Royal’s Marciano Saw a Shrink, Then His Golf Scores Shrunk

Call it a crutch, call it unorthodox, but Royal High golfer Anthony Marciano calls it one of the smartest moves he has ever made.

Struggling to find consistency in his game last year, Marciano heeded his father’s advice and visited a sports psychologist.

Every two weeks until the start of this season, Marciano sat back in a chair in the Westlake Village office of Jonathan Brower. No, there was no mention of Sigmund Freud, and the doctor made no attempt to delve into Marciano’s unconscious.

Instead, Brower, in effect, hypnotized the young golfer, providing the post-hypnotic suggestion that Marciano relax and enjoy himself on the golf course.

Brower is a 50-year-old sociology professor at Cal State Fullerton with a private psychotherapy practice. A former distance runner at UC Santa Barbara who wrote his doctorate dissertation on racism in professional football, he has treated numerous athletes, helping them enjoy sports more and improve their performance.

Marciano is a 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior who has qualified for the Southern Section individual championships scheduled for Monday at the Canyon Country Club in Palm Springs.

After starting sessions with Brower in the middle of last season, Marciano won the Marmonte League championship and then shot a 70 at La Cumbre Country Club in Santa Barbara to finish second in the Southern Section tournament.

Marciano said he will “cherish his second-place plaque for the rest of my life,” in part because he was runner-up to Tiger Woods, the most-acclaimed amateur golfer in the nation. Woods, a Stanford freshman, shot a 66 last year at La Cumbre.

Marciano said he will enter this year’s tournament with ample confidence because he has become a steadier player since seeing Brower.

“I used to go into big tournaments thinking I can’t win,” he said. “My mind used to wander. But now I can stay focused.”

Through visualization exercises, Marciano holds an image in his mind’s eye of a proper golf stroke. The body will respond to that image, making it part of an athlete’s muscle memory, according to Brower.

When Marciano hits a good shot, he often repeats the swing, acting on Brower’s suggestion that it is more helpful to repeat successes than try to correct mistakes.

Whatever the method, Brower calls Marciano a successful patient because of his motivation.

“He happens to be a really good golfer which is important, but he also practices the visualizations and can make himself relax and stay focused on the course,” Brower said.

This season, Marciano scheduled therapy sessions as needed. Right after he signed a partial scholarship with San Diego State, his game became ragged, requiring a psychological pit stop.

“I was so excited after I signed, I lost track a little bit,” Marciano said.

He also had a session halfway through the Marmonte individual tournament after he shot disappointing 75s in the first two rounds. He then shot a 73 and 71 to place second to Brandon DiTullio, a Westlake senior who has signed with UCLA.

“I think seeing a sports psychologist was the turning point in his career,” Royal Coach Bob Misko said about Marciano. “The key in golf is how you can come back from a double bogey. As simple as it sounds, the psychologist has Anthony believing in taking one shot at a time. It has pulled his game together.”

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El Camino Real is the two-time defending champion and Kennedy is top-seeded, but perhaps the most-intriguing team in the City Section 4-A Division baseball playoffs is Monroe.

The Vikings are the Mid-Valley League champions with a 14-3 record (18-8 overall) and are seeded only seventh. But Monroe has probably the best--and hottest--pitcher in Wayne Nix.

Hot pitchers have dominated the four-round tournament in the past. Rod Beck, now with the San Francisco Giants, pitched Grant to the title in 1986. And left-hander Randy Wolf, now at Pepperdine, carried El Camino Real to the past two championships.

Nix, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound senior right-hander, will pitch against Granada Hills in the first round, and unfortunately for Granada Hills, the game will be played on Tuesday.

In his last four outings, Nix has pitched two no-hitters and two one-hitters. All four games were played on Tuesdays, which might be more than just a coincidence.

Since the spring break, Nix has pitched only once a week, working seven innings instead of the 10 allowed by state rules. Consequently, his arm has never felt better.

“Having a week off between starts has been great,” he said. “My arm feels real strong.”

Evidently. In 28 innings in his last four outings, he has struck out 46, walked five and allowed only two ground-ball singles.

He has increased his record to 10-2, lowered his earned-run average to 0.44, and has 128 strikeouts and 33 walks in 81 innings.

Still, Nix is prepared to pitch in every game of the tournament if the Vikings keep advancing.

“I’ll pitch in a heartbeat,” he said. “If it means we’re going to Dodger Stadium, heck yeah.”

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Nicole Greathouse isn’t accustomed to early exits. The sophomore pitcher also stars on Buena’s basketball team, which advanced to the second round of the state playoffs this season.

So, Friday’s 2-0 defeat to Thousand Oaks in the first round of the Southern Section Division II playoffs stunned Greathouse, who was outpitched by left-hander Jennifer Sharron. “This is a shock,” Greathouse said. “I thought we were going to go all the way. But [Sharron] was a better pitcher than we thought.”

Despite the defeat, Greathouse emerged as one of the area’s top pitchers, posting a 16-3 record and an 0.06 ERA. She also pitched six no-hitters and has nine in her two-year career.

But now that softball season is over, Greathouse is putting her glove in the closet. It’s basketball season again. In fact, it never ended.

Greathouse, who led Buena in scoring (12.6) and rebounding (9.3), has been practicing on weekends all spring. She will play on two traveling all-star teams this summer and won’t pick up a softball again until she joins a winter league team next school year.

“Basketball is still my main sport,” she said.

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WHO’S HOT . . .

* Quartz Hill High outfielder Matt Wilson, who had four hits in a first-round playoff game against Hart, is 12 for 23 over his last seven games, including an eight-for-10 stretch.

* Kennedy High outfielder Terrmel Sledge has eight hits in his last 11 at-bats.

* L.A. Baptist catcher Marc Lacson has hit four home runs in the Knights’ past two games.

* Village Christian pitcher Jason Robitaille extended his streak of complete games to six with victories over L.A. Baptist and Bell-Jeff.