These Late Bloomers Blossom at Fullerton

Bob Terry of Fullerton College could be ending his collegiate basketball career this season, but instead he’s just starting it. Teammate Garry Hunter could be a junior, but he is also starting out.

Each has taken a varying course to become a member of the 1990-91 Fullerton team, but Coach Roger See is happy both are around.

Terry is averaging a team-best 19.1 points and 7.6 rebounds. Hunter is next with an average of 18.4 points and six rebounds.

Terry, who will be 22 next month, has been at Fullerton his entire college career, but wasn’t sure he wanted to play basketball until this season. Terry graduated from Brea-Olinda High School in 1987. At Brea, he started on the freshman team and moved up a level each year.

He averaged 18 points and nine rebounds as a senior, was a redshirt at Fullerton in the fall of 1987, but then he “drifted away.”

Terry worked in the mail center of an insurance company and eventually starting working full time. With his job, he had an apartment and payments on a new car. But last spring, See called Terry to try one last time to get him to return.

“I was thinking about it,” Terry said. “I kept reading in the paper about guys I had played with and I knew I could play with them.”

Terry, who gained 20 pounds during his hiatus, moved back to his parents’ home last spring and became a full-time student, and also worked at his job from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. weekdays.

Hunter, a 215-pound, 6-foot-3 forward, came to Fullerton from Buena Park High School, where he graduated in 1988. He worked his first year out of high school, went to Oxnard last fall, but his season ended before it started.

Hunter was running in practice when he sustained a tear in his Achilles’ tendon. He was put in a cast for almost eight months.

Hunter spent much of last season on crutches, but he attended all of Oxnard’s games. But at the end of the season, he decided to return to Orange County.

“It was just a small town,” Hunter said, “and I wanted to get back home. I knew Coach See and the way he ran things, so I figured this would be a good place to go.”

Hunter started this season slowly but has improved his numbers each week.

“It just took me a while to get my rhythm,” Hunter said. “Everything was off but now I’m feeling better about things.”

Brian Kenney of Cypress might want to consider staying out of the Rancho Santiago gym if he wants to remain healthy. In two games at the gym, he has sustained injuries in each of the past two seasons.

Kenney, a 6-1 forward, broke to the basket in the second half of Saturday’s 106-105 overtime loss to the Dons, was hit in the face and suffered a broken nose. He already had broken his nose in practice earlier this season. His shot went in, but no foul was called.

Last season, Kenney and Rancho Santiago guard LaVern Broadnax collided and Kenney ended up with four stitches in his eyebrow.

Kenney, one of the most underrated players in the conference, has already missed five games this season because of the first broken nose and a sore back. He isn’t expected to miss any games this time and will wait until the end of the season to have his nose set.

Kenney is averaging 12.7 points and shooting 58% from the field and 81% from the line.

Community College Notes

Erika Manning, a sophomore forward from Orange Coast, needs only eight rebounds to become the Pirates’ all-time leader. She has 510. Lisa Schumaker (1985-87) holds the record at 517. Manning, a 5-10 sophomore from Cypress High School, also has a shot at Schumaker’s single-season mark of 277 rebounds set in the 1986-87 season. Manning, who has signed with Cal State Dominguez Hills, has 244 rebounds, with five regular-season games left. . . . Jim Martinez has been picked to coach men’s tennis at Fullerton. Martinez played football at Fullerton, then went the University of Redlands, where he played tennis. He also works as a teaching professional in Brea and is looking to add members to his team. Interested players should contact the Fullerton athletic department. . . . Irvine Valley has announced that it will field a club volleyball team this season and has selected Tom Pestolesi as coach. Pestolesi also coaches the boys’ and girls’ volleyball teams at Estancia High School.