Pregnancy Doesn’t Sideline Mater Dei Coach

Mater Dei girls’ basketball Coach Mary Hauser can consider herself lucky that she was able to attend all her team’s playoff games.

Hauser, who is expecting her second child April 19, began contractions at 31 weeks instead of the usual 40. She has since been taking a muscle relaxant, niphidine, which helps prevent contractions.

“That’s why I’ve been an inanimate object on the bench,” Hauser said. “If I get excited, or my blood pressure rises, it can cause me to go into labor--any kind of stress. Most women who have this condition are hospitalized or confined to a bed. My doctor’s been really nice to me by allowing me to do this, considering his son [Christopher Zepeda] is my ball boy.”

Excitement or sitting down for long periods of time are no-nos. And since she’s been on the medication, her team has played games in Clovis, San Diego and Sacramento.

Michelle Meyers, who played for Hauser on last year’s Mater Dei team, had played at Oakland Catholic her freshman and sophomore years under Susie McConnell. McConnell, now a coach in Pennsylvania, recently went into labor during the third quarter of a game.

“Michelle’s only two high school coaches go into labor in season,” Hauser said. “It’s pretty weird. [McConnell] and I are the same age, played basketball at the same time [McConnell at Penn State, Hauser at Fresno State] and we were both 5-4 point guards.”

*

Hauser was understandably proud of her team’s performance Saturday. Its 59-48 victory over San Jose Archbishop Mitty, which included a fourth quarter during which Hauser cleared the bench and the Monarchs were outscored 20-6, was its most complete game of the season.

Mater Dei led after three quarters, 53-28, over the defending Division III state champion.

“Our coaching staff said that it would be scary to see what this team would be like if we played an entire game,” Hauser said.

*

Woodbridge girls’ basketball Coach Pat Quinn made a big deal again about the quality of shooting in “arena games.” His team played finals at the Pond and at Arco Arena and he feels that arena backdrops behind glass backboards affect perimeter shooters, particularly high school players.

That couldn’t really be said of Mater Dei’s Lori Hurlbut.

Hurlbut made five three-point baskets at the Pond and her first three three-point shots at Arco Arena.

She was eight for 14 in two games--better than her season average of 50%. One of those she missed in the state title game was a 40-foot shot as the clock was ticking down.

*

Sacramento Bee columnist R.E. Graswich indicted girls’ basketball after watching Woodbridge’s brutal 51-44 victory over Sacramento El Camino: “Once those girls learn to catch and shoot, their version of the game will be as entertaining as the version once monopolized by the fellows.”

Mater Dei’s Margaret Hollis decided to leave a message (anonymously) on Graswich’s voice mail before the Monarchs’ game, and after their victory, said she would call back and give him a piece of her mind on the record.

“I called the guy and said, ‘That’s B.S.,’ ” Hollis said. “ ‘We can pass and we can shoot.’ ”

Mater Dei shot 41.5% from the field. That night, the Sacramento Kings shot 42.9% and lost by 26 points to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Oh, the Kings shot 66% from the free-throw line, Mater Dei 73%.

*

Former Brea Olinda girls’ basketball standout Kiyoko Miller wasn’t in a very good mood after top-ranked Cerritos Valley Christian was upset by Campolindo, 77-60, in the Division IV state final.

Miller was on back-to-back state championship teams with the Ladycats her freshman and sophomore years. She transferred to Valley Christian this season.

Miller, a senior, scored 25 points in the Campolindo loss, the only one by the Crusaders this season. It was the fourth time in the last 10 years that Valley Christian has lost a state title game.

“It was fun this year--until now,” Miller told the Sacramento Bee. “I’m a sore loser.”

*

Canyon junior outfielder Mike Tomarelli tied a school record last week when he had 10 consecutive hits in games against La Habra, Esperanza and Villa Park.

The streak, equaling the mark set last year by Eric Valent (UCLA), could not have come at a better time for Tomarelli, who was one for 10 in his first three games.

“I was hitting the ball hard but right at people,” said Tomarelli, 17. “I was really down on myself. I thought I should be doing better.”

Tomarelli began the streak with a double against La Habra. “I felt relieved,” he said. “I started relaxing.”

His streak ended with a grounder to short.

“I’ve never gone through anything like that before,” Tomarelli said. “For a while, I really thought I couldn’t miss.”

*

The Capistrano Valley boys’ volleyball team won the prestigious Goleta Dos Pueblos High tournament Saturday at UC Santa Barbara with a 15-7 victory over Los Angeles University in the final.

Chris Seiffert, a senior setter for the Cougars, was named the tournament’s most valuable player, and Brad Leech, a senior middle blocker, was selected to the all-tournament team.

*

Just a few days after returning from the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in Indianapolis, Santa Margarita Junior Philippe Demers was back in the water, only this time swimming for his school at the Southern Section Swim Relays at Belmont Plaza on Saturday.

Demers, who placed 18th in the 200-meter butterfly at the trials, was the key to Santa Margarita’s sixth-place finish.

“He [Demers] was the difference in our two relay victories,” Santa Margarita Coach Rick Rowland said. “Philippe wasn’t able to swim for us on Thursday during prelims, but we were able to put him in on Saturday and come back to beat some tough schools. And it had a lot to do with Philippe.”

*

Esperanza girls’ basketball Coach Marc Hill was astonished by the totals of Lindsay Foss’ career.

Foss went 102 starts without missing a game--”or a practice,” Hill said.

“I kept looking in the scorebooks and it was, like, ‘Whoa,’ ” Hill said. “She’s like the Cal Ripken of Esperanza basketball. She had a minor sprained ankle as a sophomore, and I remember taping her up and she played on it, and from then on, I’ve always taped her--it’s kind of been a tradition.”

Foss, a 5-11 forward, finished as the school’s all-time leading scorer (1,198 points) and second-leading rebounder (644). She also was in the top 10 in steals (166) and assists (155).

Staff writers Erik Hamilton, Paul McLeod, Mike Terry and Wendy Witherspoon contributed to this story.