Transfer Case : The Addition of Joens, Waetjen Gives Calvary Chapel a Shot at Title

Christy Ring did not know Cathy Joens or her reputation.

Ring, the point guard at Calvary Chapel, finished the 1996-97 girls’ basketball season thinking the 1997-98 team could finish second in the Olympic League, maybe win a playoff game or two.

But all that changed over the summer when Ring--a Times Orange County second-team softball player--finally got her first look at Joens, the transfer from Woodbridge who was a second-team all-county basketball player.

“I thought, ‘Oh wow, we’re going to be good,’ ” Ring recalled.

How good? Calvary Chapel, which had never won a league title, goes into the playoffs not only as the Olympic League co-champion, but among the favorites to win the Southern Section Division IV-AA title. The Eagles are seeded second.

Joens, a junior who started two seasons at Woodbridge, was one of the county’s most talked-about transfers upon enrolling at Calvary Chapel.

“Cathy Joens bumped them up three levels,” said Brethren Christian Coach Kim Harris, “because they were already an outstanding team.”

But the Eagles actually got two transfers. Erica Waetjen, a shooting guard from Huntington Beach, fit in nicely as a replacement for the one starter Calvary Chapel lost off last year’s team, Whitney Hoover.

It has enabled Calvary Chapel to attack opponents the way Coach Russ McClurg wants--with the “same intensity as the Sunset League teams.”

McClurg was an assistant at Huntington Beach before arriving at Calvary Chapel four years ago. His first season, the team went 6-15. His goal was to win two more games in each year. The team has responded, going 10-12, 19-10 and, this season, 21-5.

“I try to set realistic goals,” McClurg said, “not ones that are unattainable.”

And that attitude filters to the players, who realize they were bumped up from Division IV-A to IV-AA because the school had 15 students too many.

Now, they are in the same division as top-seeded Playa del Rey St. Bernard, which reached the Division IV state final last season.

But at Calvary Chapel, players talk more about “playing for the Lord” than they do playing for a section title.

“It’s different here--this school is a church-first school,” McClurg said. “God is important, not basketball.”

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Joens (13.6 points, 10.5 rebounds), Waetjen (11.2 points), Ring (14.4), Kori Przygocki (7.2 points) and defensive specialist T.J. Gause (7.9 points) catapulted Calvary Chapel into uncharted territory. The Eagles have been ranked as high as second in the section.

“If we have a great game, we can beat St. Bernard,” Ring said. “But I know they’re going to be a tough team, so I’m not going to say we’re going to win. But i’m not going to say we’re going to lose.

“We have a chance. We’re going to give them a game.”

And Ring admits she couldn’t say that last year.

Joens has made all the difference. She came into this season having diversified her game, a greater perimeter threat while still possessing the ability to clean up around the basket.

Last season, she averaged 13.9 points and 7.7 rebounds. She left Woodbridge, where she started for two seasons and won a state title as a freshman, because she wanted to attend a Christian school.

So, too, for Waetjen.

“I wanted to go here since my sophomore year, but I didn’t want to leave my friends,” Waetjen said. “But I realized my education is more important than social reasons.”

Her grade-point average at Huntington Beach was 3.7. After a semester at Calvary Chapel, it’s 4.0.

“I was excited after last season because I knew four starters were coming back,” McClurg said. “Coming from the Sunset League, I wanted the girls to play that style, intense--like Huntington Beach and Marina. I thought we’d be much more intense and run the floor better.”

But that aggressiveness can have its drawbacks. Last week against Brethren Christian, Joens played less than eight minutes and fouled out after scoring only two points in a 39-36 loss. McClurg was displeased with the officiating.

Joens is not Wonder Woman, either. She had the worst night of her high school career in a loss to Cerritos Valley Christian, the perennial league champion, when she went 0 for 15 from the floor and scored one point in a 39-30 loss.

“They’re very aggressive--they go after the ball,” Harris said. “Pump fake, get them in foul trouble, try to take Joens out of the game and you have a ball game.”

Unlike her teammates, Joens has won a section and state title and she sees the opportunity that lies ahead. Especially with Ring and Waetjen, both seniors, still in the lineup.

“As far as I’m concerned, we should get it done this year,” Joens said. “With the talent we have . . . we really have a chance to go to the [section] finals.”