GIRLS’ BASKETBALL ‘94-’95: SUNSET LEAGUE : Robbins Grows Into Her Leadership Role : Basketball: Marina senior post player has matured in time to handle the pressure of being the star on a talented Viking squad.

The first recruiting letter, from Eastern Kentucky, arrived the summer before Shandy Robbins’ freshman year, when she was still a shy, giggly 13-year-old.

“I was really excited,” Robbins recalled. “Now, when I think back, a college letter is not that big of a deal.”

Maybe not to someone who received them steadily after Eastern Kentucky first wrote. But that’s life among America’s Most Wanted, where high school athletes pick and choose in the high stakes world of NCAA athletics.

Oregon finally won the Shandy Robbins Sweepstakes. Though the Ducks aren’t sure whether they got a fine arts or business major, they do know they got a versatile shooter and rebounder.

Robbins is a 6-foot senior, a post player who averaged 16.9 points and 11.6 rebounds last season. She has a soft touch around the basket and is one of the county’s best shooters, even from three-point range. She has won games in the final seconds with both her offense and her defense.

And make no mistake about it, she is the leader on a team that matches up to any in the county, from Woodbridge to Mater Dei to Brea-Olinda.

This Marina team--maybe the school’s best--is Shandy’s Team, no matter how talented her supporting cast, which includes Academy League most valuable player Kirsten Cappel, a transfer from Connelly, and Sonya Bryant, who averaged eight points and seven rebounds as a sophomore.

“If (opponents) double-team Shandy, they’ll be in trouble,” Marina Coach Pete Bonny said. “Her numbers may not even go up, but we’ve got a lot more people who can put the ball in the hole.

“If there is a year where we can upset a big gun like Ventura Buena or Thousand Oaks, I think this is the year.” “

Robbins hopes so.

“I want to be able to carry our team to the finals,” she said. “We’ve talked about it, and I think we have the potential to get to the finals, but it’s going to be up to everyone because one person can’t win a game for you.

“I’d like to be able to help lead them, be a good team leader, get my job done to help our team win.”

Part of that job involves communication, an area Bonny says Robbins has improved greatly in the past year.

“I don’t think she realized how she was coming across to the other players,” Bonny said.

“She might say, ‘Hey, give me the ball because we’re going to win (because I’m going to score),’ but it didn’t come across like that. The older you get, the more you find out what works. I told her, ‘There’s different ways of saying what you want to say.’

“It seems like a small thing, but it can affect the team. There wasn’t a good congruence between the guards and the post last year.”

That shouldn’t be a problem this season. Robbins, who was elected co-captain, is thinking more and more like a coach. If she cuts down on senseless fouls--”I just went out there and hacked everyone”--she should have the kind of season everyone expects of her.

“I’ve gotten stronger in my mind,” Robbins said. “I’ve gradually gotten stronger physically, too, but I’m tougher on the court mentally.”

It’s that sign of maturity that has impressed Bonny the most as he watched Robbins lose some of her giggly immaturity.

“I don’t know where it came from,” Bonny said, “but if you’re being recruited by all those colleges, you can’t be a little girl having fun; you’ve got to be pretty mature.”

But Robbins disagrees.

“I just want to make my younger years fun,” she said. “I still giggle.”

1993-94 INREVIEW

Standings

League Overall School W L W L Ocean View 12 2 23 5 Marina 12 2 20 7 Edison 8 6 17 9 Fountain Valley 8 6 17 10 Westminster 5 9 10 15 Rosary 4 10 10 11 Huntington Beach 4 10 8 15 Santa Ana 3 11 11 15

Highlights

Hardly a game day passed without the Sunset League providing a game of the week. At one point, four teams were ranked among Orange County’s top 10; another time, Marina, Ocean View and Fountain Valley were ranked fifth, sixth and seventh. In all, five teams reached the top 10, including Rosary. Ocean View got a terrific blue-collar effort from post players Becky Fraser and Farrah Magee (12.7 points, 11.4 rebounds), and outstanding guard play from Dustine Yamamoto and impact freshman Jennifer Tuiolosega; the Seahawks reached the Division II-AA semifinals before losing to eventual State finalist Woodbridge. Marina won a share of its fourth consecutive league title behind the play of Shandy Robbins (16.9 points, 11.6 rebounds) and unheralded guards Martita Emde (12.5 points) and Traci Nakamura (4.7 assists), but lost a controversial second-round playoff game to Corona. The league’s player of the year was Edison’s Marie Philman, who averaged 27.0 points and 14.3 rebounds on a one-dimensional Charger team; she scored 40 or more four times, and 30 or more 10 times. Fountain Valley gelled at a holiday tournament, reached No. 5 in the county rankings, made a run at the league title, and then played disappointing .500 ball the last half of the season.