SOUTHERN SECTION BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : Father’s Grit Inspires Capistrano Valley’s Garrett

Jeremy Garrett admits he’s not the most motivated player on the Capistrano Valley High School basketball team. But he has no problem finding inspiration once the game starts.

All he does is make eye contact with his father, Winson.

While growing up in Fountain Valley, Garrett watched his father win a battle tougher than any basketball game. Injured in a car accident in 1985, Winson underwent three operations to repair a slipped disk and nerve damage in his left leg.

“He spent almost a year in the hospital,” Garrett said. “It’s hard seeing your dad hurting, especially when you’re a kid.”

The entire Garrett family will be in the stands tonight when Capistrano Valley plays Lynwood in the Southern Section I-AA championship game at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

Garrett’s mother, Cathy, will be there, along with daughter Jennifer, a freshman on the Capistrano Valley girls’ team, and son Joshua, a sixth-grader.

And, of course, Winson will be there. He never misses a game.

“When I see him sitting there in the stands,” said Garrett, the Cougars’ 6-foot-8 center, “I know that anything’s possible.

“When I see him there, cheering us on, I figure the least I could do is play harder.”

Jeremy was 10 at the time of the accident. Winson wasn’t fully recovered until Jeremy reached junior high, about the same time he started playing basketball. The family moved from Fountain Valley to Mission Viejo just after Jeremy’s eighth-grade year.

“It was hard to play sports, or even think about playing them, after the accident,” Garrett said. “I started playing as an eighth-grader on the playground. I was only 5-8 then, and I played guard.”

Garrett made the Capistrano Valley freshman team, his first attempt at organized sports. He started half the season but broke his right (shooting) hand and missed the rest of the year.

He recovered and played on the sophomore and junior varsity teams before being promoted to the varsity late in his junior year.

“It seems like I’m kind of a late-bloomer,” he said.

Garrett was a reserve on the varsity most of this season but earned a starting spot when Matt Moore was sidelined midway through the South Coast League season because of an inner-ear infection.

One of Garrett’s best games came in a 60-40 victory over Irvine that clinched Capistrano Valley’s eighth league title in 11 years. He scored 21 points, 13 above his season average.

Still, Garrett has a tendency to disappear offensively and get in foul trouble by reaching over opponents’ backs for rebounds. He picked up two early fouls in Capistrano Valley’s semifinal victory over Long Beach Jordan and finished with two points.

“Sometimes I just seem to slide through,” Garrett said. “I’m pretty laid back, and that’s something the coaches get annoyed with.

“They got on me a lot earlier this year, and my playing time picked up. I just woke up when we played in the Orange tournament (in December). I just got tired of not doing it out there.”

Cougar Coach Mark Thornton began showing more confidence in Garrett. Then Garrett showed more confidence in himself.