Brea’s Eighth Straight Title a Testament to Junior Achievement

Brea Olinda Coach Jeff Sink was understandably proud of the Ladycats’ eighth consecutive Southern Section girls’ basketball title. He also was slightly amused at the unimpressed line of questioning in the aftermath of a less-than-artistic 54-44 Division II-A victory over Ocean View.

“Here we are analyzing this game as though we had lost,” Sink said. “That’s our eighth straight title and a great win for the program. And we did it with four junior starters. Let’s be fair--we were not picked that highly at the beginning of the year.”

In fact, Ocean View was ranked ahead of Brea (ranked third) in the Southern Section Division II rankings at the beginning of the year.

Sink called this season a springboard to next. The four juniors return next season, and the junior varsity team has won 133 straight.

“We had to be careful to not play for next year,” he said. “That could have rationalized the loss here or against Perris [in the semifinals]. When you’re so young and talented, it’s easy to rationalize things.”

Although Jennifer Saari’s skills are well-documented, Sink said the other junior starters, Marissa Bradley, Stephanie Wettlin and Rochelle Anthony, have been instrumental in Saari’s development as a point guard.

“The talent inspires and encourages each other,” he said. “Given our youth, those four kids had to have great years, and they were pretty much unrecognized. Over the next year-and-a-half, that will change.”

*

The Santa Ana wrestling program has come a long way since the days when opposing teams wouldn’t schedule the Saints because of their rowdy behavior, “a reputation of trouble-making,” Coach Scott Glabb called it.

Three Santa Ana wrestlers qualified for state finals and two placed seventh: Ignacio Bahena at 112 pounds and Sadie Morales (125).

“We qualified the most this school has ever had,” Glabb said. “I’m hoping to get some more in next year, and more the year after. And maybe one day, we’ll be at the same level as Calvary Chapel.”

*

When John Colvin of Rancho Alamitos attended the state wrestling championships with his coach, Randy Gonzales, it marked the first time in 10 years that a Vaquero had advanced to the state tournament.

Gonzales, who placed fifth in the heavyweight division in 1986, was the last.

“It was a great honor to be a coach and get your first kid in there and I hope to get many more,” Gonzales said.

Colvin (215) advanced to the quarterfinals.

*

Just how critical was Mater Dei’s second-half breakdown Friday in its 56-51 loss to Ventura Buena in the Division I girls’ basketball final?

The Monarchs’ reward for blowing a 13-point lead is a bus trip--about four hours--to Fresno today to play Clovis West. Had they won, they would have been the No. 1-seeded team and played home games the rest of the playoffs. Now, the Monarchs have to do it the hard way.

“[The players] were more mad than anything,” assistant Geri Gainey said. “But [Coach Mary Hauser] told them before the game started, ‘You can’t keep going to the well.’ They kept letting teams hang around and one day they wouldn’t be able to win it at the end.”

Mater Dei led by 13 in the second quarter, eight at halftime, nine in the third quarter and four in the fourth.

Rhonda Gondringer, who had 10 points and 10 rebounds, said anxiety on offense was the Monarchs’ downfall.

“I think we were too anxious and tried too hard,” she said after the game. “We wanted to score but we didn’t look for a good shot.”

Hauser put it another way.

“We panicked and played tight,” she said. “After we were up, 44-40 [going into the fourth quarter], we didn’t play to win, we played not to lose.”

It didn’t work.

One advantage to playing in Fresno is that Hauser and Gainey (who is Hauser’s sister), had no problem securing Fresno State’s gym to shoot around before the game. Both were players there--Hauser graduating in 1990, Gainey in 1992.

*

Here’s a chance to put Buena girls’ basketball Coach Joe Vaughan’s accomplishments in perspective. In three years, Hauser’s record is 77-8, a .906 winning percentage. In 21 seasons, Vaughan’s 504-51 record is .908.

*

Winning the Division II-AA boys’ basketball title Saturday, 60-53, over Riverside North completed a four-year journey for the Santa Margarita players who vowed they would be play in the section final as seniors.

Dennis Keane, Allen Krist and Scott Balo were on the Eagles’ 1993-94 Division III-A championship team, but they said they were just along for the ride.

“That was the other seniors’ team,” Krist said. “This is ours.”

Keane agreed:

“Our job then was to get the ball to the Finneran twins [Brad and Brian],” Keane said. “Where those seniors led, we followed. This time, people got the ball to us.”

Santa Margarita hosts San Diego Scripps Ranch tonight in the state regional playoffs.

*

Esperanza’s golf team had a rough start to its season last week. About half the Aztecs’ match against Redlands at Redlands Country Club was played in a driving snowstorm.

“It wasn’t a blizzard,” Esperanza Coach Al Safallo said, “but if it got any worse it would have been. It was fun to watch but playing in it was terrible.”

Esperanza lost the match to Redlands, one of the stronger teams in the Southern Section. The next day the Aztecs returned home to Yorba Linda Country Club for a match against Santa Margarita, which is considered one of the top two teams in Orange County. It rained, and Santa Margarita beat Esperanza, 198-206.

*

The Sunny Hills golf team raised eyebrows when three of its players--senior Terry Noe, junior Jin Park and freshman Dusty Schmidt--each shot two-under-par 33 at Meadowlark in a 176-219 victory over Marina, but Sunny Hills’ best score of the day didn’t count.

Jason Kim shot 32 but he wasn’t in the lineup. Kim, a sophomore who played for the junior varsity last season, would have shot 31 but he missed a three-foot putt on the ninth hole.

Marina Coach Joe Crider, who played in the same group as Kim, was amazed. “I saw him miss only one approach shot,” Crider said. “He was barely off the green and then he chipped in.”

*

El Modena’s first Southern Section Division II girls’ soccer championship was a family affair with the brother-sister combination of Coach Jeff Pearson and midfielder Jill Pearson.

“She creates a lot of energy for the team,” Jeff Pearson said. “Maybe she doesn’t do the right thing all the time, but her work rate . . . elevates the rest of them.”

Jill, a junior and Western Regional selection in the Olympic Development Program, had never played high school soccer. She helped El Modena to a 2-0 victory over Canyon in Saturday’s section final.

“For my first season of high school [soccer] to make it to the [Southern Section] finals and win it is great,” Jill said.

*

Annie Luke, a forward for Santa Margarita’s girls’ soccer team, has signed a letter of intent to attend UCLA. Luke, a four-year starter for Santa Margarita, led the Eagles to the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division I this season.

*

Glendora, a team that lived and died by the three-point basket this year, was awful Saturday in its 57-47 loss to Mater Dei in the Southern Section Division I-A boys’ basketball championship final. The Tartans made about 35% of their three-point attempts on the year, but hit only two of 19 against the Monarchs.

Those shooting problems can most likely be traced to the floor at the Pond, which is the site of the Southern California championships Saturday. Glendora’s first six three-point shots came from outside the NBA three-point line of 22 feet, nine inches. The high school distance is 19-9, but the NBA line was easier to see because it was black; the high school line was red and more difficult to see on the fly.

The Tartans weren’t the only ones confused. When guard Josh Giles scored an apparent three-point shot from the left baseline on the team’s seventh attempt--this one clearly inside the black line, but short of the red one--the officials credited him with only two points.

* Staff writers Martin Beck, Erik Hamilton, Paul McLeod, Mike Terry and Wendy Witherspoon contributed to this report.