Leading Athletes Named to The Times’ All-County Teams : Girls’ Volleyball : Newport Was in Good Hands With Asper

Newport Harbor High School girls’ volleyball Coach Mike Neece claims he has been spoiled the last four years. That’s how long he has had Lara Asper for a setter; how long the most crucial position on his team was in talented and capable hands.

Asper has been a starter at Newport Harbor since her freshman season. She’s a four-time, All-CIF Southern Section selection and was twice named the Sea View League’s most valuable player.

But this is Asper’s senior season, and Neece isn’t looking forward to the transition he’ll be faced with when she’s gone.

“Life after Lara Asper’s going to be really hard for me,” Neece said. “I think I’ve taken her for granted.”

Strange as it sounds, Asper seems to like it that way. Newport Harbor finished 22-2 this season. The Sailors only losses came to Mira Costa--a team that went the entire season without losing a game, let alone a match--in the Southern Section and state championship matches. And when Neece suggests that Asper is the biggest reason his team has been so successful, she smiles shyly and shakes her head.

Leadership? That comes with the position, Asper said. She’d much rather blend in than stand out. Her style is more suited to setting a hard-working example.

“Whatever the price is, she’s willing to pay it,” Neece said. “And she works so hard that everybody else on the team almost feels obligated to work as hard. I’d much rather have a kid who walks the walk than talks the talk.

“She’s willing to make herself vulnerable and put herself out there on the line. She’s not really concerned with being cool.”

On the court, however, Asper is collected. Woodbridge Coach Steve Stratos watched Asper quietly recapture the momentum after the Warriors won the first game of a Sea View League match earlier this season.

“She has the ability to totally control a match,” Stratos said. “There are very few players who can do that.”

Asper is in her seventh year of playing volleyball year-round. Seven years of spending countless hours in gyms that all begin looking the same, collecting floor burns to go with her collection of trophies and plaques. But she says she’s not a burnout victim.

“I don’t think I’ll ever really get tired of it,” she said. “Sometimes, I get tired of being in a gym for so long, but I don’t get tired of playing. I love to play.”

The years have been good to her. What began in sixth grade, when she joined the Orange County Volleyball Club, has blossomed into a way of obtaining the college education Asper has been preparing herself for. She’s been taking accelerated, college-prep courses at Newport Harbor, and plans to eventually attend law school. Stanford and the University of the Pacific, the teams which met last weekend for the NCAA championship, are among the schools interested in Asper.

Wherever she ends up, there will be a volleyball coach happy to have her around for four years. Just ask Mike Neece. FIRST TEAM

Name School Class Pos. Mindee Adams Woodbridge Sr. MB Lara Asper Newport Harbor Sr. S Tara Cross SCC Sr. OH Valerie Foley Laguna Beach Sr. OH Stephanie Snyder Fountain Valley Sr. S Tracy Krueger Newport Harbor Jr. MB

SECOND TEAM

OH: Yleana Carrasco (Anaheim) Sr., Jackie Cook (Fountain Valley) Sr., Jenny Evans (Newport Harbor) Soph., Pam Lance (Edison) Sr., Cinammon Williams (Southern California Christian) Sr. S: Wendy Whiting (Laguna Beach), Sr.