls’ basketball position at Agua Fria was open, but Saulsby elected not to fill it with himself. He knows he will have enough on his plate with the AD job, so he has gone out and brought in a young, energetic coach in Sarah Miller, who was the freshman coach at fellow district school Goodyear Millennium.

Another reason for Saulsby to make the move was the strength of the Agua Fria educational system in dealing with autistic children. Saulsby’s oldest son is autistic.

Saulsby was hired in late April and began to make the move in May, with his official hiring date listed as July 1. He has met with all of his fall sports coaches except one and is looking forward to working with his entire coaching staff.

When he delivered news of his departure to the Peoria players, there was a lot of emotion involved. They had been through a long, rewarding season that resulted in an appearance in the state championship game, where the Panthers fell to Chandler Seton Catholic.

“I tried to explain my reasons and I think most of the (returning) players (this coming season) understood. You have to do what is best for your family,’’ Saulsby said. “Some of them might be hurt or angry, and I said the best thing they can do is to play hard for the next coach. I let them know that I was proud to have coached them.’’

He has and will continue to rely on advice provided by administrators such as current Peoria AD Phil Camacho, former North Canyon AD Scott Brown and Peoria Liberty AD Rick Johnson, a long-time athletic official in the Valley.

“Phil was and is a role model for me and all of those people have been a tremendous help,’’ Saulsby said.

Shaping the Agua Fria programs is a work in progress, Saulsby said, but he sees a great deal of potential and issued a caution to opponents.

“Agua Fria has been a sleeping giant in the past, but we’re not going to be sleeping much longer,’’ he said.