New Attitude Spurs Patriots : Basketball: Friendship, hard work put Christian girls in state final.

As the guest speaker for Christian High’s “Spiritual Emphasis Week” spoke, the girls’ basketball team felt strangely affected.

“He was talking about friendship and encouragement at a time we needed it most,” senior center Stacey Patsko said.

Christian, winner of 18 games in a row, already has sewn up the Southern California Regional, San Diego Section and Harbor League titles. Only one remains.

At 2:30 Friday afternoon, the Patriots will play their last game together in the Division V state championship against Northern California Regional-winner Menlo School at Oakland Coliseum.

According to first-year Coach Ken Weeks, the deeply rooted bonds of friendship, planted months ago, are a big reason for Christian’s success. The talk merely reinforced this team’s every ideal.

“We haven’t had one iota of dissension,” said Weeks, former women’s coach at Alabama and Texas-El Paso. “I would tell them, ‘Look, if you have to have a focal point of dissension, hate me. But keep loving each other.’ ”

When Weeks gave that little group speech midway through the season, warning lights immediately flashed, starting with junior Tiffany Stutz.

Stutz, the forward who scored 52 points in Christian’s last two games, said she saw no outward signs of bickering, and she worried Weeks might have knowledge the rest of the team wasn’t privy to.

“When he was saying that,” Stutz said, “we were all, ‘Are you talking to someone in particular?’ It’s been totally great, so perfect, so basically, we asked who he was talking about. I guess it’s just every coach’s fear.”

For Weeks, it was just one of many fears he had when he took over a program where winning wasn’t a tradition and any state title hopes were pinned to the boys’ basketball team--the 1990 runner-up.

Having come from successful Division I college women’s teams and a high school girls’ team in Mississippi that went 79-3 his last two years, Weeks was afraid his aggressive style of coaching would be met with reluctance.

“I come from where girls’ basketball is so important,” Weeks said. “I was afraid that when coming to a laid-back atmosphere, if what I was doing was the best thing for them, or if I was putting the screws on too tight.”

A case in point was junior forward Jenny Culbertson, whom Weeks said has emerged as a team leader. She approached her coach before tipoff in the fall and informed him she was sick and couldn’t play.

“I was furious,” Weeks said. “I couldn’t even talk to her.”

Now, she and the rest of the team have learned to play through pain and sickness and with fatigue.

“We’ve learned to play hurt and tired,” said Stutz, who injured her ankle Saturday but refused to miss even one practice before the most important game of her life. “Everyone has played that way at some point this season. But that’s what it takes. I don’t think a lot of people think girls can do that, but I want them to know we can.”

Going from green to groomed wasn’t easy on either side. Weeks remembered his frenzy when players used to walk to the huddle after he blew his whistle.

“I made it clear that I meant sprint, not walk,” he said.

Another memorable diatribe came one day early in the season when several players came to practice late . . . and in street clothes.

“I told them my practices aren’t labs,” Weeks said. “You don’t miss them, you aren’t late and you come in uniform.”

Said Stutz: “Most of us weren’t exposed to that kind of yelling. It blew us away at first. But it also helped us to know he was serious. Personally, I felt it was a good experience.”

The same went for Patsko, the only starter Christian will lose to graduation. Nine of the Patriots are freshmen and sophomores.

“If he yelled,” Patsko said, “it was because we needed it, because we did something wrong. It was always justified. We always felt he did it because he loved us and wanted us to be the best we could be.”

Before the 18-game tear, the Patriots had a 6-4 record, with some forgettable performances etched in the official scoring book, as well as Weeks’ memory.

Cases in point:

--Christian blows a 17-point lead against Calvin Christian, but eventually wins by six.

--Christian leads Bishop’s by two at halftime, then outscored the Torres, 42-23, in the second half.

In both, the Patriots sent Weeks into a quiet rage.

“I challenged some people. I was in their faces,” he said. “I told them I was getting mad at having to (lecture them) every game. Some of them were a little shell-shocked after that. I wasn’t sure they’ll all come back out, but they did, and they responded.”

Tough-love coaching and unity of spirit has carried Christian the extra mile, but there’s more to this successful equation.

Basic skill-honing became the rule rather than the exception, and individuals picked up the slack when someone was having a bad night.

“Everyone’s contributing this year,” Patsko said, “and everyone has a good day at different times. Someone will come through when someone else hasn’t.”

At the time the season began, the boys were the ones being touted as most likely to reach state finals. But not everyone discounted the girls chances.

“There was some inside pressure,” Stutz said. “From our coach and from us. You just can’t compare us with the guys. But I want people to think of Christian basketball and know the girls were good, too.”