A controversial Arizona Interscholastic Association ruling led to his summer basketball team's two coaches to be ruled ineligible in July 1982, so team trainer Mike DelaO and the team's sponsor took over, The Arizona Daily Star wrote.
The sponsor called the association's ruling "a damn crime," while he and DelaO nearly pulled off the upset tournament win, The Daily Star wrote.
"I thought we could pull it out at the end," DelaO told The Daily Star afterward. "We were just too small."
DelaO went on to serve as a trainer in multiple other settings, including minor league baseball and CBA basketball.
He also later took another role. Years after that AIA summer basketball ruling, in 2015, DelaO was elected Arizona Interscholastic Association president.
DelaO's career began out of the University of Arizona. Some newspaper articles and at least one of his cards, styled his last name DelaO, DeLao and as DeLaO.
He started in the minors as a trainer by 1984, serving with the Astros at single-A Asheville Tourists. He moved to the Braves and single-A Durham for 1985.
DelaO served as trainer for the CBA's Quad City Thunder for 1987-1988. He'd also worked with teams in Cincinnati and Sarasota.
DelaO joined the Tigers by 1988, serving as trainer at single-A Fayetteville. He made AA London for 1989. He's last recorded time in the minors came in 1991 back at Fayetteville.
DelaO eventually settled back in Arizona and became a school board executive. Then, in 2015, he was elected AIA president for 2015-2016, The Daily Star wrote.
"That's a terrific transaction for Tucson high schools," The Daily Star wrote. "A former athletic trainer at the UA and for the Tigers, Astros and Braves minor-league baseball systems, DeLaO gives Southern Arizona a voice in the AIA affairs that is dominated by Phoenix politics."
- Arizona Daily Star, July 28, 1982: Team loses coaches and game
- Arizona Daily Star, July 5, 2015: Goodman moves on from Match Play
Made the Majors:1,410-32.2
Never Made Majors:2,969-67.8%-X
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