Ramona Enjoying Its Playoff Success : Basketball Becomes Town’s Top Topic as Teams Stay Alive in the Postseason

It was Wednesday, March 9, and there was something new in Ramona: tournament basketball.

As the Southern California Regionals moved into the semifinals, Ramona High School’s boys’ and girls’ teams were very much alive in Division III. The girls defeated Highland, 54-38, Wednesday night to reach Saturday’s final at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. The boys are at Lemoore tonight at 7.

The support they were receiving from school and community Wednesday was keeping the excitement high:

7:35 a.m.--In about 24 hours, the Ramona boys’ basketball team will be boarding Hal Dick’s motor home for a six-hour ride to Lemoore, near Fresno. Dick’s son, Todd, is a freshman center, and Hal volunteered to chauffeur the team.

The school day is just beginning, so representatives of the student government halt basketball ticket sales and head for class.

The boys’ team reports to the gym for a shoot-around during Coach Al Schaffer’s homeroom period.

“Having the team in here for first hour has been tremendous because of limited practice time with our small facilities,” says Schaffer, who is in his first year at Ramona. “It has allowed us to shoot free throws, do conditioning and skill work and go over scouting reports.”

7:55--Seniors Jason McClenaghan and Chad Nelson stop shooting long enough to talk about what will be the biggest game of their lives.

“The six-hour bus trip is kind of a depressing thought, but we’ll be all right,” McClenaghan says. “The town is really pumped up--I’ve never seen it like this before for basketball.”

The players are excited as well. “I’ve been sleeping pretty well this week,” Nelson says. “I don’t know about tonight, though.”

8:15--The shoot-around has ended, and the players have gathered in Schaffer’s classroom. The rest of the day, it will be used for math. Now it’s time to pass out the scouting report and discuss some final instructions for the trip.

“We’ve got a job to do,” Schaffer says. “And that job is to play the best Bulldog basketball that you can.”

8:30--Lee Pinkard, 68, and his wife, Mary, 69, are out of their house and on their way to a court appearance in San Diego. They have to settle a property dispute, but whatever happens, they’ll be back in town this evening to see the Ramona girls play.

“People ask us all the time, ‘Which kid is your grandkid?’ ” says Lee Pinkard, who was born in Ramona and played basketball at the high school from 1933 to 1937. “We say, ‘None of ‘em.’ I just love basketball--it’s my favorite sport.”

They have seen 29 of 30 boys’ games this season; they missed one at Carlsbad when Mary had an auto accident just before tipoff. They also see most of the girls’ games.

“My wife and I say it’s too bad more people don’t go to the girls’ games,” Pinkard says. “During basketball season, we’re gone four or five nights a week. It gets pretty hectic.”

8:50--Donald Haught, Ramona superintendent of schools, is walking across the school grounds, and he likes what he sees.

“I think the mood is euphoric,” Haught says. “The whole community is excited.

“A lot of people in the community have graduated from Ramona and are now in their 50s, 60s and 70s, and they still come to the games.

“Our district motto is, ‘We’re moving up.’ I think the basketball success is symbolic of the fact that there are some capable students and teachers here.”

It was Haught who hired Schaffer from Michigan last year. “I felt, ‘Here’s a guy who’s a winner,’ ” Haught says. “Here’s what we need.”

9:15--The last time Ramona tasted success in basketball was in the early 1970s, when Jan Page was the coach. Page, who still teaches math at Ramona, coached the Bulldogs to San Diego Section 1-A titles in 1972 and 1973, and he played at the school from 1958-1961.

“I’d say the biggest difference between when I played in the ‘50s and coached in the ‘70s and today is that back then, we were expected to win,” says Page. “We used to have an almost arrogant feeling, that we were the best and nobody could beat us.

“Now we’ve been down for quite a while. As a consequence, the mood seems to be a little different. The kids have a little better feeling about the school.

“High school sports seem to be at the core of how good a school is. If the sports teams are successful, the students seem to think it’s a neat place.”

9:35--Junior Lori Parlette, proudly wearing her cheerleader outfit, is on her way to class.

“It’s really nice being noticed as a decent team,” Parlette says. “And it’s pretty fun car-pooling to the tournament games.”

Parlette and the rest of the cheerleaders will leave for Lemoore in a station wagon Thursday at 10:30. They will follow the spectator bus.

10:00--Judy Schweitzer, who owns the 7-Eleven, finishes meeting with Tony Dunkailo. Schweitzer has volunteered to supply the boys’ team’s motor home with gas for the trip to Lemoore, and Dunkailo, a former school board member who is helping with arrangements, is finishing plans.

Says Schweitzer: “My son, John, played basketball for Ramona last year and didn’t get to go to the state tournament then, so we’re enjoying it now. Besides, the kids are in the store all the time.”

10:30--Standing outside her classroom door at the high school and wearing a Ramona T-shirt is Claire Schneider, 39, head of the science department.

“This is such a small school, I don’t believe the kids thought we are as good as we are,” Schneider says. “I’m really excited. I’ve been to all the boys’ games except for one.”

On Thursday, Schneider will be in her classroom instead of the bus to Lemoore. School is in session Friday, and faculty members are expected to be there.

11:00--Tickets are the subject as Larry Bringham, assistant athletic director, delivers two large envelopes to Athletic Director Ron Carter. Both would like to Ramona fans to get a chance to use the contents: tickets to Saturday’s Division III championship game at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

Carter, who coordinated the nine buses Ramona used to transport fans to last Friday’s section championship game against Lincoln, has spent the past three days working on logistics for this week: transportation, hotel reservations, tickets and other details that are not readily noticeable.

It’s hectic, but he wouldn’t change it.

“I love it,” says Carter, who is in his 16th year in the Ramona school system. “I’ve known most of these kids since they were in the sixth grade. And some of them have been involved in no school activities until now.

“They went to the game Friday, and now they’re excited. It seems like in the last two weeks, the discipline problems have been way down.”

11:20--Registrar Lillian Agnew is wearing her game-day shirt. It’s a white T-shirt that rea

ds, “C.I.F., Great in ’88.”

She’s ready for the girls’ game tonight.

12:10 p.m.--A man in the Ramona Cafe sees a sign on the wall and says, “That ain’t how you spell dogs.”

Indeed, the sign reads, “Good Luck Dawgs.”

A waitress says, “That’s how they spell dogs.”

1:15--Lanice Karcher, a junior point guard on the girls’ team, is on her way to class. The girls’ 7 p.m. tipoff is drawing closer.

“I think we’re ready,” she says. “We’re all pretty nervous, though.”

1:30--As the programs for the girls’ game arrive in the school office, principal Jim Roulston plans to meet Carter for dinner before the game.

“The No. 1 problem in Ramona is that the people view themselves as backwoods hicks,” Roulston says. “It’s nice to be involved in something positive. We’re already taking reservations for the spectator bus to the championship in Los Angeles this weekend. I’m sure one of our teams will make it, and I think both of them can.”

Above Roulston’s desk is a red sign that reads, “Moderation in all things.”

2:15--Tina Brooklyn, a forward on the girls’ team, is walking toward the gym.

“It’s really surprising how the school has gotten behind us,” she says. “Before, a lot of people said, ‘They’re just girls, it’s no big deal.’ But now, they know we can go places and we’re exciting to watch.”

2:20--Joe Bess, the girls’ coach, is in the coaches’ office. He teaches special education at Ramona Elementary School, but his mind is in other places.

“Your mind constantly drifts back to the game,” he says. “You wonder if you’ve done enough to prepare for it, especially when you don’t know a team very well.”

Bess knows very little about Highland. But game time is approaching.