Taking Good With the Bad : Melanie Williams Is Western’s Bright Spot

Melanie Williams of Western High School is having a typical season. She averaged 24 points a game as a sophomore, 22 as a junior and 22 in seven games this season.

The 5-foot 8-inch Williams, one of Orange County’s most spectacular guards, is an excellent ballhandler and shooter. Yet, despite her considerable skill and experience, Williams is nervous before each game.

Nervous?

“I’m a wreck before our games,” she said. “I’m thinking about everything. Sometimes I’m so nervous, I’m afraid I might fall down during warmups.”

Williams is nervous because though she is very good, Western (0-7) is struggling.

The Pioneers depend on Williams to provide a majority of the scoring, ballhandling and leadership.

“If you stop Melanie Williams you stop Western,” Brea-Olinda Coach Mark Trakh said.

And this season stopping Williams hasn’t been necessary. She scored a career-high 36 points against Don Lugo and the Pioneers lost by 14. She scored 30 against Esperanza and Western lost by 38. She had 26 points against La Quinta, 26 against Woodbridge, 23 against Mater Dei in lossing efforts.

Western is a team in transition. Last season, under first-year coach Gary Hunt, the Pioneers recorded their best season (18-6), and qualified for the CIF Southern Section 3-A playoffs. However, six players graduated from that team, leaving Hunt with what he calls, “Melanie Williams and the JV team moved up.”

Hunt has a number of promising freshmen and sophomores, the key word being promising. Today, they are young players making mistakes.

“Melanie is playing with young kids who don’t know the game the way she does,” Hunt said. “She’ll make an outstanding pass and it will be dropped out of bounds. Melanie understands that it’s a learning process for these kids, but it’s still hard I imagine.”

Said Williams: “I’d be lying if I told you I’m not frustrated. I’m so frustrated sometimes that I’ll make a weird move or force up a bad shot to get things going. They still have some stuff to learn.”

Williams learned her stuff on park blacktops and preferably against boys.

“It’s a challenge to play against the guys and you learn so much so quick,” she said. “I always play better against the guys. I think the greatest compliment you can give any girl player is to tell her she plays like a man.”

Williams loves the playground game. It is an opportunity to play a wide-open style that allows her to display her talent. However, playing for Western, Williams has felt somewhat constricted.

Last Friday in a game against Mission Viejo, she felt downright suffocated.

Diablo Coach John Hattrup used a box-and-one defense that put four players in a zone around the key, and one player tracking Williams.

“Everywhere I went, there was a player,” Williams said. “There was no way that I could score outside of forcing some shots. It was very frustrating.”

Hunt removed Williams late from the 79-26 loss. As Williams sat on the bench and looked at the ever-widening deficit, she thought about her performance: six points, a number of forced shots and enough loyal companionship from Mission Viejo defenders to put a St. Bernard to shame.

She started to cry.

“I know I play with a straight face, but it gets to me sometimes,” Williams said. “When you go into every game knowing you’re going to be double teamed or have a box-and-one against you, you get paranoid. Here everyone thinks you’re such a great player and you only get six points and people see that and say, ‘What did you do?’ ”

It wasn’t the first time Williams has shed a tear over basketball. She had tried listening to self-hypnosis cassettes to to soothe her nerves, but even that backfired.

“But all I did was think about things and I started to cry.”

It’s not that she’s angry because of the team’s poor record.

“They’re going to be very good in a year or two, you watch,” she said.

She even says she’d like to be around when they get there, but Williams has another engagement.

Though the cassette didn’t work, Melanie has found one method of relief. It’s called early signing. She signed with Nevada Las Vegas before this season. UNLV Co-Coach Sheila Strike-Bolla had seen Williams play with an AAU team last summer and was impressed enough to offer her a scholarship.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am about going there,” she said. “The UNLV people are excited about me coming. They know what I can do.”

Going to Las Vegas will be an adjustment. The Rebels are 50-12 the past two seasons with two Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. championships.

“She won’t have to do everything when she gets to Vegas,” Trakh said. “She can concentrate on the things she does best. Handle the ball, shoot jump shots.”

Williams got a taste of how different basketball will be at Las Vegas playing for an AAU team this season that featured some of Southern California’s best players.

“I noticed I never got nervous on that team, I knew we had all these great players,” Williams said. “You don’t have to take the ball and dribble from free throw line to free throw line and possibly drive. You know if you throw this pass she’s going to catch it, or if you make a good cut you’re going to get the ball. I like playing that type of game. That’s why I look forward to next year. I think it’s going to work out really well.”

Which, compared to how things have gone this season, would be very good.