Woodbridge Has Reached Girls’ Basketball Pinnacle : Team Battles Through Controversy, Heartbreaking Loss

They have won at least 20 games every season since 1983-84. Their coach has a career 288-69 record. The program has been the subject of controversy and innuendo in recent years. The team is ranked No. 1 in the state and among the top 20 nationally.

And the players wear red.

And we’re not talking about Mater Dei.

Woodbridge has finally emerged from the shadow of Brea Olinda and become the girls’ basketball power in Orange County, producing a team that reached the State championship game last season despite having only one senior starter. The Warriors are the favorite to win this year’s State title in Division II--the state’s toughest division--again, with only one senior starter.

Revere them, despise them or envy them, the Warriors are a team whose time has come. For Coach Eric Bangs, what happens over the next 13 months could seal his reputation in Orange County.

A lot can happen in the course of a year. After last March’s Division II championship game, Bangs stood in the press room of the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, and bristled at the question.

“When was the last time you were beaten this badly?”

The Warriors had just lost to San Jose El Camino, 71-38, and Bangs and his team, from Angela Burgess--who would be the team’s only senior starter in her final season--to Carly Moss--a freshman called up for the playoffs--were resolved to get back to the State title game. And to win.

That journey begins Saturday at home against the winner of the Rosemead-Santiago game as the Warriors’ pursuit of the Southern Section Division II-AA championship, which they won last year, begins in earnest.

Eleven months ago, the Warriors knew they had the talent coming back to win it all. In addition to a bench that already gave them more depth than most teams, they had:

--Erin Stovall, an excellent guard whose clutch free-throw shooting during her freshman season kept Woodbridge’s post-season run alive.

--Tami Weaver, a competent guard continually overshadowed by the team’s other talent.

--Burgess, a 6-foot-4 center whose game ascended to another level in the playoffs.

--Melanie Pearson, a multitalented forward who would become the team’s next candidate for county player of the year during her junior season.

They were going to be tough even before they got the transfers. That’s the running joke around Orange County: “Woodbridge always gets a transfer.” Except no one’s laughing. Certainly not the other coaches, and certainly not Bangs, who gets testy at the suggestion of impropriety.

The reason for the innuendo? Weaver, a junior, attended Costa Mesa’s summer program before her freshman year, then moved in with her father--who lived in Irvine. Pearson’s older brother attended University, but she decided to attend Woodbridge.

How convenient, goes the conspiracy theory. Answers Bangs: “Nobody would care if we weren’t winning.”

This year, senior Josie Christensen enrolled at Woodbridge after moving from Boca Raton, Fla. Sophomore Krissy Duperron, who played travel ball with some of her Woodbridge teammates, became a Warrior after leaving Riverside Notre Dame. Duperron is a starter, averaging 13.1 points and a team-high 8.6 rebounds.

Duperron, Weaver and Pearson all played for the same travel ball coach, William Stovall, who was on the Woodbridge coaching staff for two years before leaving this season. His daughter is Erin Stovall.

Other coaches say he is the conduit through which Woodbridge “recruits” players.

Actually, Weaver had a strained relationship with her mother, said Denise Weaver, who recently moved from Costa Mesa to Irvine; she says the two live apart for their own sanity and it benefited both.

Pearson chose to attend Woodbridge for two reasons. Before her freshman year, University was renovating its gymnasium. Secondly, Pearson attended a 6:30 a.m. class at a church near Woodbridge--so it was convenient.

Irvine’s school district has open enrollment, so it was viable.

Christensen’s family made a corporate move to Irvine; they chose Woodbridge, in part, because of the basketball team’s previous success.

Duperron’s parents, both Orange County natives, moved from Corona to Irvine, Krissy said, “because it was a better community, a better move for our family all around.”

But Stovall doesn’t coach only players who wind up at Woodbridge. Among those he has coached are Jennifer Tuiolosega (Ocean View), Natalie Nakase (Marina), Jennifer Saari (Brea Olinda), Monique Toney (Esperanza) and Sarah Middlebrooke (Brea Olinda)--all key players on top 10 programs in Orange County.

*

Brea Olinda set the standard with its five State titles in six years, but the coups de gras took place last year when the Ladycats finished ranked No. 1 in the USA Today national poll. Suddenly, it became evident that winning a mythical national title wasn’t exclusive to other teams--it could happen in Orange County. Woodbridge is now ranked 18th, and had it not been for a buzzer-beating loss to Esperanza, the Warriors might be nearer the top 10, poised to make a run at No. 1 with a State championship performance.

Most teams that finish No. 1 play national power-type schedules. The closest Woodbridge got took place Dec. 23 when it beat Brea Olinda, 51-33, ending the Ladycats’ 65-game winning streak. Brea Olinda had beaten Atherton (Calif.) Sacred Heart (ranked seventh nationally) and Fresno Clovis West (sixth) the two previous nights in the tournament. When the Warriors dismantled the Ladycats, they got credit for beating all three; they debuted in the national rankings at No. 18 the next week.

“I don’t think the kids have felt the pressure this year,” Bangs said. “I think it might have been that way if we had been undefeated. We didn’t expect to be 25-0 at this point. Losing once and learning on the way has been a great thing. But I don’t think they felt the pressure.

“The playoffs is a whole other thing--there’s pressure on everybody.”

Bangs hopes to upgrade Woodbridge’s schedule, probably replacing the Costa Mesa tournament with the Surf and Slam tournament in San Diego, which was won by Pickerington (Ohio), ranked No. 3 nationally.

Bangs also said he can upgrade his team’s nonleague schedule to bring it further national attention, but he said the national rankings are still secondary, a frill that comes along with a strong program with an optimistic focus.

“Our goal this year from Day 1 was to win a State title,” he said. “What’s important is they give it their best shot. If we give it our best shot and come up short, I think we’ll be OK after a couple days to recover.”

*

The stakes have been raised since last season’s final game.

“Five or six years ago, we didn’t have the chance to win a State title, we never even thought of that--your focus is on a league championship,” Bangs said. “Now, you’ve got to think beyond that. I’ve got someone going up (tonight) to film El Camino. Last year, we didn’t know who they were until right before we got up there. Now, you’ve got to be prepared--I’ve got to know about everybody out there.

“You can’t take the chance that it won’t be important information that you need. If there’s any doubt, you have to get it.”

The Warriors won the 1991 Southern Section title while Bangs was on a sabbatical. In addition to personal and professional matters he wanted to address, he evaluated the coaching profession.

“I didn’t know if I wanted to coach anymore,” he said. “I wanted to step back--it was getting to be a little bit of a drag. Either we were going to try to be the No. 1 team in the state or I wasn’t going to come back.”

He came back.