Northridge Loses Top Women’s Basketball Recruits

Just as Cal State Northridge women’s Division I basketball program appeared to be gaining momentum, it lost top recruits Jill Stephens and Rachel Ward on Wednesday.

Stephens, a point guard, suffered multiple injuries in a recent car accident and will not enroll in school until next year.

Ward, a shooting guard, left CSUN shortly after checking into her dormitory room. After looking around the room for two minutes, Ward decided over lunch with her father, Tom, that she would prefer to live at home. She already has enrolled at Southern California College, a National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics school near her Costa Mesa home.

“I am extremely disappointed,” second-year Northridge Coach Janet Martin said. “It has been a rotten day. They are both legitimate Division I players. They would have really helped.”

Legitimate Division I players were lacking in 1990-91 when CSUN went 10-17 in its first season of Division I play.

At 5-foot-6, Stephens was the most valuable player in the Southern Division of the Western State Conference last season, averaging 20.3 points and 2.6 assists for Bakersfield College.

“She is heartbroken, as am I, that she cannot play on doctors’ orders,” Martin said. “She is a fighter and a competitor and I will welcome her next season.”

Ward, a 5-11 Costa Mesa High product, averaged 10.8 points and 5.8 rebounds for a team that finished second in the Southern Section 3-A Division playoffs last season.

Martin is miffed at Ward for her not giving Northridge a chance.

“She is showing no intestinal fortitude here,” Martin said. “She got scared when her dad was going home. It is amazing, and more amazing that her dad took her.

“She had a built-in support group on this basketball team. I think she’ll regret her decision. If she had given herself a week, I think she would have adjusted fine.”

Ward disagreed.

“I knew I didn’t like being away from home and I didn’t need a week to know that,” Ward said. “I sympathize with Coach Martin and I felt a lot of guilt leaving so abruptly, but that is four years of my life. I gotta make myself happy.

“It doesn’t hit you until you are there that you have to stay there. You can’t go home during the week and on all the weekends. I’ve never been away from home for more than a week. I’m more comfortable around my family and my boyfriend whom I love dearly.”

Stephens and Ward were given full scholarships, a rarity at Northridge.

“At this late date, I’m kinda stuck,” Martin said. “I can’t replace them.”

Without Stephens and Ward, CSUN is down to two scholarship recruits, Valley College transfer Roz Linton and Bakersfield transfer Janelle Vegas.