What Do You Do When You’re Good but Your Team Isn’t? : LONG ON ABILITY : SHORT ON TALENT

Monica Walton steps into the Tustin High School gymnasium and sits down by herself. She laces her basketball shoes, does some light stretching, all the while eyeing the junior varsity girls’ basketball game unfolding before her and all the while saying nothing to teammates around her.

Now if Walton is anything, she is friendly. The Saddleback High School day hardly holds enough minutes for her to talk, joke and solve the urgent crises of teen-age life.

Walton also plays basketball at Saddleback. She plays basketball better than any girl who has ever attended the school. She started on varsity as a freshman. She is quick and smooth and glides from one end of the court to the other. Her jump shot is a jump shot and her range/future seems unlimited.

But not at Saddleback. Saddleback is 0-11.

Walton is an extraordinary player on a less-than-ordinary team, something that makes her stand out, but by no means unique. Sports has a rich history of great players playing on less than great teams.

Ernie Banks played 19 seasons for the Chicago Cubs without playing in a the World Series. Pete Maravich scored a lot of points for some bad National Basketball Assn. teams.

In Orange County, countless, many times faceless, high school athletes labor long for teams short on talent.

Football players such as Sean Cheatham at Rancho Alamitos (0-9-1) and John Christensen at Kennedy (0-10) were outstanding in their all-around play this season and all they got for it were outstanding all-around beatings.

Walton’s team is young and small. There is only one senior. Walton, a 5-foot 8-inch junior, is the team’s tallest player. There have been games in which she has scored more than half of her team’s points.

Walton scored 26 in a 39-37 loss to Corona del Mar. She had 28 when Santa Ana Valley beat Saddleback 62-36. She had 22 in Saddleback’s 52-38 loss to Costa Mesa.

What may be worse is that playing where she does has made Monica Walton, MONICA WALTON! to her teammates. To them, she is all that is good--very good--about basketball. Her exploits are told and retold.

“I had heard so much about her before I met her,” said John Dellutri, the team’s scorekeeper. “I expected her to walk on water.”

Oh to be young, gifted, a legend. . . . Oh, give it all to someone else.

Expectations and hero worship did runneth over to the point that Walton was considering quitting the team this season.

“I got sick of it,” she said. “I got sick of ‘Monica you’re going to be another Cheryl Miller,’ and ‘Monica you’re the greatest.’ People on the team depended on me too much.

“They wouldn’t think about shooting, they’d just keep passing the ball to me. And so we keep losing. I was almost to the point where I was so tired of it that I was ready to walk away.”

One reason she stayed is that this year’s team, though dependent on her, has shown signs of self-help.

“One reason I like this team, is that they’ll do some of the stuff themselves,” she said.

Devin Samaha, 17, loves soccer. He has played the sport for 13 years. He has dabbled in other sports such as football, but always returns to soccer.

“I love it, it’s that simple,” Samaha said.

Samaha has played with great teams, full of players who love the sport. Samaha now plays for University High. University is 3-7, which hurts.

“I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault, but there just isn’t that much dedication on the team,” he said. “It’s never hard for me to get up for a game or practice, but I guess that’s because of the way I feel about the game.”

Samaha said he tried to be encouraging early in the season, but his words went unheeded. And so, he hardened.

“I really tried at the beginning,” he said. “But now I just worry about myself.”

And worry can turn to panic with the thoughts of college scholarships.

Will anyone want to look at a player on a bad team? Will the team drag me down with it?

Scott Herdman is a 6-4 guard at Laguna Beach. In Herdman’s mind, he was basically created to be an off-guard/shooting guard. He can shoot. He’s averaging 21.7 points a game.

Problem is, at 6-4, Herdman is the tallest player on Laguna Beach (5-10) and is forced to play center.

“I feel trapped,” Herdman said. “I know my team needs me inside, but I know colleges will only want me as a shooting guard. I love my teammates and I want to do anything I can do to help. But I also want to play in college. I guess it’s just circumstances and I don’t want to sound negative, but I do feel trapped.”

And so Herdman, like others in his situation, has quietly wished every now and then.

“That I went to another school,” he said. “Just for basketball, you know. I wouldn’t want to leave my friends, but for basketball, sometimes, I wish I could be somewhere else.”