ORDINARY PEOPLE : That’s Trina Vlachos and Dana Douty: a Couple of Ocean View Students Who Have Found That the Secret to Success on the Court and in the Classroom Is as Easy as Hard Work

Meet Trina Vlachos and Dana Douty. They’re just a couple of ordinary high school kids who saved a basketball team in their spare time.

When they arrived at Ocean View High School four years ago, the basketball team had won four games the season before. Since they’ve been on the varsity--Douty for four seasons, Vlachos for three--the Seahawks have won 19, 20 and 21 games in successive seasons, and qualified for the Southern Section playoffs each time.

Douty also is a cheerleader, maintains a 4.2 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale with extra credit for honors classes) and set the CIF Southern Section career assist record earlier this season.

Vlachos? Well, she has a 4.3 grade point average, scores a ton of points and one day dreams of being a bio-medical engineer. But then, who doesn’t dream of bio-medical engineering when they’re 18?

They are the scourge of the underachieving set, every sloucher’s nightmare and every parent’s yardstick.

Why can’t you be like ... ?

No, they are not planning any benefit concerts in the near future, and neither one has found a cure for any disease . . . yet.

They are an extraordinary pair, but they go about their business in such ordinary ways.

Ask them how they excel in their studies, and still manage to do the rest, and you will get no answer. They really don’t know if there is a secret to their success, except for one little short cut called hard work.

From the time they rise at 6 a.m. until they go to sleep, they are on the go with practice, class and studies. Lots of kids play that combo, but few as well.

Douty, a 5-foot 10-inch guard, set the assist record a couple of weeks ago in a game against Long Beach Millikan, passing Charise Bremond (Inglewood 1981-82) whose mark was 651. But when you study the expression, or lack of one, on Douty’s face as she plays, you realize this is serious business.

USC’s Cheryl Miller is criticized for being too expressive, for showing too much emotion. Douty will never hear that. Most of the time on the court her mouth is tightly drawn, her eyes are fixed dead-ahead.

Douty drives for a basket, mouth drawn, eyes front .

Douty commits a foul, mouth drawn, eyes front.

Douty passes to Vlachos to set the assist record at 652, mouth drawn, eyes front.

“There are times, I imagine, when Dana would like to get excited on the court,” said Jan Douty, her mother. “But she knows she’s in control out there. That she has to stay the same to keep everyone else on an even keel.”

It seemed only right that Douty’s record-setting pass would go to Vlachos. In the three seasons they’ve played together Vlachos, a 6-0 forward, has averaged 15, 19 and--this season--22 points per game. She says she can’t imagine basketball without Douty. Douty says the same of Vlachos.

Like Douty, Vlachos shows little emotion on the court--especially near the basket, where tempers often flair and elbows often flail.

She is the same whether scoring 3 or 23. Mouth drawn, eyes . . . well, you know.

“I guess I really never think about scoring,” Vlachos said. “I do think about not scoring. If you have some good games, people tend to expect you to have those games all the time. So, when you don’t get 20 points, people might think you’re not as good as everyone said. That can make you nervous before a game.”

Though what they have accomplished at Ocean View is spectacular, the way they have gone about it is not.

Usually, Douty brings the ball to the front court, measuring a defender while steadily dribbling the ball with her strongest hand--the right. Suddenly, she’ll cross her dribble over to her left hand, taking a long, loping step around the defender and toward the key.

As she nears, the defense is drawn to her. Then Vlachos quickly flashes across the key area. Douty allows the dribble to come up and then doesn’t so much grab the ball to pass, but springs it off her fingertips, as a setter would do in volleyball.

Vlachos receives the ball, turns, shoots and more often than not, makes a short jump shot.

Effective, yes. Spectacular, no.

“I guess you’d say that’s our style,” Douty said. “I can’t imagine playing any other way.”

As far as assists go, she has never had one big game. In fact, she’s never had more than 15 in a game. That’s consistent, but it doesn’t attract a lot of attention.

“I remember hearing about the girl who played with Cheryl Miller. She got 30 assists in the game Cheryl scored 100 points,” Douty said.

The girl was Renee Overton, and she actually got 32 assists and Miller scored 105 points.

“A game like that gets a lot of attention. But, because I haven’t had one, or score a lot of points, I . . . well, I don’t know. I think that’s why I was so happy to get the record. It was something that proved I was for real. I guess I felt a little overlooked last season. It was nice to do something that people had to take notice of.”

Jan first noticed Dana dribbling the ball with her brother Dean at a very young age, and set out to make a player of her. She has taken a rather active role in her daughter’s career.

“When I was younger she would force me to play games when I was sick,” said Dana, who once played a game with a 103-degree temperature.

“If we lose she’ll come in my room and sit on the bed and talk to me about the game until I have to say, ‘Mom, could you please turn out the light, I have to go to school tomorrow.’ ”

Jan takes it all in with a laugh, and then nods her head. She’s guilty as charged.

“It’s all true,” she said. “But I think it’s good to push a kid once in a while.”

Judging from the results, she may have something there.

“Dana’s the most consistent player you’ll find,” said Kelly Painter, Ocean View coach. “She doesn’t get attention, because she does what she does so well, every time. If she stopped, maybe someone would notice.”

Vlachos is given plenty of attention by other teams. Double-teamed most of the time, she still manages to score. But, like Ocean View alumnus Wayne Carlander, she gets her points inside--shots from close range, shots from rebounds and shots from loose balls in the key.

Like Carlander, she’s the kind of player that will score 22 points and go unnoticed. A common reaction after her point totals are announced is, “Really? I didn’t think she had that many.”

It just shows what you can do with a little spare time.