Xavier College Prep's Barb Chura and Ironwood's Tim Beck have been named the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Girls and Boys National Coaches of the Year, respectively, for the 2023-24 school year. Both coaches beat out seven other national finalists representing girls and boys soccer programs from around the country for this honor.

Chura has led the Xavier Preparatory School girls soccer team to four consecutive 6A state championships. In her 22 years at Xavier Prep, Chura has won nine state titles and compiled an overall record of 288-66-26. She was named Arizona Republic All-State Coach of the Year in 2009 and Girls Team Coach of the Year in 2024. Other honors include the Phoenix Women’s Sports Association Coach of the Year in 2009 and National Soccer Coaches Association of America Coach of the Year for Private Schools in 2009 and 2010. She also has coached four Gatorade Arizona Players of the Year. Chura previously was an assistant women’s soccer coach at Notre Dame, Texas Tech and James Madison universities for several years before joining the Xavier staff. Chura believes that “athletics teaches students discipline, teamwork, sportsmanship and accountability, as well as how to become leaders and confident young women.”

In 30 years as the boys soccer coach at Ironwood, Beck has led his teams to the state tournament 29 times. And Ironwood entered the 2025 season as the defending 5A state champions having earned Beck’s fifth AIA title in his career last season. In addition to Beck’s five state championships, Ironwood has been runner-up four times. Beck’s 490 career wins rank second in state history, including a state record 26 wins during its 2006 state championship season. Beck has been named state coach of the year five times and region coach of the year 14 times. In 2016, he was inducted into the Arizona High School Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame. In addition, Beck has organized the annual Eagle Soccer Clinic for the past 30 years and was the Pride of Peoria recipient in 2024.

The NFHS, which has been recognizing coaches through an awards program since 1982, honors coaches in the top 10 girls sports and top 10 boys sports (by participation numbers), and in two “other” sports – one for boys and one for girls – that are not included in the top 10 listings. The NFHS also recognizes a spirit coach as a separate award category. Winners of NFHS awards must be active coaches during the year for which they receive their award.

The NFHS Coaches Association has an advisory committee composed of a chair and eight sectional representatives. The sectional committee representatives evaluate the state award recipients from the states in their respective sections and select the best candidates for the sectional award in each sport category. The NFHS Coaches Association Advisory Committee then considers the sectional candidates in each sport, ranks them according to a point system, and determines a national winner for each of the 20 sport categories, the spirit category and two “other” categories.

Arizona also had eight other Section 7 winners from 2023-24 that were finalists for national coach of the year, with one coach winning Section 7 honors for two teams. They are Crystal Strimple (Desert Mountain boys swimming & diving and girls swimming & diving), Tony Oldani (Brophy Prep, other boys sports-volleyball), Beth Wilson (Trivium Prep, girls volleyball), Jim Rafferty (Millennium boys cross country), Mike Urbanski (Salpointe Catholic boys track & field), Robert Lorona (Hayden baseball), Kay Solomon (Snowflake football), and Herman Andrews Jr. (Safford wrestling).

Chura and Beck become the 13th and 14th national coaches of the year from Arizona since the 2016-17 school year, and the sixth consecutive year Arizona has sported at least one national winner. The others are:

Shawn Hardt, Queen Creek, girls track & field (2022-23)
Greg Haagsma, Valley Christian, boys basketball (2021-22)
Rickey Baker, Hopi, boys cross country (2021-22)
Sue Hysong, Westview, girls track & field (2021-22)
Steve Kanner, Hamilton, boys golf (2019-20)
Ed McQuade, Boulder Creek/Greenway, softball (2020-21)
Valorie McKenzie, Horizon, girls volleyball (2018-19)
Dave Van Sickle, Xavier Prep, girls cross country (2018-19)
Cherry Roberds, Miami, girls tennis (2018-19)
Lois Emshoff, Chandler, girls other-badminton (2018-19)
Karen Self, Seton Catholic, girls basketball (2016-17)
Kristie Stevens, Xavier Prep, girls tennis (2016-17)

For a complete list of the national winners click here to view the NFHS press release.