LIVING WITH LOSING

Justin Harper walked off the tennis court about two-thirds of the way through the 1997 season. His record, after losing three sets, fell to 1-32. He looked at his coach, Jeff Snyder.

“I just can’t take it anymore,” Harper said.

“I don’t blame you,” Snyder responded.

Harper quit on the spot--only to return this year as co-captain at La Habra.

Estancia sophomore right fielder Debra Wyman is constantly apologizing for her play on the softball field. There’s no reason to apologize, her coach says, because Wyman “always gives 110%.” Wyman lacks faith in herself, so much so that the coach bought Wyman a book, “The Little Engine That Could.”

Every time Wyman says “I can’t,” Coach Sharon Uhl answers with a variation from the book’s theme: “I know you can, I know you can.”

What makes kids come back for more?

It’s easy to play, to practice hard every day, when winning is commonplace. If a team wins only six times, it’s still enough to provide some hope that it will win one out of every four games or so.

But when a program hasn’t won six games in two years?

“We’re going to teach a lot of life lessons,” Uhl said, “and if we win a game, that’s good.”

For every winner, there’s a loser. And face it, it’s tougher to get through a losing season. However, there are still kids such as Tiffany Ortega, who come out for what might be endless disappointment because they say they enjoy their sport.

Jeff Janssen, a mental training consultant at the University of Arizona, said playing through a losing season has long-term benefits.

“Sport teaches that life isn’t always going to be fair, and if they can keep working hard through the adversity of a tough season, it’s going to help them in the game of life,” Janssen said. “I don’t know if they know that at the time. It’s probably afterward, when they look back on it, that it’s going to sink in.”

Ortega, a junior middle infielder for Estancia’s softball team, says flatly, “Winning is not important. If it was important, I wouldn’t be around.

“It’s nice. I love the feeling and being able to tell people we won. But if winning was such a priority, I wouldn’t have stayed here for three years.”

From 1995 to 1997, Estancia was 9-47. The Eagles were 3-16 last season, 2-15 the season before that.

There are other sports programs that are almost as bad, or worse.

But Corona del Mar’s decision to not have a varsity softball team surprised many. Only a handful of girls tried out. When two returning players didn’t come out, things worsened.

“I was shocked,” said junior Jacque Marston, who would have pitched for Corona del Mar this season. She tried to recruit players. “I didn’t think it would really happen. I heard if we didn’t get people out there, it would fold, but I didn’t think it would happen until it happened.

“I’m mad about it.”

Modest Goals

Freshman pitcher Joanna Danner knew Estancia’s awful track record. She considered attending Fountain Valley, though her older sister, Stephanie, played for Estancia. Joanna just couldn’t do it.

“I was thinking about going to Fountain Valley because the competition would be greater and my team would be made up of better players,” Danner said. “[The quality of the program] meant a lot to me, but I like Estancia. I know a lot of people. I’ve gone to school with them since kindergarten.

“Softball is important, but I also want to think about my friends.”

She also admits to being frustrated, such as the day she pitched a no-hitter but lost because the Eagles made nine errors.

That wasn’t the case when Estancia defeated its rival, Costa Mesa, on Thursday and improved to 3-4 overall, 1-1 in the Pacific Coast League. “If we don’t make errors,” Danner said, “we’re OK.”

Snyder, the boys’ tennis coach at La Habra, began this season with modest goals because his team had lost 59 of its last 61 matches. He wanted to have a junior varsity team, to win at least one match, “and put together something the kids would come back for the next year.”

“I think we’ve accomplished that,” said Snyder, whose team is 3-7 overall, 0-3 in the Freeway League. It ended a 30-match losing streak in its season opener by defeating Whittier Christian on games, 73-71.

One of those who came back was junior Steve Beerfeldt, who didn’t play as a freshman because he didn’t think he could make the varsity. As a sophomore last season, he was the No. 1 singles player.

“I think everyone feels overwhelmed at times,” Beerfeldt said. “I’ve never thought of winning as a first priority. I focus more on how I played. There will always be someone there who will be better than you are.

“When you enjoy something so much, there’s not much frustration in it.”

The frustration became too much last year for Beerfeldt’s teammate, Harper.

“I didn’t think we’d be a winning program, but I didn’t expect us to not put up a fight in any match we played,” he said.

“I always play to win, and I couldn’t deal with it. [But] I felt like a quitter. That’s not like me.”

Harper is 12-18 this season, and there’s nothing that could make him walk away again, he said.

Same with Cheer Liv, a junior who was 0-33 in his first season as a sophomore. He is 6-12 this year. He said there is no pressure on a team with La Habra’s history.

“There’s an emphasis on winning,” Liv said, “but it’s more on having fun and improving your game.”

Liv is impressed his coach takes the time to teach him the basics.

Snyder, in his second season at La Habra, was the school’s fourth coach in four years. On most teams, Harper and Liv, who had not played tennis before, would have played junior varsity. But players who learned how to keep score were varsity material at La Habra.

“Can you imagine a football player who didn’t know how to keep score?” Snyder said. “It’s important for me to keep everything in perspective and make sure the kids understand our situation. I empathize with the kids. We don’t lose because of lack of effort. It’s just that we’re in a situation where we don’t match up well with most schools.

“If last year was my first year coaching, it would have been my last.”

Harper, with little experience, was typical of the player La Habra gets. A turbulent 1995 season destroyed the program. According to Eric Saenz, a former player, all but seven of the 40 players quit the program because it was disorganized or they had conflicts with Coach Pat Pastor, or were kicked off because missed practices weren’t tolerated.

Saenz, a freshman at Fullerton College, had never played before, but he stuck it out. He began the 1995 season playing No. 2 and 3 doubles on the junior varsity but played No. 1 varsity singles in the Freeway League tournament.

“I loved the game,” Saenz said. “I was just playing for fun. I didn’t really play competitively until my senior year [1997]. I didn’t realize how bad our program was.”

La Habra, which is slowly rebuilding, was helped by the girls’ success last fall; they were 15-5, took second in the league, and won the school’s first girls’ tennis playoff match. There are twice as many boys (26) than there were last season, including two seniors, six juniors and 13 freshmen.

Getting Used to It

Getting players isn’t a problem for the Century baseball program, where 60 players tried out for the freshman-sophomore team. But the program continues to struggle. Century was 11-59-2 in the three previous seasons.

“It doesn’t really bug me. I have other things in life to keep me going,” said senior utility player Omar Madrigal. “It’s sad to say, but I’ve gotten used to it.”

The losing, that is. Madrigal is the third brother to come through Century, which has had only two winning varsity seasons, 1993 and 1994.

“The most trying thing is to get over the fact that we’re not going to be in first, second or third place,” he said. “We’re never going to be 1998 Empire League champions. That’s the most difficult thing to get over--that can’t be done this year.”

Century has only one bona fide varsity pitcher, Brian Cortes, and when he isn’t pitching, it can get rough.

Jose Magana started against El Dorado and gave up six runs--and didn’t get anyone out--before being pulled in a 19-0 loss.

When Coach Nate Guerriero asked why Magana missed the next day’s practice, he was startled by the answer.

Magana said he went to the beach, to be alone where he “could sit and think.”

Guerriero didn’t push the line of questioning, but Magana told the coach the next day that he had a lot of things on his mind.

Magana, a senior and team captain said he didn’t feel he was helping the team. But he decided to stay.

“It’s my last year, and I felt I owed it to the team and the coaching staff and help as much as I can any way I can,” Magana said.

But he also did it for himself.

“When I don’t play baseball, I don’t concentrate on school,” he said. “When I get up in the morning, I go, ‘I’ve got practice today.’ That makes me go to school. It makes me happy.”

Magana hasn’t pitched since, but he continues to play--as a backup outfielder. Century, 1-21-1 two years ago, and 5-19 last year, is 2-12.

Turning It Around

Few programs have lost as much as Los Amigos’ softball team. Now in second place in the Garden Grove League, the Lobos were 1-21 when catcher Suzy Reyes was a sophomore. The victory ended a 65-game losing streak. They were 4-15 last year and are 10-3 this season, including four league victories that snapped a six-year league losing streak.

“My freshman and sophomore years, I would hear the other teams laughing and making fun of us,” said Reyes, a four-year varsity starter. “It’s not a good feeling, but I hung in there. I’m not a poor sport. I knew before I graduated we were going to succeed in one or two games.

“Winning is important to me, but it’s more important when we don’t give up.”

It’s turnarounds like the one at Los Amigos, and other small victories that give hope. Estancia’s softball team considered its 3-0 loss to Laguna Hills a victory because its goal was not to lose so badly the mercy rule--trailing by 10 runs or more after five innings--was applied.

Anaheim’s softball team, which had not won a game the last two seasons, already has won twice.

And Century beat El Dorado in baseball last season. That kind of event can invigorate a team.

Most players say a sense of hope is the most important thing they need to continue playing. “When you’re hoping, you’re dreaming,” Estancia’s Ortega said. “If you don’t dream, you can never expect anything for yourself. If you don’t have any expectations of yourself, then you can never have any self-confidence.”

Which brings us back to Wyman and “The Little Engine That Could.”

She thought about quitting during the season’s first game after being removed following an error. “[Coach Uhl] doesn’t need me, why should I play?” Wyman asked herself.

“But I thought about it on the bench,” Wyman said. “Quitting is not the way to get out of your problems. It’s just going to make your problems worse.”

In Estancia’s victory over Costa Mesa, Wyman moved unsteadily under the ball in right field and made the catch to end the game and make the Eagles’ season.

She didn’t need to apologize as teammates embraced her.