Can the last Peat brother help make history by winning his eighth state championship? Perry boys basketball coach Sam Duane Jr. will have the last Peat brother, Koa Peat, one more season on his Puma basketball team when the 2024-25 season starts in November.
Duane has an incredible chance to make history by winning eight Arizona state basketball championships with the help of the 6-foot-8 Koa, who is rated as one of the top five 2025 basketball prospects in the nation. Koa recently won his second gold medal playing internationally for Team USA in the FIBA U17 Men’s World Cup. Duane won four straight D-I state basketball championships at Corona from 2011 to 2015 and currently has won three straight basketball championships at Perry from 2021 to 2024.
Duane has a chance to win four straight championships at Perry if Koa and the rest of the Puma team can remain injury free and live up to expectations. What has been consistent in all seven championships so far is that Duane has had at least one of the Peat brothers on each championship team. Koa is the last of seven children born to former NFL player Tod Peat and his wife, Jana Peat. Six of Koa’s older brothers and sisters played sports at Corona.
Koa’s oldest brother, Todd Peat Jr., dabbled in basketball at Corona but his main sport was football. He played collegiately at Nebraska, Eastern Arizona and Texas A&M, Commerce.
Andrus Peat, the second Peat brother, played football and basketball in addition to competing in the discus and shot put in track at Corona. As a 6-foot-6, 270 lb. center, Andrus played a key role in Duane’s first state basketball championship during his senior year in 2011-12. Andrus received over 30 football scholarship offers but chose Stanford, where he was an outstanding offensive tackle before being drafted into the NFL in 2015 by the New Orleans Saints after his junior football season. Andrus played for the Saints nine years before signing with the Las Vegas Raiders in May of 2024.
Cassius Peat, the third Peat brother, played both football and basketball at Corona. He played on Duane’s varsity basketball team all four years of his high school career. Both Andrus, as a senior, and Cassius, as a freshman, were on Corona’s 2011-12 basketball team compiling a 32-1 record for Duane’s first D-I state championship win. Cassius was on all four of Corona’s back-to-back state championship basketball teams coached there by Duane from 2011-2015. Cassius went on to play football at Michigan State, Eastern Arizona, Pima CC, Scottsdale CC and Virginia plus professionally for the Rattlers in arena football before coaching local high school sports.
Koa has two sisters who both played basketball at Corona and collegiately. Leilani Peat at Seattle University and University of San Francisco while Maya Peat played at University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Duane had moved on to Perry before the Peats’ fourth son, Keona Peat, entered high school.
In 2021, Keona was emerging to be another one of the Peats’ outstanding multisport athletes at Corona when complications from a broken leg while playing club basketball the summer before his junior year almost took his life and set him back at least a year in recovery. Keona went in for routine surgery on his broken leg when he suffered an allergic reaction to the medication. He ended up in a medically induced coma for days and was hospitalized for over a month with numerous problems including swelling and nerve damage. Keona worked hard in rehab to accomplish the two goals he set once he started to recover. He wanted to be able to play football during his senior season with his Aztec teammates and to get healthy and play well enough to impress college recruiters in order to get college scholarships. He accomplished both goals. After playing football his senior season at Corona, Keona committed in April 2023 to a football scholarship at Arizona State University, where he redshirted his freshman year.
Currently, Keona, at 6-foot-4, 260 lb., is listed as an active redshirt freshman offensive lineman on ASU’s 2024 roster. Koa, the last Peat brother, is already making history while still in high school. The accolades keep coming in, but the latest history-making event in Koa’s life happened on July 7 in Istanbul, when he became the first high school athlete to win multiple FIBI U17 Men’s World Cup gold medals in basketball.
In the USA’s 129-88 defeat over Italy, Koa made 11 out of 13 shot attempts, in addition to four out of six free throws to score 26 points while pulling down eight rebounds along with four assists and one steal. In 2022, Koa helped the USA U16 national team win championship gold medals in Malaga, Spain, where he averaged 9.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.4 assists playing an average of 20 minutes a game.
In this summer’s 2024 U17 tournament, he averaged about the same 20 minutes per game but upped his averages to 17.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. Back in Arizona, Koa was once again named Basketball Player of the Year at the Arizona High School Sports Awards on June 17 after helping the Pumas win their third straight state championship—the last two were Open Division state championships. He was also named Gatorade Player of the Year for the second straight year. During the 2023-24 season, Koa averaged 20.5 points, 10.6 rebound, 3.4 assists, 2.2 blocks and one steal a game.
Koa is a class act, according to Duane. He makes any team he plays on better and sets a perfect example of a student athlete to emulate. What’s left of his high school career other than to make history with four straight championship wins for Perry and help his coach make Arizona history by winning eight state basketball championships?
Corona had three athletes and Marcos de Niza had two athletes nominated for Player of the Year awards at the Arizona High School Sports Awards presented by Diamond Kitchen & Bath in partnership with Western States Home Services at Arizona Financial Theatre in June.
Nominees are named at the end of each high school sports season, which culminated in this in-person Arizona High School Sports Awards show where the winners of the Player of the Year award were announced for each sport. Although neither Corona nor Marcos had an athlete named Player of the Year, they did have players acknowledged for their skills or competitiveness in several sports.
Junior outside hitter Alyssa Aguayo was selected as part of the All-Arizona girls volleyball team and, therefore, was one of the 12 players nominated for Girls Volleyball Player of the Year award. Aguayo, with 51 kills during the 2023-24 season, not only led her team in kills per set but was ranked No. 1 in both the Central Region and the 6A Conference. She is ranked No. 4 in Arizona for the number of kills. Aguayo was Corona’s main offensive threat 2023 but was good at defense, as well. She was second on the team in blocks with 70 and third in digs with 346.
Aguayo has committed to the University of Illinois after she graduates in 2025. Corona’s second nominee was senior Sean Maguire who was one of the 12 boys soccer players nominated for the Boys Soccer Player of the Year award.
Maguire played the striker position on Corona’s boys soccer team, where he kicked in 24 goals along with scoring 54 points and accumulating six assists his senior season. He was the top scorer for the Aztecs in both his junior and senior year, leading to being named the 2023-24 6A Central Region Player of the Year and 6A All-Conference 1st Team.
Michelle Chen was one of the 12 athletes nominated for the Badminton Player of the Year award. Chen, a senior, entered the 2023 D-I singles state championship tournament as the No. 4 seed ending the season with a 20-4 overall singles record and 11-1 in doubles record. In the state championship tournament, Chen took third place after winning the consolation match. In addition, the Aztecs had athletes named to the Honorable Mention list, including senior Bo Dolinsek for boys basketball, senior Deven Kircher for flag football defense, junior wide receiver Raiden Vines-Bright for football offensive, senior outside hitter Luke Vlcek for boys volleyball, Brody Leid and Tyler Weihe for boys golf, Rehaan Mohammed for boys tennis, Alia Shahanna and Chloe Daniel for girls tennis and senior outside hitter Maggie Beauer for girls volleyball.
Marcos de Niza’s 2023 D-II state championship doubles team of Naiya Laux and Lian Pan were both nominated for Badminton Player of the Year. Ranked No. 1, Laux and Pan played their way through the brackets defeating five teams without losing one set to win the D-II doubles state championship.
Laux and Pan were also named the AIA D-II doubles team of the year. Laux ended the season with a 26-2 overall record including singles and doubles and 14-0 in doubles matches. Pan did not lose a singles or doubles match the entire season culminating in a 30-0 evenly split record.
