Top Players in No Hurry to Sign

Several of Orange County’s top high school basketball players signed with Division I colleges during the early signing period in November.

For others, the recruiting process is taking longer. Much longer.

Two of the county’s top players remained unsigned as of Wednesday, the first day of the spring signing period for basketball players:

--Los Alamitos’ Jason Cunningham, a 6-foot-5 forward who is considering Wyoming, Temple, Oregon, Washington and Nevada.

--Trabuco Hills’ Gavin Vanderputten, a 6-10 Australian exchange student who is considering Pepperdine, Fresno State and Utah.

Sunny Hills’ Terry Mann, a 6-7 forward, announced he will attend Harvard next fall.

Mann, who has a 4.7 grade-point average, applied to Harvard, Princeton, Cal and Stanford, but recently trimmed his choices to the two Ivy League schools. He had planned a trip to Harvard, but might have to cancel because of upcoming track and field meets; Mann is a high jumper.

Cunningham and Vanderputten hope to sign in the next couple of weeks after taking more trips.

Cunningham has visited Wyoming and Oregon and is planning visits to Washington and Nevada. He’s also considering Purdue, Temple and the University of San Diego.

“I’m trying to get my trips in as fast as I can,” Cunningham said. “I’m being careful with them, because I don’t want to waste one.

“I might visit Purdue or Temple, but I don’t know if I want to take one (trip) yet. It would be a waste if I visited Temple and they were recruiting several other people at my position.”

Vanderputten, who averaged 20.4 points and 11 rebounds in leading Trabuco Hills to the Southern Section II-A championship, has visited Fresno State and Pepperdine and will visit Utah in two weeks.

“I’ll probably take two more trips after that,” he said. “I hope to sign some time in May.”

Edison’s Brandon Jessie, a two-time All-Sunset League player, probably will attend a community college next fall. Jessie, who averaged 22.7 points a game in basketball, also is a talented wide receiver and plans to play both sports in college. His father is former Ram receiver Ron Jessie.

Woodbridge guard Todd Loewe committed to Cal State Northridge, Western’s Chris Jackson is awaiting an appointment to the Air Force Academy, and Esperanza forward Matt Kordik is undecided.

Most of the top girls’ players--La Habra’s Zrinka Kristich, Brea-Olinda’s Jody Anton and Capistrano Valley’s Alisa Farr, signed last fall. Kristich will attend UCLA, Anton will play for USC and Farr with Brigham Young.

El Modena’s Melizza Benitez, who also plays basketball, signed with San Jose State for volleyball.

Add Cunningham: The senior said he “had a good time” on his visit to Wyoming last weekend. His impression of Laramie, Wyo., a city of 26,000 where the school is located?

“Laramie is small,” he said, “but small means less trouble to get into. At DePaul or Temple, where you’re in a big city like Chicago or Philadelphia, there’s all kinds of trouble you can get into.

“I liked Laramie. I liked the players and Coach (Benny) Dees. I think it’s a good team that’s on the rise.”

Last add Cunningham: The vanity license plates on Cunningham’s BMW read: “DA LEGND.”

“I’m known as ‘Ice’ around school,” Cunningham said. “But somebody already had ‘ICE’ (on the plates). Then I tried ‘ICE 24’ (his uniform number) but somebody had that, too. Then some of the guys at school told me to try ‘DA LEGND.’ ”

Local Basketball Signings

BOYS

Player School Pos. Hgt. x-Tom Airey Capistrano Valley G 6-0 x-Adam Anderson Servite F 6-5 Jason Cunningham Los Alamitos G 6-5 x-Jermaine Galloway Kennedy F 6-9 x-Reggie Geary Mater Dei G 6-2 Chris Jackson Western G 6-2 Brandon Jessie Edison F 6-5 Matt Kordik Esperanza F 6-7 Todd Loewe Woodbridge G 6-1 Terry Mann Sunny Hills F 6-7 x-Jentry Moore Tustin G 6-2 Ethan Twer Woodbridge F 6-5 Gavin Vanderputten Trabuco Hills C 6-11

Player College x-Tom Airey Loyola Marymount x-Adam Anderson Santa Clara Jason Cunningham Undecided x-Jermaine Galloway DePaul x-Reggie Geary Arizona Chris Jackson Undecided Brandon Jessie Undecided Matt Kordik Undecided Todd Loewe Committed to CS Northridge Terry Mann Harvard x-Jentry Moore Texas Christian Ethan Twer Columbia Gavin Vanderputten Undecided

GIRLS

Player School Pos. Hgt. College x-Jody Anton Brea-Olinda G 5-11 USC x-Alisa Farr Capistrano Valley G 5-9 Brigham Young x-Zrinka Kristich La Habra C 6-5 UCLA

x--Signed during early period in November