Pemper Begins Focusing on One Sport Now

Stefanie Pemper’s sport of choice is basketball. Pemper, who graduated from Huntington Beach High School last week, was named to the All-Sunset League first team and earned a scholarship to play at Idaho State next fall.

But that’s not to say basketball is Pemper’s only sport. In fact, it was just one of four she played at Huntington Beach her senior year.

Volleyball was a natural. It’s the first sport of the school year, and it beats conditioning drills for basketball any day.

And she played soccer because the Oilers’ new coach was John Bitting, her American Youth Soccer Organization coach from a few years ago. Never mind that soccer and basketball games were often on the same day.

Then one day while Pemper was playing goalie in a soccer game, Julie Parmenter, the softball coach, persuaded Pemper to come out for the team.

She had planned to get a job in the spring, but what the heck, one more sport wouldn’t hurt.

Pemper and Tami Chick, a teammate on the basketball team, were named female co-athletes of the year at Huntington Beach.

Through it all, Pemper was the sports editor of Highlights, the school paper. She also maintained a 3.26 grade-point average, and she hopes to attend law school some day.

Pemper, who will play for the South team in the girls’ Orange County All-Star basketball game tonight at UC Irvine’s Bren Center, never played a sport she didn’t like or couldn’t master.

And although Pemper, a 5-foot 11-inch guard, may not be the best basketball player on the floor tonight, she may be the most versatile athlete. She also was named all-league in soccer and softball.

“I’d feel bored if I didn’t have anything to do after school,” said Pemper, who averaged 14 points a game for the Oilers. “The truth is, I’d just as soon do more.”

Sunday, for instance, Pemper will drive to Santa Barbara to play in another all-star basketball game.

In August, she’s going to Australia to play in a series of basketball games. And when she returns, it’s off to Pocatello, Ida., for the start of school.

“I wanted to take a tennis class at Golden West (College), but I hadn’t graduated yet,” she said. “I want to go golfing, too, but I have to put it off. That’s a bummer because I don’t have enough time.”

Pemper will play only basketball in college.

“I have four more years to play basketball, and I want to put all I can into it,” she said.

Concentrating on one sport will be a change for her.

“Playing three sports is kind of easy,” Pemper said. “It’s a habit for me.”

Still, Pemper did not play two sports during the same season until this winter.

Bitting allowed Pemper to miss soccer practice, but she still managed to earn the starting goalkeeper spot.

On game days, Pemper would play in the soccer match in the afternoon, then take a few hours to rest before the basketball game that night.

She said there was never a conflict between games or coaches.

“I loved it (playing all the sports),” Pemper said. “I never got tired of it.”