1992-93: The Prep Year In Review : Basketball Skills Better North of Camp Pendleton

The memories from a high school sports season are limited only by the number of people taking it all in. The members of The Times Orange County prep sports staff have provided the commentaries on these two pages about the people, events and issues that made the greatestimpression on them in the last 10 months.

The counties of San Diego and Orange may border each other, but I quickly learned that more than San Onofre and Camp Pendleton separate the two.

Some quick observations from a guy who was transferred from The Times’ San Diego County Edition to the Orange County Edition in January:

--Boys’ basketball in San Diego was often painful to watch. Most players were one-handed and appeared to see the court with one eye. You would occasionally see a Division I player, but there were rarely more than one per team. In fact, Mater Dei had more Division I players last season than San Diego County has produced in the last two.

The disparity in talent was never more evident than at Vista High in March. Huntington Beach, Orange County’s second- or third-best team, destroyed Vista, San Diego’s best team, by 26 points in the second round of the Southern California Division I regional playoffs.

After the game, Vista Coach Greg Lanthier spent 10 minutes with reporters detailing the differences.

“We had a great season, but we have to find out how to get to the next level. . . . (Orange County) has better coaches, better players and better teams. . . . I think our best game is still 20 points less than theirs. . . . They simply play better competition than we do.”

--While the games might be more enjoyable to watch in Orange County, it takes a lot longer to reach them. In San Diego, I could usually get to a game in 15 or 20 minutes by taking one or maybe two freeways. But here, I often spent as much time on the freeways as I did at the game. I’m still amazed that trips to certain high schools in Anaheim take you through five freeways.

--Coaches seem to read the paper more closely here. I’ve received more letters and phone calls in five months than I did in three years in San Diego.

--Athletes can be brutally honest in Orange County.

Sometimes they are too honest.

Kennedy High’s Pat Kunz on what he would do to Lakewood Artesia All-American Avondre Jones in their playoff game the next night: “Jones doesn’t have his game against me. I body him up, talk some smack and frustrate him.”

Kunz soon learned that even All-Americans read the paper. He scored a season-low three points. Jones had 21 points, 18 rebounds and blocked Kunz’s first four shots.

And sometimes their honesty is touching.

Junior Jed Weinstein of Corona del Mar, after his three consecutive double-faults helped contribute to his tennis team’s 11-7 semifinal playoff loss to Peninsula: “I felt the pressure. I was playing good. I just choked at the end.”

Hard to find a college or professional athlete who would have been as sincere.