Say goodbye to Jude LaCava. The longtime Phoenix sportscaster is leaving Fox 10

Longtime sportscaster Jude LaCava is leaving Fox 10 (KSAZ).

“I think it’s almost like the sports analogy,” LaCava said Thursday. “You realize you’ve done everything you can do, and it’s time. I say that because I’ve been very, very fortunate and very blessed to have been in this market over 30 years.”

LaCava, 64, came to Fox 10 in 1993, after four years of hosting the “620 Sportsline” at radio station KTAR. At the time the jump between media was somewhat unusual, though writers going from newspaper and websites to television would become more commonplace.

“I was lucky in a lot of ways — right place, right time, and in that sense fortunate,” he said.

LaCava's last day on the air is April 1.

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Leaving the station was his decision, LaCava said.

'Jude has been far more than the face of our sports department'

“They were supportive and understanding and realizing that things evolve,” he said of Fox 10 management. “I think it’s called evolution — you have a natural progression of things.”

Doug Bannard, Fox 10's news director, said in a statement, "For more than 26 years Jude has been far more than the face of our sports department. He has been its heart and soul. Jude’s passion to win never wavered, and the wins are many — no one has cultivated more sources or broken more sports stories. He has helped FOX 10 dominate in one of the country’s most dynamic sports markets."

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So will we see LaCava on the air again? Hard to say.

“I think the first thing you do when you step away is step back and kind of recharge the battery again,” he said. “I don’t know. I can’t answer that right now.”

He does not, however, have any immediate plans, LaCava said, beyond doing more work with the Dorothy Foundation, which helps fight cancer and is named for his mother.

'It's time to pass the torch'

If anything has changed more than the Valley sports landscape in the time since LaCava started, it’s media. But LaCava did a good job of keeping up with the changes.

“You’ve got to try to keep an edge, and that included social media, that included live Facebook posts and interaction,” he said. “I think it’s certainly new and exciting when you have a chance to connect directly to the viewer, to the sports fan, and get involved with their specific questions.”

The two-way communication reminded him of his days in talk radio, he said.

“It’s kind of what’s old is new again.”

LaCava, befitting his on-air persona, sounded passionate about stepping away.

“It’s time to pass the torch to the next young group,” he said. “I think for the most part you get to the point where you want to move on to another chapter, whatever that may be. And I just came to that realization, especially over the last year or so. I always believed, and my old man used to tell me, hey, don’t be hesitant about the next challenge in life and go for it. I just felt like it was time.”

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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