ON THE PREP PATH / BARBIE LUDOVISE : Savanna Coach Thrives on Game of Nerves

There are little worries, such as wondering if the keys you can’t find are locked in the trunk of your car.

There are big worries, such as glancing up from your beach towel and seeing a 100-foot tidal wave.

Then there are Kevin Kiernan worries, which create worries all their own.

Kiernan, the Savanna High School boys’ basketball coach, is a frequent fretter. Most people look at a basketball and see a basketball. Kiernan sees an orb of anxiety.

It’s not that he is a worrier by nature. Off the court, Kiernan is as carefree as a kitty-cat. He is not shaken by earthquakes or fazed by phobias. Drops in the Dow Jones do not drive him to drink.

But as a basketball coach? Kiernan is such a worrywart that all the Compound W in the world wouldn’t cure him.

“It’s kind of bizarre,” he said. “I’m starting to worry about it.”

Ohhhh-kay.

Maybe we’d be more comfortable with this worrying business if Kiernan looked the part--more grim, at least. As it is Kiernan is 29 but appears young enough to be buying breakfast cereals for the toy surprise.

With his preteen idol looks, you’d picture him collecting Matchbox cars or crouched over a field of those tiny plastic army men or humming the theme song to “The New Leave It to Beaver.”

You wouldn’t look at him and think, “Hmmm, a future Mylanta drinker.” The stress isn’t showing yet, but . . .

When the Rebels lost their first two games this season, Kiernan--in his first year as a head boys’ coach--rushed to the record books to check the school record for losses in a season.

Is paranoia such a bad thing? In Kiernan’s case, perhaps not.

Kiernan uses worry as a motivator: The more he worries about an upcoming opponent, the better he’ll prepare himself and his players. And preparation, rival coaches say, is what makes Kiernan such an excellent coach.

La Quinta Coach Jim Perry is Kiernan’s biggest fan. Perry hired Kiernan as an assistant boys’ coach in 1986 after watching him with the La Quinta girls’ team the previous season. Kiernan has his vote as the county’s coach of the year.

“He’s the best there is,” Perry said. “He’s incredibly thorough . . . in his preparation for a game, in his attention to detail, he never leaves anything to chance.”

It paid off at La Quinta. In five years, Kiernan’s girls’ teams compiled a 112-24 record, including a 55-game winning streak in league play, won five consecutive league titles and the Southern Section 4-A title last year. All while simultaneously assisting with the boys’ team for four seasons.

Of course, with all this success, a coach can get a little complacent, right? Not Careful Kevin. He made certain he worried about any possible threat from the opponent, and when there wasn’t any threat, he created one.

“If you have nothing to worry about, you have to come up with something imaginary,” he said. “Of course, then you have to worry about not making an opponent look bad by running up the score.”

Oh.

So intense were La Quinta’s practices, a few players--including standout Amy Jalewalia--had routine revolts.

“He’d play little mind games to get us going,” said Jalewalia, now playing for UCLA. “Now that I look back, everything he did was great. I know it made me a better player, and I’m really thankful. But there were times . . . “

There were times the players wanted to serenade their coach with that cute Jamaican beat jingle. But Kiernan is not a don’t-worry-be-happy kind of guy. For him, fretting is like sweating--it begets success. The trick, he says, is to get his players to be anxious with him, not because of him.

Last week, going into the first round of the playoffs, Kiernan was exceptionally nervous about Friday night’s game. He worried about losing by 30 points. He worried that his 16-9 team was overconfident. He worried about what he would wear.

“I don’t feel like playing this game, to tell you the truth,” he said, sounding like a student feigning a fever the morning of an algebra exam.

Savanna’s mighty opponent? The 6-17 La Quinta Aztecs.

“If La Quinta’s ahead by 30, I know Perry won’t rub it in,” Kiernan said.

Ahead by 30? Maybe Kiernan was reading La Quinta’s record backward.

“I know, on paper we should be able to beat ‘em,” he said. “Against any other seventh-place team, it would be different, but throw this emotion thing in there, I mean, those kids want to beat their former coach.”

Savanna beat La Quinta, 89-61.

As far as that “emotion thing,” La Quinta did play with great intensity, but it wasn’t because the Aztecs’ former coach was now the enemy. Most of the La Quinta players came to Kiernan after the game with a smile and a handshake.

And Kiernan was suddenly breathing a sigh of relief.

Relaxed, for the moment.

Barbie Ludovise’s column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Readers may reach Ludovise by writing her at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, 92626, or calling (714) 966-5847.