Blount’s Early Exit Leads to Rancho Santiago

Corie Blount got on the freeway in the summer of 1988 and headed toward Riverside College.

But gridlock persuaded him to exit somewhere near Rancho Santiago College, and now, both parties couldn’t be happier.

Blount and teammate Erik Martin, who found Rancho Santiago only after a stay at Texas Christian University, form an impressive front-line duo and helped the Dons clinch the Orange Empire Conference title.

Blount, a 6-foot-9 center, is averaging 19 points. Martin, a 6-6 1/2 forward, is averaging 23. Blount also is tied with Cypress’ Eric Pauley for the conference lead in rebounds at 9.1 per game.

But with the slightest change in fortune, Blount wouldn’t have been part of this team.

He graduated from Monrovia High School in 1987 after playing basketball as a senior. He had tried out for the team as a sophomore and junior, but as he says, “I got into it with the coach, so I quit.”

After leaving high school, Blount worked instead of attending college and figured his short basketball career was over.

But in the summer of 1988, Blount and a high school teammate decided they wanted to play at a community college. Blount was considering Riverside and Ventura, among others.

On a hot afternoon, the two--along with then Monrovia Coach Mel Sims--were sitting in accident-induced freeway traffic on their way to Riverside.

“It was really hot in the car and we were hardly moving because of an accident,” Blount said. “So I asked coach if he knew anybody around here.”

The closest school was Rancho Santiago in Santa Ana, and Sims knew Dons Coach Dana Pagett.

Blount played in some pickup games in the school’s gym that summer with such players as Bobby Joyce (a reserve at Nevada Las Vegas), and Alonzo Jamison (a starter at Kansas).

Joyce left later that summer to play at Riverside and Jamison was off to Kansas, but Blount decided he liked what he saw and stayed.

Blount enrolled at Rancho Santiago and was ready to be part of the 1988-89 team, but he suffered a foot and ankle injury in the first game in early November. He tried to come back a few weeks later, but his foot was still sore, so he decided to redshirt.

Healthy for the 1989-90 season, Blount averaged 14 points and a team-high 8.2 rebounds. Rancho Santiago went 32-3 and won the state title, and Blount was an all-Orange Empire Conference and state-tournament selection.

In only his second full season of basketball on any level, Blount decided not to wait around for another good year before he selected a four-year college.

He took trips to Cincinnati, Utah, Arizona State, Tennessee and Cal State Fullerton in the fall and picked Cincinnati.

“Everyone kept telling me how good I was after last season,” Blount said. “But I wasn’t going to take any chances on what would happen this season.”

With both Orange Empire Conference basketball titles already decided--Golden West is the women’s champion--the only race left is for the women’s scoring champion.

Bits Sirchia, a sophomore guard from Golden West, leads at 17.4 points per game. But OCC sophomore forward Erika Manning is second at 17.3.

Sirchia has one game remaining--Wednesday at Saddleback. Manning and OCC are at Cypress on Wednesday and at home Friday against Saddleback.

Usually coaches prefer bracketed tournaments over round-robin ones, but not Orange Coast Coach Nick Trani--at least not after last weekend.

Due to a bracketing error, Trani and his OCC baseball team had to play four consecutive games Sunday in the Rancho Santiago Lidlifter Tournament.

Orange Coast took the field at 7 a.m. Sunday and lost to Long Beach, 5-0, in a championship semifinal.

The Pirates then played Rancho Santiago at 10 a.m. in the losers’ bracket, where they rallied for an 11-5 victory. But there was no rest, because at 12:30 p.m. they played Taft. OCC won, 2-0, to reach the championship round at 3 p.m.

Orange Coast needed two victories over Long Beach to take the title but lost the first game, 2-0.

“I don’t think we could have played another game even if we won,” Trani said. “We had only nine players and were really tired. I like to get some games in early, but that was too much.”