TENNIS / DANA HADDAD : Pope Casts Off Weight--Basketball Career Too

To look at Derek Pope, one would not know his passion in sports is hitting lobs and backhands on a tennis court.

Pope was a 6-foot-2, 253-pound 16-year-old ready for a varsity letterman’s jacket at Nordhoff High last winter.

Not only was he most valuable player of Nordhoff’s junior varsity basketball team--after averaging 17 points and 15 rebounds a game--he was voted the top player in the Frontier League.

Before the ballots were cast, however, Pope was gone. He vanished from Ojai with three games left and headed for Lake Mary, Fla., hoping to improve his court presence. Unfortunately for the Nordhoff basketball team, the courts weren’t made of hardwood.

“I hit a lot of tennis balls,” said Pope, who spent four months at the Amri Sammakia Tennis Academy.

Pope, who was ranked 12th in the nation in boys’ 16-and-under singles by the United States Tennis Assn. in 1992, returned to Ojai on June 14--whereupon he announced his retirement from basketball.

“Basketball is fun,” said Pope, whose father, Karl, was a point guard at USC. “It’s fun to be a high school star. But I got to look to the future now.”

Pope, still 16, has changed. Other tennis players have noticed. More noticeable than the big career decision is that Pope has lost 20 pounds.

“I used to be pretty sluggish,” he said. “I was slow and my stamina was low.”

A big serve and his ability to hit winners made Pope No. 3 in Southern California last year. Now his entire game has been revamped, including better mechanics on his serve.

So Pope was understandably kicking himself Thursday after a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 loss to UCLA’s Chong Cho in the round of 32 of the Southern California Junior sectionals at Los Caballeros Sports Village in Fountain Valley. Pope led, 5-2, in the tiebreaker before yielding five consecutive points to Cho, ranked seventh in Southern California.

“I could have closed it out,” he said. “(Cho) came up with some shots and I got a little tentative. But if I had faced him last year, I would have lost like (6-2, 6-1). I was looking for an easier first-round match. But on the other hand, this was an opportunity for an upset.”

Pope now will play consolation singles matches, but he is still in the hunt in doubles. He and partner Jacub Pietrowski of Huntington Beach advanced to the quarterfinals Thursday.

Pope’s return, though, will be short, if not sweet.

“As soon I’m out of this tournament,” he said, “I’m going back to Lake Mary to train for nationals.”

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Decent proposal: When former Pierce Coach Paul Xanthos said last week he would be interested in assisting his successor, Aris Hovsepian, it presented an unusual scenario: a highly acclaimed coach of 29 years suddenly playing second fiddle to his protege.

A coaching flip-flop? Xanthos suggested it would keep the program strong.

“I think (Hovsepian) will hold on to some of last year’s players who would have left,” said Xanthos, 72, who left to his assistant a team that tied for third in the state. “It might help the recruiting if I’m still there.”

Hovsepian, 26, who has no head coaching experience, said he would not have landed the job without Xanthos--but this was a boggling proposition.

“He will always be my coach,” said Hovsepian, who moved here from Tehran nine years ago and played under Xanthos at Pierce in 1990 and ’91. “He’s my coach for life.”

Hovsepian--who was hired to coach the women’s team by Athletic Director Marian McWilliams last month but will relinquish that position--said his primary objective is not to undo what Xanthos did in his nearly three decades. Xanthos’ teams won 23 conference championships.

“He built a very successful program,” said Hovsepian, who is still mulling Xanthos’ offer. “I see no reason to change anything. The program just needs to be maintained. For so many years, we didn’t have to recruit. The players just came to us.”

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Junior college honors: Four Pierce players finished among the top 27 of the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. state junior college rankings: Al Martinez (9th), Jon Rom (16th), Vanja Nadali (tied for 22nd) and Phillip Leonhardt (27th).

All were named All-State by the ITA, along with Mission College doubles player Daniel Smith. Leonhardt and Nadali were ranked ninth in doubles.

Pierce (20-1), ranked No. 1 in the state for most of the year, finished tied for third with Saddleback and Cerritos.

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Miscellany: Meilen Tu of Northridge and Amanda Bascia, of Lomita, both 15, are the youngest players on the U.S. Junior National team currently competing at Wimbledon.