Cypress Coach Glad Hearvey Answered His Call

It wasn’t easy to persuade Yolanda Hearvey to play basketball last season.

Hearvey, a 6-foot forward from Magnolia High School, had no serious plans to continue playing basketball at Cypress College.

She said she was more interested in starting her studies and getting a job.

Then Kevin Kiernan got the coaching job at Cypress.

One of his first goals was to get Hearvey, an All-Orange League selection in 1991, out for the team. Kiernan had seen Hearvey play while he was coaching in high school.

He called once and asked Hearvey to come down to an open gym but she didn’t show up. He called a few more times (actually four) and she finally came out.

“It was tougher than I thought (to get her out),” Kiernan said. “She was totally out of basketball mode.”

But things changed quickly once Hearvey got into the flow of competing again.

“I had missed playing a little,” she said. “But once I got back in the gym, I just loved it. It was great to be part of a team again.”

Hearvey showed some signs of rust early but went on to have a standout season for the Chargers.

She led Cypress in scoring (14.4 points a game), rebounds (11.1) and had a team-high 31 blocked shots.

She and teammate Tamika Harold were selected to the All-Orange Empire Conference team.

“Last year, I really had no idea how things would go,” Hearvey said. “But this season we have a lot of expectations about how well we can do.”

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One for the thumb: Golden West remained on track for its fifth consecutive State water polo title with a 17-12 victory over Grossmont in the Southern California title game Saturday at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

Golden West, Grossmont, Orange Coast and El Camino will represent Southern California when the tournament starts Friday in Modesto.

Golden West, which has won 11 State water polo titles overall, starts play at 8 a.m. Friday against Merced.

Orange Coast takes on West Valley at 9:15 a.m., El Camino goes against Diablo Valley at 10:30 a.m. and Grossmont and DeAnza meet at 11:45 a.m.

On Saturday, the semifinals are at 8 and 9:15 a.m. and the title game is at 2:15 p.m.

Corey Delahunt leads the Rustlers in scoring with 112 goals, including 28 two-point shots.

Alfred VanDrop has 66 and Curt Bowman is third with 65. Orange Coast’s scoring leader is Daniel Mathot with 95. Shad Wicker has 81 and Ryan Mulholland has 58.

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History lesson: Not only is Fullerton-Rancho Santiago/Santa Ana the longest running football series in the state, it’s also the closest. The Dons beat Fullerton, 41-35, Saturday to even the series at 33-33-4.

The teams first met in 1916 and finished 0-0. The early advantage went to Santa Ana, which won 17 of the first 28 meetings. The four ties also occurred in that span.

Fullerton started to dominate after Hal Sherbeck took over as coach in 1961. His teams lost their first two meetings but came back to win 14 of 15 from 1963 to 1977.

Rancho Santiago has held the upper hand of late, winning the last two and six of the last nine under Coach Dave Ogas, who is 6-6 against the Hornets.

Saturday’s game had some individual highlights for both teams.

Fullerton’s Vince Wilson set three school records before leaving in the closing seconds because of a leg injury.

He had eight catches for 183 yards and now holds Hornet records for season receptions (61), receiving yardage (1,105) and career receiving yardage (1,549).

Wilson caught a 56-yard touchdown pass, threw a 25-yarder for a score on an trick play and also took an end-around five yards for another touchdown.

Rancho Santiago was without leading rusher Donnie Bladow (knee injury). But Kevin Pola, normally a linebacker, filled in nicely alongside starter Ernest Wilson, who had 124 yards. Pola added 104 yards and a touchdown in 21 carries.