Prep Review : San Pasqual Returns to Full-Court Strength

The San Pasqual High School basketball team, off to a 1-4 start, will add seven new players to its roster this afternoon.

No, Coach Tom Buck didn’t recruit players out of desperation. Rather, all seven had been part of the school’s football playoff drive--which ended Saturday night with a 21-10 loss to Rancho Buena Vista in the San Diego Section 2-A championship game.

“At San Pasqual, it’s a unique situation,” Buck said. “Mike (Dolan, the football coach) and I are such good friends, and we realize we have to share athletes . . . but one program’s success feeds into the other one’s.”

Three of the relative newcomers will be starters. They are Andy Loveland, who was second on the team with an average of 12 points a game last season; Roger Hill, who averaged 7.5 points last season, and point guard Danny Andrews.

Loveland will make the transition from football quarterback to basketball forward; Hill will move from defensive back to guard, and Andrews will go from linebacker to guard.

The trio will join 6-foot 9-inch sophomore Eric Meek and Brian Banner in the starting lineup.

The remaining 4 football-to-basketball players are Jim Clayton (who will move from running back to guard), John Koser (defensive back to guard), Kevin Herde (linebacker to forward) and Gary Weis (wide receiver to forward).

Through the first 5 games, Buck had 9 players, but the majority of them will return to the junior varsity squad.

“It’s really strange,” Buck said. “We lost to Bonita (La Verne) in the Riverside tournament Thursday, and as we were coming home it was like it was the last game of the season. A month into the season, we’re starting over.

“But the (JV) kids knew the situation to begin with, and it was a lot of fun. They played like they had nothing to lose because they were supposed to lose.”

But they didn’t lose by much. Three of the four defeats were by fewer than 10 points.

San Pasqual has 13 days of practice before its next game, Dec. 27, against Mira Mesa in the Mt. Carmel tournament.

“I’m sure our shooting touch will be nonexistent for a couple of weeks,” Buck said. “The ball is now round. And it’s a little different jumping for a rebound than running off tackle.”

Rancho Buena Vista standout Kira Jorgensen’s 21st-place finish in the Kinney national cross-country championships Saturday at Morley Field showed that you don’t have to be a professional or collegiate athlete to feel the overbearing weight of pressure.

Jorgensen, a senior, has won just about everything--including last year’s Kinney national meet--in the last 2 years. Her last loss in a race was at the Kinney national championship as a sophomore.

But with a national title to defend and her legend growing, Jorgensen said she couldn’t hide from the pressure.

“It’s been the toughest week I’ve had in my 4 years,” she said. “It’s hard when everyone keeps telling you you’re the favorite and when there are new girls here every year. I have people to shoot for, and everyone’s shooting for me, and I just felt like this major target all week.”

Jorgensen recalled an experience at the dinner Friday night before the meet. Her table was quiet until Jorgensen and a coach got up to get some dessert. At that point, the other runners seated at the table loosened up and started talking.

“Then, we came back and sat down and it got quiet again,” Jorgensen said. “I was just thinking, ‘Oh God, please don’t let this be happening because of me.’ ”

As her high school career moves toward conclusion, Jorgensen is considering attending UCLA, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Texas, Oregon, Arizona or Stanford.

Prep Notes

Saturday night’s San Diego Section 2-A football championship game marked the first appearance for Rancho Buena Vista in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, but it was the second appearance in the stadium for 4 of its players--Scott Garcia, Jack Harrington, Al Aliipule and Junior Moi. The players were all members of the Vista team that lost to Fallbrook, 28-14, in the 1986 section 3-A championship game. Aliipule’s comment after Rancho Buena Vista defeated San Pasqual? “This is a hell of a lot better than Vista-Fallbrook.” . . . Citing personal reasons, Monte Vista’s Larry Shepard resigned this week as the school’s football and softball coach. Shepard coached Monte Vista to the 1987 section 3-A softball championship and to the 1985 Grossmont League 3-A football championship, but the football team was 1-9 this season. Shepard’s request to be transferred within the Grossmont Union High School district as a physical education teacher was approved. He will move to Grossmont High School.