San Diego Player of the Week : Anderson Finds Home With Second Family

Nicole Anderson, a sophomore guard for the La Jolla High School girls’ basketball team, talks about her team as if it’s part of her family.

“It’s more than like a team,” Anderson, 15, said. “I feel it’s like my second family because we’re all really close and we’re always encouraging each other.”

Anderson, The Times’ Player of the Week, knows a lot about families. She’s the youngest of six children, four boys and two girls. Her brothers helped teach her to play basketball. Her sister helped convince her that she could make the team at La Jolla, which she did as a freshman.

“I started playing when I was about 7 years old with my brothers,” she said. “I guess they needed a fifth player.”

She played regularly at Memorial Junior High in Southeast San Diego near her home. But when it came time to try out for the team at La Jolla, which she attends through the Voluntary Ethnic Enrollment Program, she had some doubts.

“My sister (Sandra) was the one who really influenced me,” Anderson said. “I wasn’t really going to go out because I was afraid. I didn’t know varsity, I knew JV (junior varsity) because my sister had seen them play before. She influenced me, because she also played basketball (at San Diego High in 1981).”

Anderson not only made the team, she started all but one game for the varsity, which finished 9-1 in the City Western League and advanced to the San Diego Section semifinals.

“When she first came to us last year, I had no idea how good she was,” said Coach Lori Schwalbach. “She’s a real team player. She’s very team-oriented.”

Anderson, second in the county in scoring with a 23.6 average, had 28 points Friday in a 44-26 victory over University City. On Tuesday, she had 16 in a 58-23 victory over Kearny. La Jolla (8-0) is leading the league.

“She shares the ball very well,” Schwalbach said. “There are times when I’m on her because she should have gone for the layup and passed off to a teammate.”

Anderson, at 5-feet 4-inches, depends on quickness to make up for her lack of height.

“Being smaller than most players just makes me want to go harder and show them that I can do anything that they can do,” she said. “I feel good about that.”

Anderson, who has a 3.5 grade-point average, plans to study nursing in college.

She realizes that her success in basketball “might not last forever. I feel that an education is extremely important. In basketball, I could get hurt or something, but I’ll always have my mind, my brain, and I’ll need that.”

But for now, her goals include basketball.

“I wanted to be the best that I can be,” she said, “and help my team to go all the way this time because we have the potential to go all the way. The team to beat? That’s tough.”

She paused, then shouted: “Us.”