Venice Girls Are Courting Success : Coach Says Her Gondoliers May Be Small in Stature, but Not in Heart

When Jean Edwards, Venice High School girls basketball coach since 1973, was asked how her 1987 team compares to those of the past, she replied:

“I’ve had strong teams before, but they weren’t strong enough. I’ve had excellent players, but not all at one time.”

This year Edwards seems to have it all: A group of excellent players strong enough to carry the team to the 3-A City championship game on March 6 at the Sports Arena.

As the week began, Venice, a senior-laden squad, was 7-1 in City-West League play and tied for first place with San Pedro. The Gondoliers were also 14-1 overall and coming off a 39-37 league victory over University.

Fourth Win

The win over University, regarded by many as the City’s strongest 3-A team before the season began, was the fourth time that Venice had defeated the Warriors in as many tries, twice in a tournament and twice in league competition. And University has dominating 6-2 junior center Kesha Martin in its lineup, while the Gondoliers have had no one taller than 5-8.

Venice’s only loss was a 60-48 league decision to San Pedro, a game that Edwards and her players say was won at the foul line. In the loss, Edwards said, each team made 22 field goals and San Pedro’s other points came on free throws when six Venice players fouled out of the game.

At least one Venice player, 5-7 forward-center Latisha Burnett, thinks the way her team suffered its only loss was unfair. The teams will meet again Feb. 18 at San Pedro in the last game of the regular season, and Burnett said: “I want revenge.”

Although often shorter than other front-court players she faces, Burnett has demonstrated that she wants the ball whenever it bounces off a rim or backboard. She has great spring in her legs; in track and field, she has a best mark of 17-8 in the long jump.

21 Rebounds Last Week

Burnett is averaging 16.7 rebounds and about 12 points a game. In last week’s win over University, she always seemed to be in good position and out-rebounded the much-taller Martin, 21-18. However, Martin scored a game-high 19 points to 8 for Burnett, and a player who grabs 18 rebounds is not exactly standing around twiddling her thumbs.

RosheaMaderer,a 5-6 forward and one of seven Venice seniors, scored a team-high 14 points against the Warriors last Friday, and 5-4 senior guard Jenice (Necie) Cooley added 10 points, about her average for the season.

Though Maderer and others contribute to a balanced scoring attack and Burnett is strong on the boards, Cooley is the team’s spark plug. She is averaging 5.4 assists and “at least two blocked shots a game,” Coach Edwards said.

Cooley has even blocked a few shots by University’s Martin, a highly regarded center who is nearly a foot taller than the Venice guard.

An observer at last week’s Venice-University game believes he saw Cooley block one of Martin’s shots. He isn’t quite sure how Cooley did it and he might not swear to it in court, but he is pretty sure it happened. He would testify that Cooley is quick, has good anticipation and can jump a lot higher than anyone would expect of a young woman who is only 5-4.

Called ‘Exceptional’

University Coach Patricia Peisner might have reason to swear at Cooley. After Venice had beaten her team for a third time, Peisner said that Cooley “is exceptional” and that all she lacks is “maybe another foot (in height).”

Edwards has had other exceptional players in her 14 years at Venice, including ShulandaLang, who played last year at Santa Monica College and expects to return there after dropping out to work this year, and Loretta Butler, a 1977 graduate who was a scholarship player at Pepperdine University.

Butler “was probably the best all-around player I’ve ever had,” Edwards said. “If I had her on this team, we probably wouldn’t lose a game.”

Edwards doesn’t expect to lose many with Cooley in the lineup. “She plays like she’s 5-8,” the coach said. “If she were six feet tall, with the ability she has--awesome.”

Also a top softball player, Cooley was selected to represent Venice, with young women from the City’s 48 other high schools, on “National Women in Sport Day,” which was celebrated Wednesday.

5-0 but Quick

Other seniors who have helped keep the losses down are 5-8 center Racquel Davis, 5-5 guard-forward Latanya Franklin, 5-7 forward-center Sharon Jones and 5-0 Carol Ishioka, another quick guard who has been averaging about four steals a game.

Edwards said she has “never had big teams” at Venice. “Occasionally, I have had a girl who has been six feet tall, but (they have) not been the best players.” Her present team may be small, she said, “but not in heart.”

They may be small, but they haven’t escaped the notice of male students who have begun turning out to root for the girls.

Shulanda Lang’s younger brother Oliver, a 6-4 senior and a top player on the boys team, gave Coach Edwards and her girls a hand at the beginning of the season, and Edwards said that he has been a big help.

Lang, whose own team was 10-6 overall and 4-2 in the 3-A Pac-6 League as the week began, said he has been giving the girls some tips because “I just like to give somebody something that I’ve learned along the way.”

No College Bids

Winning may have brought the Venice girls more attention, but not from college scouts. None of the senior girls has received a letter from a college.

Edwards said “they’re not hearing from colleges . . . (because the scouts) haven’t seen them play. If we do go to the city finals, I think it will wake some people up.”

The first three teams in each league are assured of a berth in the playoffs, which begin Feb. 20 at the home courts of higher-seeded teams. But Burnett said she and her fellow players want to beat San Pedro in their rematch and “make sure by being No. 1.”

Burnett said the chance of beating San Pedro for the City-West championship “all boils down to who wants it more.” No need to ask Burnett which team she thinks will win the rematch.

Key Question

As her interviewer was about to leave, Edwards said she hadn’t been asked “what makes them special.”

So he asked, and she answered: “I think they have more desire than any team I’ve ever had. That’s something you cannot coach in them. It’s there or it’s not there.

“They told me at the beginning of the season that they were going to the Sports Arena. In the past, I used to hope we might go.”

Asking the Venice girls if they think they can win the 3-A championship is probably a useless question. That would be like asking Necie Cooley to jump, knowing that her only answer would be: “How high?”