The Grand Canyon University women's soccer team traveled to Southern California for a preseason match before the 2016 season.

They lost the August 13 contest and their performance frustrated new head coach Derek Leader, former players said.

The following day, after a six-hour bus ride back to GCU's west Phoenix campus, they were ordered to go directly to the university's outside track, they said. There, in 100-degree heat, Leader ordered them to run and do lunges for a mile.

Players who were there that day told The Arizona Republic that Leader's use of excessive exercise as punishment was the beginning of a pattern of alleged verbal, mental and physical abuse that created a "toxic environment" and left players feeling isolated, uncared for and mistreated.

When Leader wasn't satisfied with the players' effort on the first mile of running and lunges, he ordered them to do the exercises for another mile, the players said. One player said she pulled a hamstring but was told to continue. Another fainted. Others vomited.

Seven current and former players and their families have sent a demand letter to the private Christian university in Phoenix, asking for the removal of Leader and associate head coach Malorie Rutledge, and for an independent investigation into what they characterize as alleged abuse and possible NCAA violations.

They say they are not seeking financial compensation other than the recovery of legal fees and the costs of counseling for psychological issues and doctor visits. Most of the seven players were on athletic scholarships.

"We believe that the coaches for the women's soccer program have created a team environment ruled by fear in which the coach routinely communicates through sarcasm and intimidation, and in which trainers, doctors and student-athletes' concerns often go ignored or unvoiced," the letter said.

The 37-page letter detailed examples of alleged abuses by coaches, including injuries as a result of improper training, belittling and cursing and excessive exercise as punishment.

Rutledge is accused of using an expletive in an insult directed at female athletes in 2016, telling the players following a loss, "f--k you guys."

The letter was sent to GCU President Brian Mueller and Vice President of Athletics Mike Vaught on Nov. 13. The players' attorney provided a copy to The Arizona Republic.

Leader and Rutledge did not respond to requests for comment through an email sent to GCU and calls and texts to their cellphones.

Charles Hampton, GCU's associate athletics director, on Tuesday pointed The Republic to a five-paragraph statement on a university website regarding the players' allegations and said the university had no further comment.

The statement said the school conducted an investigation that "did not identify any conduct that would justify the actions demanded by the student-athletes."

It went on to say that an internal investigation found "the overwhelming majority of student-athletes on the team expressed support for the coaching staff, characterized their experiences as positive." The university also stated that one student-athlete sought compensation "by graduating debt free from GCU and two years of graduate school paid for," while another email from a parent sought $125,000 in compensation.

The university did not provide documentation to support its claims that an athlete or parent sought such compensation.

On Wednesday, The Republic requested additional comment, and university spokesman Bob Romantic said the school would have no further comment beyond the statement.

Officials changed course and issued a new, longer statement on Friday night, acknowledging some of the players' complaints but contesting others.

The families have retained Martin Greenberg, a Milwaukee attorney who has previously represented athletes alleging mental and physical abuse in the women's gymnastic program at Penn State and women's swimming program at Rutgers University. Coaches at those schools were fired in response to the allegations.

"This one is as bad as any one I have come up against," Greenberg said. He criticized GCU's internal investigation as being "not objective" and added that none of the students named in the Nov. 13 letter was personally interviewed.

The Republic spoke with two women who played soccer at Georgia State, where Leader and Rutledge coached before coming to GCU. The former players said the coaches had some of the same issues there as are alleged at GCU.

But other current and former players at GCU and Georgia State characterized the coaches as caring and professional and said the criticisms are off-base.

Five current players on the GCU roster spoke to The Republic on Friday. They said Leader and Rutledge have held out players from games if they are not physically able to perform, and got the team a new trainer. They said the coaches helped them deal with personal challenges. And they said swearing is part of big-time college athletics, and the program is headed in the right direction.

"Next year is going to be a great season for us," said Mikaela McGee, a sophomore.

None of the five who spoke to The Republic was on the team in 2016, when the other former players complained about the excessive exercising.

On Friday afternoon, 15 current players sent a short statement saying they support the coaches and are excited for the upcoming season.

What GCU soccer players allege

Greenberg said several GCU parents contacted him in October after taking their concerns to GCU administrators and failing to get a satisfactory response.

Cliff Samodurov, the father of one of the GCU players, said he spoke with Vaught, but the athletic director did not take the players' concerns seriously and questioned whether the father was looking for a financial settlement from GCU, Samodurov said.

"I said, 'It's not about the money,'" Samodurov said. "The thing I have seen is there is a systemic denial and a circling of the wagons at GCU."

In the Nov. 13 letter, Greenberg describes the GCU coaches' behavior as Mike Rice Jr. tactics, a reference to the former Rutgers University men's basketball coach who was fired in 2013 after allegations that he verbally abused players and video footage surfaced showing him being physically aggressive with players during practices.

Rice went on to coach high-school basketball from 2015 to 2017 at a private Catholic school in New Jersey.

Greenberg said he interviewed and reviewed statements from the players. His letter to the university says he found "ample evidence" of alleged physical, mental and emotional abuse, including:

Repeated use of exercise as punishment, and excessive physical activities that resulted in athletes throwing up or passing out.

Refusal to take the advice of trainers or medical doctors on the physical limits of athletes.

Injuries as a result of improper training.

Inappropriate comments about women.

Greenberg said he has not received a response from the university.

GCU acknowledged it received the letter and said it conducted a "comprehensive investigation" where every member of the team, its coaching staff and athletic trainers were interviewed individually.

The university said "details of the investigation are not being provided in order to protect the student-athletes who made the accusations."

MORE: Here's what GCU soccer players are alleging

Aiming to become a national power

In announcing Leader's hiring in February 2016, Vaught, GCU's vice president of athletics, touted his more than 20 years of coaching experience.

Joining Leader was Rutledge, who had played professionally for the Philadelphia Independence and coached with Pittsburgh's women's soccer team before working with Leader at Georgia State.

Leader had been an associate head coach at Southern Methodist University in Texas for four years, and spent 12 years as the women's soccer head coach and assistant director of the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, before becoming Georgia State's head coach.

Mike Holmes, Georgia State's associate athletics director for sports communications, said there weren't any complaints against Leader or Rutledge while they were at the university.

"When Derek left, it was strictly a move up in status," he said of Leader's move to GCU. "We don't have the world's greatest soccer complex."

Sarah Hanan, director of communications for SMU, would only confirm, per university policy, that Leader worked as an assistant and then associate coach for women's soccer from 2008 to 2012.

An IMG Academy spokesman said there were no complaints made against Leader.

In a statement at the time of his hiring at GCU, Leader said the team would become a contender in the Western Athletic Conference. "We will work to make GCU not only a power in the WAC, but also on the national stage," he said in the statement.

During his three-year tenure, the Lopes have failed to produce a winning season, going 19-35-6 overall and regressing since his first season, when the team had a 7-9-2 record.

Players: Athletes threw up, passed out

As Leader and Rutledge prepared for their first season at GCU in 2016, the team spent several days in Norco, California, practicing twice a day. The workouts culminated in a preseason match against University of California, Riverside on Aug. 13, which they lost 4-1.

Leader was upset, players said, and warned them before the bus ride back to Phoenix to have their running shoes on and to meet at the school's track.

GCU athlete Rebecca Pousma, then 19, remembers feeling "sick and nervous" about what awaited the players at the end of the six-hour bus ride.

"It was mental torture the whole bus ride," she recalled in a recent interview with The Republic.

It was afternoon when they arrived, with summer temperatures in Phoenix reaching triple digits. Her muscles were stiff from hours of sitting.

She said players were told to run 200 meters, stop, and then lunge 100 times. They repeated the cycle for one mile. When they finished, Leader made them repeat the exercises for another mile.

He accused some players, including Pousma, of cheating on lunges, and required them to do additional sprints.

Pousma saw a player pass out and get carried inside to cool off. Other players threw up.

Deseree Doty, now 21, said she watched as her teammates ran on that hot afternoon. Doty was rehabbing a torn ligament in her knee so she rode a stationary bike instead of running.

She felt sick riding a bike in the heat, but said it was more painful to watch her teammates run. Wow, this is bad, she thought.

She said players later referred to that day as "the worst day of our lives."

"All because we lost our first game as a new team with new coaches? Everyone has a rough start, especially with change," Doty said.

In its second statement issued Friday, the university said the time and distance cited by the players was "less than alleged" and reduced to accommodate the heat. The statement did not specify the time and distance.

The statement said that while about half the team was unable to pass conditioning drills during the time period in question, the tests themselves were found to be "self limiting" and within normal fitness parameters for NCAA Division I women's soccer.

The university said one conditioning drill involving weights in October 2016 contained a higher risk of injury, but no one was injured and the drill was an "isolated incident."

Player suffers repeated injuries

GCU began recruiting Fiona Samodurov from Washington state during her junior year of high school. She had been playing the sport since she was 4 and was excited to continue competing at a school with a "great atmosphere."

By the time she arrived at GCU in fall 2016, the coaches who convinced her to attend the university — Stevie Gill and Paul Barron — were gone. In their place were Leader and Rutledge.

The team's punishment following their preseason loss in California was Samodurov's first sign something was wrong, she said. Other signs soon followed.

She saw the coaches single out players, saying things like, "You'll never see the field," meaning the player would never play in a game. She told The Republic in an interviewthat Leader would tell the women, "You act like a bunch of spoiled bitches."

The university's statement said its internal investigation found that some complaints about language were taken out of context. For example, the term "bitches" was a motivational expression for players to be more aggressive and "get your bitch on."

The statement said players interviewed for the investigation said Leader used the phrase "go screw yourself" as a reference to players who were screwing up their life by being more interested in partying.

"That language is still unacceptable and the coaches have been counseled on the use of inappropriate language," the statement said.

Samodurov said she was unsure what to do about her concerns with the coaches. So she stayed silent.

In spring 2017, she tore the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, in her knee and had surgery. Rehab took nine months.

When she returned to practice in January 2018, the coaches were running the players "into the ground," she said. They didn't ease her back into practice, which she believes contributed to additional injuries.

Dr. C. David Geier, a South Carolina orthopedic surgeon and sports-medicine specialist, said nine months is a typical scenario for recovery from a torn ACL. But Geier, who has not treated Samodurov, said upon returning from such an injury soccer players should ease into activities: first dribbling around cones, then light practicing, followed by scrimmages. At each step, if there are issues, you pull back, he said.

In fall 2018, Samodurov said, it was common for her to play the entire game. During one game, she sprained another ligament, the medial collateral ligament, or MCL, in her previously injured knee. She said the trainer, Jordan Richmond, and both coaches were aware of the injury.

During a September game, in the 89th minute, she tore her ACL for a second time. She believes the injury could have been prevented had she been given better care.

Samodurov, now 20 and set to graduate from GCU in April, said she is angry with herself for letting her coaches play her nonstop. She's still rehabbing her knee, and doubts she will ever again play the game she loves.

"It's not something I want to risk happening a third time," she said.

The university's second statement, issued Friday, did not address individual allegations of injuries. But the statement said generally that "medical professionals, external to the university, determined any injuries that occurred were not the result of inappropriate conduct by individuals affiliated with the soccer program."

Supporters dispute allegations

The Republic by cellphone or social media contacted 15 current and former players on the GCU women's soccer-team rosters. Five players spoke on Friday, praising the coaches and disputing the allegations. They were Noah Johnson, Remmi Deutsch, Logan Van Dine, Camryn Larson and Mikaela McGee.

The players said they have not experienced any of the problems alleged by the other players, and that Leader and Rutledge have pushed them to become better student-athletes.

Former player McKenzie Cook described her experience playing for Leader and Rutledge as "very good." She didn't find the conditioning excessive.

"I always thought they were super nice," said Cook, who played four years at GCU and recently graduated. "They had an open-door policy. If anything was ever wrong, we could go and talk with them. I did multiple times. They were super nice and understanding."

Cook said she didn't witness inappropriate behavior on the part of the coaches. Both coaches were direct with players who weren't doing something right or weren't playing well.

"They weren't belittling or anything. It was strictly, 'You weren't performing to your abilities and we need to change that.'"

Cook was part of the Aug. 14, 2016, outside practice that some players have complained about, but she said practice wasn't unusual because the team typically trains in hot weather in Arizona.

She said she was tired after that day's practice but didn't suffer ill effects.

"We were running and working out, but that's what athletics is," she said.

Cook, who was interviewed in the fall as part of GCU's investigation into the allegations, said a few complaints from other players shouldn't affect the whole program.

"I think the people who are complaining were the ones who were out of shape and probably shouldn’t be playing at the D-1 level anyway," she said, referring to college's Division 1.

“My experience was all good," she added.

Allegation: 'Culture of fear, intimidation'

Doug Pousma, Rebecca's father and a Colorado physician, said he objects to the way Leader has singled out players. He said Leader once made his daughter and three others do squats up and down the field with 45-pound weights over their heads as punishment for the team losing.

"It's a culture of fear, intimidation," he said.

Rebecca Pousma said Rutledge used an expletive in an insult directed to female athletes, telling the players "f--k you guys" after a 2016 game the team lost. Another former player, Kathryn Yancone, who is not part of the demand letter to GCU, told The Republic she overheard the exchange.

Yancone, a senior in fall 2016, said Leader and Rutledge were the new coaches and "the coaches didn’t really care about the seniors. We were really shafted with a lot of things. They had favorites."

Samodurov said she and her boyfriend's mother, Helen Lehner, met with Vaught, the athletic director, in September and gave him specific examples of verbal and physical abuse she had experienced and witnessed.

She said she and her father had a follow-up meeting with Vaught and another GCU athletics official, Jamie Boggs, in which she said she was informed the university's investigation was complete, other players did not corroborate her story and the coaches were not going to be fired.

"I feel like I need to be the voice for the people who are voiceless right now," she said. "Because a lot of players are still led by fear and intimidation."

'Get back on the line or you are done'

Anyssa De Vera, who began playing soccer at GCU in fall 2016, said the team's fitness regimen was excessive.

She began suffering fainting and near-fainting episodes while running long distances during practice. The coaches would yell at her to "keep running."

Richmond, the trainer, kept telling her, "You are fine. You are just out of shape," according to the demand letter sent to the school.

Richmond did not return repeated phone calls or messages via multiple social-media channels seeking comment. According to her LinkedIn profile, she left the university in September 2018.

De Vera said she would get leg cramps, almost like a charley horse muscle spasm. Her eyelids would get heavy. And she suffered headaches.

During one workout, she said she protested to the coaches that she couldn't do any more. She said assistant coach Rutledge responded by saying, "Get back on the line or you are done."

De Vera, who is now 20, said she was medically released from soccer last spring, which allowed her to keep her scholarship. The fainting spells stopped once she left the team. She graduated from GCU in December.

Looking back at her time on the team, "I was scared," she said. "I was scared to go to practice. I was scared to tell an adult. I didn’t tell my parents any of this while this was happening because I didn’t want to get them involved."

'You know I hate nose rings'

Amanda Shea Lopez, who was a member of the GCU women's soccer team in 2017, said the coaches often swore at players during practice and rarely encouraged them.

Lopez said she sometimes wore a nose ring, though not at soccer practice and not during games. Leader would give her a hard time if he saw her with the nose ring around campus.

"You know I hate nose rings. When you're older, you're not going to get a good job if you have a nose ring," she said he once told her.

Lopez said the coaches' behavior made her anxious. She worried in class, and on weekends. She wondered, "What's going to happen the next day in practice? Is he going to be in a good mood? One bad pass, and we'll end up running the rest of practice."

Her confidence was shattered, she said.

The final straw came in February 2018, when Lopez wanted to attend and speak at a religious conference in Florida.

After a dispute over whether she would be excused from practice for the conference, Lopez said Leader asked her to quit the team, and she did.

Lopez continued attending GCU through the spring semester and then transferred to Colorado Christian University, where she plays soccer.

Player says coaches had favorites

Leader arrived at GCU from Georgia State, where he had been head coach of the Division 1 women's soccer team for three seasons. Rutledge was his assistant.

In Atlanta, Leader and Rutledge had some of the same issues as are alleged to have happened at GCU, according to two former Georgia Stateplayers who were reached for comment after The Republic called 10 players from the 2012-13 roster. Four others defended Leader and Rutledge.

Kenzie Loula, an elementary-school teacher in Minneapolis, Minnesota, played four years for Leader and Rutledge at Georgia State. The coaches had their "favorites" who were treated well, but if you were not one of that select group of players, then it was a toxic atmosphere, Loula said.

She said the team's record improved each year, including playing for the conference title her senior year. However, she said the two coaches often verbally abused players and forced the players to do excessive conditioning — especially after losses.

Loula also said if a player didn't pass the team's physical fitness test, she would have to attend the "breakfast club," where they ran an hour straight. "Sometimes it was inhumane how much they made us run," Loula said.

Four players suffered torn ACLs during her time on the team, Loula said, because the coaches made them play while injured.

"Basically, if you were hurt, he didn't believe you," Loula said. "So, you would push yourself through an injury."

Loula said Rutledge often scrimmaged with the team, and was overly competitive.

In one instance during her sophomore year, Loula said she was guarding Rutledge, who got upset after Loula stole the ball from her. In retaliation, Rutledge yanked so violently on Loula's ponytail that it pulled her to the ground, Loula said.

"That is why it would be toxic," Loula said. "But there were times that Malorie would be your best friend."

Sam Neill said she quit the Georgia State program in 2013 and entered therapy because of constant belittling from Leader and Rutledge.

Neill, now an elementary-school teacher in Georgia, said she had broken the middle toe on her right foot in 2012, and was told by a doctor not to play. Neill said Leader forced her to do speed and agility drills at practice.

"They were emotionally abusive," Neill said. "They didn't care about your well-being whatsoever."

But Brie Haynes, a Georgia State graduate who played for Leader and Rutledge from 2013 to 2015, said they were great coaches who looked out for their players. She said she never heard them belittle anyone.

Both coaches let players know how they needed to improve so they could get playing time, she said.

"I felt like they were very professional," she said. "They were honest with players. Obviously, it's not always what you want to hear. I was in that position sometimes."

Former Georgia State player Carly Kernan said she was part of the group that interviewed Leader for the head-coaching job. She was impressed with his focus and disciplined approach and supported his hiring.

"Malorie being his counterpart was awesome. Derek, he’s a serious guy, but he knows when to show sympathy and when to be supportive," she said. "He's very fatherly."

She found the physical drills and practices challenging, but not unusual. And expectations were clearly explained.

"Don't play a college sport if you don't want to be exercising hard," she said.

She credits Leader's incorporation of weight lifting with helping her stay injury free.

Kernan, who graduated in 2013, said she was shocked to learn recently that some former GCU players wanted Leader removed.

"He cares about his players. He wants us to do well in school and succeed in life, and he’s beyond supportive," she said.

Anna Hilpertshauser, who played four years at Georgia State, said Leader and Rutledge were tough but great coaches. She said both wrote letters of recommendation on her behalf when she applied to study physical therapy at Mercer University in Atlanta.

Hilpertshauser said she coaches high-school soccer and uses many coaching techniques she learned while playing at Georgia State.

Players a 'vulnerable age group'

The GCU coaches' treatment of the team, as alleged by the players, is unacceptable and should not be tolerated, said Cindy Miller Aron, a licensed clinical social worker and member of a 2013 NCAA mental-health task force.

She added that it's not common for athletes to speak up, given the binds inherent in the coaching-athlete relationship.

College students are a "developmentally vulnerable age group" and young adults are prone to develop mental-health issues even when they're not subjected to verbal abuse by coaches, said Aron, who was also involved with the NCAA's commission to combat sexual violence.

Aron said the days of college coaches being allowed to bully players and throw tantrums are long past.

She noted that Bobby Knight, the former Indiana University men's basketball coach, faced no repercussions when he threw a chair across the court during a game in 1985. Today, coaches are under much more scrutiny and face suspensions or firings for controversial conduct.

Former University of Oregon football coach Willie Taggart and others recently were sued by a former and current player after they were hospitalized in January 2017 following strenuous off-season workouts that resulted in rhabdomyolysis, a syndrome in which muscle fibers break down. Rhabdomyolysis in athletes is preventable, but can damage kidneys and is potentially fatal. Oregon suspended its then-strength coach without pay after the players were hospitalized. Taggart is now the head coach at Florida State University.

The Women's Sports Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group founded by tennis star Billy Jean King, outlined what constitutes athlete abuse in a paper it published in 2016.

It describes using excessive exercise as a form of punishment as "physical abuse." The paper gives a specific example: "A team loses and the coach demands that his or her players run around the track until they vomit or pass out."

Experience took a toll

The university's second statement said the school conducted a follow-up evaluation on Wednesday — the day after receiving questions from The Republic — by having Dr. Deb Wade, vice president of counseling and psychological services, consult with the team. Feb. 6

"GCU will continue to monitor the program and encourages anyone to immediately report any concerns they may have so that they can be thoroughly investigated," the university said.

Gina Lopez, mother of one of the former players who is named in the demand letter to GCU, said she believes Leader needs to gets counseling or be removed from coaching soccer.

Playing for Leader made her daughter Amanda anxious, fearful and nervous. After her daughter left the team, Gina Lopez said shespoke to Vaught and he told her that Amanda could return, she said.

But Amanda declined, telling her mother, "I won't ever play for a man like Derek again."

"It really took a toll on her," Gina Lopez said of Amanda. "I would not want that to happen to anybody else's daughter."

Read the second statement from GCU in full:

Grand Canyon University concluded a review of allegations of misconduct against the coaching staff of the women’s soccer program from six of the program’s current and former student-athletes and their parents who are seeking the dismissal of the coaching staff and more than $125,000 in compensation from the University. Immediately upon receiving the student-athletes’ allegations, the University conducted a comprehensive investigation in which every member of the team, its coaching staff, athletic trainers and external medical professionals were interviewed individually. Any corrective action taken by the University as a result of the investigation are confidential personnel matters, but in general the University did not identify any conduct that would justify the actions demanded by the student-athletes/parents. The investigation revealed that the overwhelming majority of student-athletes on the team expressed support for the coaching staff, with 92 percent characterizing their experiences as positive or neutral, and noted that it is not uncommon for some student-athletes on any team to perceive a coaching style differently than the rest of the team, particularly following a transition in head coaches. Five of the six student-athletes making the accusations had been recruited by a previous coach. The other was a non-scholarship player who transferred to another school. Among the findings of the investigation that factored into the University’s decision: • Some allegations made by these six student-athletes pertaining to events involving other student-athletes were not corroborated by those other student-athletes. • Allegations about one of the conditioning drills employed by the training staff in August of 2016 were determined to be inaccurate. The overall time and distance of the drills were less than alleged as they were reduced to accommodate for climate due to the time of day and month. • In general, while approximately half of the team was unable to pass the conditioning tests during the time period in question, the tests themselves were found to be self-limiting and within normal fitness parameters used in NCAA Division I women’s soccer. • Although no student-athletes were injured, the University found that one conditioning drill used in October of 2016 did contain a higher risk of injury even though the student-athletes were used to working with heavier weights during weightlifting exercises. This was found to be an isolated instance. • Medical professionals, external to the University, determined any injuries that occurred were not the result of inappropriate conduct by individuals affiliated with the soccer program. • Some of the allegations from the six student-athletes and parents contradicted their prior communications with the women’s soccer program. For example, one student-athlete who filed a complaint sent the following text to Coach Leader after she quit the team: “Hi coach, Thank you for everything you have done for me. Thank you for letting me be part of such a great team! I am very sorry things did not work out. I know who I am and my identity is not in soccer. I thank you for every thing you have done for me. No matter what I have respect for you. I pray you and the team succeed in all on (sic) do. God bless you coach.” Another parent involved in the allegations had a conversation with an Athletic Department official after his daughter had two violations of University or team policy in which he stated he was more aligned with the University than his daughter regarding the infractions and his concern was her taking “personal responsibility.” • The majority of the six student-athletes filing complaints had been disciplined for violating University and/or team policy or had been denied additional scholarship requests. One of those was a student-athlete who wanted to remain with the team after she graduated but was not allowed to do so. This is within NCAA guidelines. • Student-athletes interviewed in the investigation said some of the complaints about the use of certain types of language were taken out of context. For example, the student-athletes said the term “bitches” cited in the complaint was expressed as a motivational expression for the players to be more aggressive and “get your bitch on” rather than directly calling the players that term. Student-athletes acknowledged Coach Leader used the term “go screw yourself” as a reference to players who “were screwing up their life by being more interested in partying.” That language is still unacceptable and the coaches have been counseled on the use of inappropriate language. The University conducted a follow-up evaluation to its investigation on Feb. 6 by having Vice President of Counseling and Psychological Services Dr. Deb Wade consult with the team. GCU will continue to monitor the program and encourages anyone to immediately report any concerns they may have so that they can be thoroughly investigated.

Reach the reporters at 602-444-8072 or anne.ryman@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8478 or craig.harris@arizonarepublic.com.