Her Whole World Is Basketball : For Geri Gainey of Mater Dei, the Hard Work Pays Off in Heroics and Hoopla

There in the midday sun stood Geri Gainey. Flat-footed on blacktop flambe, flat-out stuck for an answer to what seemed a less-than-formidable question.

So , besides playing basketball, what do you like to do?

She stopped dribbling her basketball. Her usual casual expression began to twist, then went blank. She looked down at the ground, then followed the basketball now rolling away from her.

No response.

Geri Gainey, a recent graduate of Mater Dei High School, has rarely stood still on a basketball court, indoor or out. She has shot around at Foothill High since her family moved to Santa Ana seven years ago.

She has shot by herself, going through hours of drills. She has simulated games-- Geri Gainey , one - on - five against the Soviets --providing her own plot and crowd noise. She has yet to miss a shot at the buzzer.

And, countless times, she has played one-on-one against her sister, Mary.

Mary, with whom she will always be compared. Mary, who set the example at Mater Dei by becoming a two-time Angelus League player of the year (1983-84, 1984-85), only to have Geri-- two years her junior--do the same thing (1985-86, 1986-87).

It was Mary who got Geri interested in basketball.

Geri was in the first grade, Mary in the third. They played together on a team made up of mostly third-graders. Mary played well, Geri was really bad.

“The ball would bounce off my head. I couldn’t do anything,” said Geri, who will play for the North team in the Orange County All-Star girls’ basketball game Saturday at 5 p.m. in UC Irvine’s Bren Center. “It just wasn’t because I was young. I just wasn’t any good. . . . But, I don’t know why, from that point I knew I could be good if I worked at it. So, right then, I started.”

The first proving ground came during the water breaks of her brother’s pickup basketball games at the house.

“The second they finished, Mary and I would jump out on the court and start doing our stuff,” Geri said. “They would never let us play with them. ‘You? You’re too small. And besides, you’re no good.’ They were brutal. Well, you know brothers.”

She has played basketball virtually continuously since the first grade. Shooting coaches, basketball camps, Mary, drills, games. There have been lapses of a day here, a weekend there. There have even been times when she has told herself she should step away from the game for a while.

“That would last about a day, then I couldn’t stand it anymore and I’d have to go and at least shoot around,” she said.

Basketball is everything to Geri Gainey.

Her past: Almost every one of her friends she has met, in some way or another, because of basketball. Either she played with them, or they came to know her because she was a player.

Her future: Gainey will attend Fresno State on a full basketball scholarship. She says the Fresno State coaching staff wants her to play off-guard, complementing a fine young point guard the Bulldogs already have by the name of Mary Gainey.

In 3 1/2 varsity seasons at Mater Dei, Geri Gainey, who stands 5-feet, 6-inches, has played guard, forward and a little, very little, post position.

She averaged 15.9 points last season and led Mater Dei to the quarterfinals of the Southern Section 4-A playoffs. Her career statistics: 1,193 points, 386 rebounds and 276 assists.

Gainey has gone about it in a repetitive manner: Dive, scream, run. She has the ability to rebound an opponent’s missed shot, dribble the length of the court and make a 15-foot jumper.

Against Fountain Valley in the Marina-Edison tournament this season, with Mater Dei trailing, 45-44, with five seconds remaining, Gainey dribbled past the entire Fountain Valley team and stopped for an 18-footer. The ball went in as the buzzer sounded and Mater Dei won, 46-45.

“That’s the kind of stuff you work all the time for,” Gainey said. “That’s why I love basketball. I’ve worked at it and I’ve made myself good at it. Anything else I do, I’m just like anyone else. But basketball, that makes me different, special.”

And so seeking the same, she will travel north to Fresno. A trek she made a week ago and found the weather a bit warm.

“It was at least a hundred,” she said.

Which Gainey thinks may mean a reduction of outdoor playing time. The blacktop at Foothill may be warm, but playing outdoors in Fresno is strictly for those partial to pottery kilns.

“I think Mary and I will probably play inside a lot more,” Geri said. “The games won’t change. I just don’t want to melt.”

It’s nice to know she draws the line somewhere.