The Post Club : Thousand Oaks Girls Coin Catchy Nickname For Front Line, but Lancers Also Deserve to Be Called Champions

The Post Club might be the only after-hours rendezvous in Thousand Oaks. And, at The Post Club, every night is ladies’ night.

Hours upon hours of off-season practices have transformed the Thousand Oaks High girls’ basketball team--four members of which compose The Post Club--into the best in the Marmonte League, bar none. Now, almost every game is happy hour.

The Lancers are 22-3, 11-0 in league play, and have clinched their first league championship in 10 years. The team has won 15 consecutive games and is ranked No. 6 in the Southern Section by The Times.

Hence, the most exclusive group on the Thousand Oaks campus isn’t the key club, the debate team, or even last season’s Coastal Conference-champion football team. It’s The Post Club.

Four post players--Barbara Tanner, Kris Pederson, Suzie Fluty and Cindy Wiley--are the Lancers’ version of club mud, bogging down opponents on offense and defense. Tanner, like many of her teammates, has come off a summer of daily two- and three-hour practices, American Roundball Corp. games and Thousand Oaks’ own summer program.

Tanner’s after-hours workouts have made her the leader of the band, averaging 14.8 points and 10 rebounds a game.

“It’s more by the things she does than by what she says,” said Thousand Oaks Coach Chuck Brown, who is in his sixth season. “I think they respect her because of the hard work she puts in. She’s probably the hardest worker out there, or at least one of the hardest working.”

Tanner, a 6-foot, 2-inch senior, was a phone call away from giving up basketball before her junior season. She had lost interest in the sport.

Brown called her at home a couple of days before practice started to give her his best sales pitch. It worked, and he’s been pitching Tanner’s praises since.

“Barbara’s always had the athletic ability,” Brown said, “and she finally found a purpose for it.”

Tanner, who likened herself to “a big, giant tree,” in previous years, has uprooted herself and is playing the low post in high style. Her inside moves are pure athleticism, and she’s quick to pass off or hit the short jump shot.

“I didn’t feel like I belonged out there before,” she said. “Now I feel like I’m getting out there and running and passing and doing the best job I can do.”

Her improvement has caught the attention of such Division I schools as Oregon State, New Mexico State, Fresno State, Idaho State and Valparaiso.

Tanner’s hard-nosed, in-the-paint basketball has opposing coaches such as Camarillo’s Jack Willard eyeing Tanner’s graduation date.

“Tanner looks a lot more physical because she just manhandled us,” Willard said. “She got 21 points, but it was the way she got them. She just ripped down rebounds and put them back up.

“They’re really a good team. I’m glad they’re all graduating.”

Actually, only four are graduating--Tanner, Wiley, Pederson and guard Lina Mascarenas.

Before they leave, however, the Lancers would like to post several more wins. That will depend largely on the play of The Post Club members, distinguished in practice by their neon-red T-shirts with nicknames emblazoned on the back.

Guard Amy Chandler and Mascarenas and top reserve Shani Smyth are also crucial, however. What good is a club with no secret passes?

When not on the fast break, starters Mascarenas and Chandler regularly cruise the top of the key, ball in tow, looking for an opening.

Mascarenas’ 5-11 stature could easily qualify for admittance into The Post Club, but her ball-handling (six assists a game) and outside shooting are too valuable to lose inside. She is, however, counted on for rebounds.

“Everyone on the team is a big part in this,” said Mascarenas, who signed a letter of intent before the season to attend Valparaiso. “We all push each other. We’re really a team. There’s a lot of talent, but we don’t depend on one person.”

Case in the paint: Pederson, a 5-10 forward who returned as the leading scorer from last season’s 12-12 team. Friday against Channel Islands, Pederson scored 14 points to become the career scoring leader at Thousand Oaks with 764. This season, she averages 11.2 points a game, behind Tanner’s total and Mascarenas’ 12.3.

“At the beginning of the year I had to come to terms with the fact they don’t need me to score,” Pederson said.

So, Pederson, whose offense is more than a drop in the bucket, also turned to defense and rebounding, while picking her spots to score. She averages 7.3 rebounds and leads the team with more than nine rebounds a game in league play. A co-founder of The Post Club with Tanner, Pederson has enjoyed this season like no other.

“For me, I’ve played three years, and this year is really great,” she said. “I have a lot of pride in our team.”

As does Brown, who said deviations such as the formation of The Post Club and various team outings have helped bring the Lancers closer.

“I think one of the keys to this team is that they have a real good cohesiveness,” he said. “They do things together a lot--off the court.

“I don’t really know what the key is, but most of them have the desire to excel. They want to be a good team, and they want to compete, so they’re willing to work to do that. I wish I had the answer to it, because if I did, I’d be rich. I’d bottle it.”

Brown has won the players’ respect.

“The good thing about him is that he’s able to push us and not make us hate him,” Mascarenas said. “We all like him and respect him. He’s the type of coach you can be friends with and not take advantage of him. When he’s serious, you’re serious. But we have a lot of fun.”

Meanwhile, the stands at Thousand Oaks are beginning to fill.

“We’re beginning to see the crowds a little more,” Brown said. “The girls themselves are very popular, and their friends come and see them play.”

They come to see The Post Club and the rest of the Lancers, where spirits are high and every night belongs to the ladies.