Westminster Strives to Be the Pest

Imagine biting your tongue, stubbing your toe and burning the roof of your mouth all in the same instant. Before you can say %*&!!, you’re stung by a bee, handed a parking ticket and zapped in the eye with a squirt of grapefruit juice.

Feeling a tad bit annoyed? Good. Now you know how an opponent of the Westminster boys’ basketball team feels.

Every team has its special source of pride; for Westminster, it’s irritation. Some teams play to win. The Lions play to make you whine. Their defense is notoriously tortuous--Marquis de Sade meets man-to-man. They stick to you like Crazy Glue. They tail you like a little brother. You wish you had a flyswatter because, boy, do they bug.

Their play is as intense and passionate as any in Orange County, maybe more so. And that’s a funny thing.

You don’t expect much passion from a team that’s 1-9 in its league.

You don’t expect much, period. Not from a team that’s 7-13 overall, not from a bottom-dweller of the Sunset League. What you expect are moans and groans and aches and pains--from the heart as well as the head. You expect a frown here, a grimace there, sore spirits all around. A communal attitude of woe-is-me and woe-is-you, and “Please let this misery end.”

It’s a common plight. A team starts losing, players hang their heads. By the end of the season they’ve got their noses to their toes. Scrapbooks are abandoned, good-luck charms chucked, team mottos trashed. No one wants to be reminded of what was hoped to be.

But it’s not that way at Westminster--and don’t Lion opponents know it. This is a team that, while out-sized by everybody, takes pride in playing all out, every minute, with confidence that it can beat the best. And what could be more annoying to an established power? Second-ranked Huntington Beach walked into Westminster’s gym Friday night with a la-di-da attitude. After dealing with Westminster’s pressure defense, the Oilers left shaking their heads and catching their breath--a 66-38 victory should never be so exhausting.

Brian Underwood, who took over the Westminster program last season after assistant coaching stints at UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton, explains it this way: His team has a chemistry like no other. These kids don’t quit. They don’t complain. They don’t think about what could have been. They know their strength isn’t strength or height; it’s quickness and smarts. So they make the most of it.

On the court, they’re a fight song in motion--darting, diving, hustling like a hyped-up hamster on his exercise wheel. Ocean View barely got by the Lions on Wednesday, winning, 56-48. Against Marina a few weeks ago, the Lions actually overcame a team coached by the Hustle Master himself, Greg Hoffman. Certainly, that says something.

“We just tell the kids,” Underwood, 29, says, “ ‘It’s not what happens to you in life, it’s how you deal with it.’ ”

Cynics can call that a cliche, but the Lions take it to heart. Especially now that getting into the Southern Section playoffs is no longer a freebie. When Underwood told his team of the section’s recent decision--that automatic playoff berths will only go to teams in the top half of their league, and at-large entries will be considered for teams with 10 or more victories--few of the Lions complained. They just decided to play harder.

Getting to the playoffs, the Lions say, means plenty. Last year, their classmates teased them for advancing with a 6-19 record. But they won their qualifying game--knocking off San Gabriel, the second-place team from the Foothill League--and lost in the first round to Quartz Hill by only four points. This year, they want to prove they’re playoff-worthy--or better.

“We work so hard,” says team captain and point guard Robert Ishii. “We want it to mean something in the end.”

Which is why this team plays so hard when others might be hanging their heads. It’s why 5-8, 140-pound guard Gia Tran body-slammed Huntington Beach’s 6-5 muscle man Tony Gonzalez to keep Gonzalez from getting a break-away dunk. It’s why Ishii, the team’s intensity beam, gets in the face of his teammates even when they’re down by 30 points.

Irritating opponents makes Westminster proud.

And what would a Lion be without his pride?

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