De La Nuez’s Game Not Lost in Translation at Ramona : Basketball: Spanish exchange student enjoying this valuable learning experience.

Alfonso De La Nuez couldn’t understand what all the hoopla was about.

When he returned from Spain this fall to Ramona High, strangers phoned to welcome him back. One-time acquaintances came up and shook his hand. Later, the faculty nominated him for homecoming king. The Ramona Hi-Lite, the school paper, proclaimed on the front page, “The return of the Spaniard.”

The whole thing seemed a bit odd to De La Nuez, who arrived in Ramona in the fall of 1989 with little fanfare. De La Nuez was just one of several foreign exchange students from Madrid.

The way De La Nuez saw it, he was going to come over to the United States for a year to work on his English and his basketball fundamentals. If he played, fine. If not, he’d still get to practice against more talented players than he was accustomed to seeing in Spain. In the meantime, he would try to soak up all the knowledge he could from his coach, Al Schaffer.

Although he had been playing for the minor league version of the Real Madrid club team for two years, De La Nuez said he was so terrified of the U.S. style of basketball that he almost didn’t come.

“I was afraid of coming here and not playing because I wasn’t good enough,” he said. “I thought I could come over here and improve my physical play. I figured that would help me when I got back to Spain.

“I thought maybe I could come off the bench and give the team some help with my three-point shooting. Maybe be a sixth or seventh man . . . kind of like a role player.”

De La Nuez was a role player all right, but as the season evolved, his role kept expanding. Before long, he had filled nearly every role on the team--point man, assist man and team leader. He wound up the season leading Ramona in points (20.7 average), three-pointers (83), assists (8.0) and steals (4.0).

He liked his roles and enjoyed his experience so much that late in the year he began to contemplate coming back for his senior year. Schaffer was more than agreeable to the idea, but De La Nuez would have to get it by his father first.

It didn’t take much lobbying for De La Nuez to convince his father, one of his biggest fans, that Ramona was the best place to hone his basketball skills and enhance his education. The CIF had no problem with De La Nuez playing another year. CIF Commissioner Kendall Webb said that once residency was established for a year, an athlete is eligible to participate at that school of residence.

And so it was decided. De La Nuez would spend another year in small town, back-country Ramona (population of 30,000)--hardly a likely match for a kid from a cultural Mecca like Madrid (population of 3.5 million).

But the warmth he felt from Ramona and his host family, the Schwartzes, struck a nerve with De La Nuez. And suddenly it didn’t seem to matter that he no longer could go to the discos, pubs and theaters with his friends in Spain.

Ramona’s one theater and the Schwartz’s satellite dish would do just fine.

Everybody--except opposing Avocado League coaches--seems to be pleased with De La Nuez’s decision to return. He’s averaging 23.5 points, third in the county, as well as 7.2 assists and six steals a game. But numbers don’t indicate De La Nuez’s biggest area of improvement--ballhandling.

Last year, De La Nuez, 6-2, was a nightmare with the ball. He knew it and so did opposing coaches. It didn’t take long for word to get out that De La Nuez had a jumper--and not much else. After averaging 24 points the first half of the season, he scored only 17 a game during the second half.

“Coming in, I had the advantage of shooting the three,” he said. “It was a weapon. But then everybody started overplaying me. And I was afraid of driving last year. I just didn’t have the strength. I wasn’t as aggressive as I needed to be.”

Schaffer said De La Nuez’s European experience caused many of his deficiencies.

“His background was not good for ballhandling and defense,” Schaffer said. “It’s just not stressed over there.”

In addition to the defensive and ballhandling weaknesses, there was the language barrier. Although he took six years of English in school, he had never been forced to speak it.

“Sometimes he would try to call a play and we couldn’t understand him,” junior Travis Knight said. “So then coach would have to stop practice and try and explain to Alfonso just what he wanted him to do.”

Schaffer said there were definitely some trying times last year.

“He’s out there calling something and they can’t read it, and the ref is counting five seconds,” Schaffer said. “I wanted him to express leadership last year, but he just couldn’t.”

But Schaffer soon found a solution for those instances when his teammates couldn’t understand him.

“I just said, ‘If it breaks down, shoot it,’ ” he said. “And he did. Some of them were from some monster lengths.”

Schaffer admits he put of pressure on De La Nuez, mainly because he didn’t have much outside shooting or another point guard.

“Ideally,” Schaffer said, “Alfonso should have been an off guard last year.”

Schaffer said he sensed some resentment from other players last year about how much responsibility he had placed on the shoulders of this young upstart from Madrid.

“He was a bit of a novelty,” Schaffer said. “They saw a lot of attention given him. But by the end of the season, they really appreciated him. They saw how hard he worked.”

De La Nuez said he also felt a little tension from his teammates early in the season.

“I felt like, ‘How come this kid from Spain is coming in here and becoming our leading scorer?’ ” he said. “It was a pretty big step.”

But by season’s end, De La Nuez gained his teammates’ respect. They voted him their most valuable player.

With a year of experience under him, this year has gone much smoother for De La Nuez.

Time has helped take care of his language problem and weight training--he’s up almost 15 pounds to 175--and practice have sharpened his ballhandling skills.

After watching De La Nuez score 28 points and dish out seven assists against his team last week, San Pasqual Coach Tom Buck is convinced De La Nuez is a different player this year.

“He’s tremendously improved, particularly in his ballhandling,” Buck said. “When we beat them twice last year, we pressured him and we rattled him. But now he can handle the ball confidently. You can just see it in the expression on his face.”

San Marcos Coach Bill Singh said he has also noticed the changes in De La Nuez’s game.

“He seems to be a little more polished,” Singh said. “He seems to have more poise. I think he’s seeing the court better and he has more range on his shot.”

In last week’s 76-72 comeback victory over San Pasqual, De La Nuez didn’t hesitate to pull up from 25 feet for a jumper, which he netted. Schaffer said he has seen De La Nuez hit them from as far as 30 feet.

“His range is so far, you’re not used to defending kids that far out,” El Camino Coach Ray Johnson said.

Buck said De La Nuez’s specialty is a lost art.

“Everybody sees Michael Jordan on TV and all they want to do is dunk,” he said. “I’ve got 6-1 guys on my team who only want to dunk. But you give me a De La Nuez, who can shoot that deep, and we’d never lose.”

Ramona hasn’t lost too many this year. After 12 games, the Bulldogs are off to one of the best starts in school history--8-4 overall and 3-1 in the Avocado.

And neither the team nor De La Nuez show signs of slowing down.

“I wish we had a longer season,” Schaffer said. “If he had been in our program longer, we might have a better idea where he might level off. He just seems to improve every week.”

This year, Schaffer said, he has more time to watch the improvement.

“It’s funner for me coaching him this year, because I don’t have to push him so much,” he said. “He wanted me to cram everything in last year because we only thought we’d be together for a year.”

But the one-year excursion to America turned into two and, if all goes right, it will turn into at least four more. De La Nuez, who carries a 3.1 grade-point average, is hoping to catch the eye of a major college coach.

Funny how priorities can change in a year.

“I used think all I wanted was to play for Real Madrid, like my brother,” he said. “But now I am anxious to play for a Division I school over here. I’m willing to do anything it takes.”

Schaffer said De La Nuez will have a tougher time attracting attention because he missed all the summer camps where recruiters do much of their evaluating. But Schaffer said De La Nuez is starting to get some mail.

In just over a year, De La Nuez has learned a second language, weathered a culture shock, and transformed himself into an American style basketball player.

But De La Nuez said he’s still not sold on certain aspects of American culture--such as cheerleading.

“I like cheerleaders, but I think it’s kind of funny,” he said. “There are people cheering for me? Why do they make such a big deal about it? I just don’t get it.”