Slam Hunk

There are times when a 14-year-old girl simply cannot stifle a squeal. Especially when she has just found out she’s going to meet her sports idol, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jessica Kerns, a ninth-grader at Royal High School, is usually even-tempered, according to her mother, Claretta, but she lost her cool when she learned two weeks ago she had won the McDonald’s Small Fry Sports Reporter Contest by writing a short essay on her favorite NBA player.

Her prize includes a trip to the NBA All-Star game next month in New York City and a chance to interview basketball sensation Bryant. Jessica is conducting a practice interview with him tonight before the Lakers-Timberwolves game.

“This is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me,” Jessica said, explaining that she admires Bryant’s talent as an athlete, as well as his work in the community. “He’s a good role model for African Americans. He inspires people to never give up, to keep doing what they’re doing.”

His accomplishments aside, Kobe is kind of cute, Jessica shyly admits. Does she have a crush on him? “Just a little,” she answered, squirming in her chair.

“Everything is Kobe around this house,” said Jessica’s mom.

The day before her trip to the Great Western Forum, Jessica was carefully preparing six questions to ask the 19-year-old guard. She’ll ask about his rookie year and his hobbies outside of basketball.

She was equally concerned, however, about getting a new pair of shoes for her big moment as a sports journalist.

Jessica plans to wear her Lakers No. 8 tank top jersey.

The Kernses are admittedly a basketball-loving family. They gather in the family TV room--adorned with a framed collectible poster of Kareem Abdul Jabbar--with large bowls of popcorn to cheer their favorite teams. (Their dad, Odell, likes the Atlanta Hawks.)

So it’s a natural that Jessica, who has shot her share of hoops with the Simi Valley Parks and Recreation and Boys & Girls Club leagues, should be crazy about Bryant, one of the youngest players ever to appear in the All-Star game.

She regularly checks the Lakers Web site for updates on Bryant happenings and new photographs that she prints out on her color printer. Her bedroom walls are plastered with posters of the muscular and sweaty phenom in flight. “Kiss the Sky,” one of them declares.

Jessica is not all B-ball however. She plays the piccolo in the school marching band, the flute in the concert band and the piano in the jazz band. She sings in the church choir at St. Paul Baptist Church in Oxnard--her mother describes her alto voice as a “cheating soprano.” The former Girl Scout said she also enjoys reading, sewing and making beaded jewelry.

She has entertained careers in teaching, veterinary medicine and music. But since winning the contest, Jessica said she is considering becoming a sportswriter and intends to inquire about writing for Royal High’s newspaper, the Plaid Truth.

For the time being, the Big Apple and her upcoming adventure are all she can think about. And as her mother will accompany her, it is all she can think about, too.

“I’m as excited as she is,” said Claretta Kerns, a homemaker and professional photographer. The pair plan to see a Broadway show, eat a fancy Italian meal and shop for new clothes. McDonald’s is giving Jessica, and the seven other kids who won the national contest, $500 each in spending money.

Perusing her trip itinerary for the first time, Jessica once again let out a squeal. She gets to watch practice games, of both Eastern and Western Conference teams; talk to rookie players; have breakfast with Grant Hill; pose for photos with this year’s basketball stars; and, of course, attend the All-Star game on Feb. 8.

Simi Valley seems to be fertile ground for lucky youngsters who have hoop dreams.

In a separate NBA event to be held next weekend in New York, 12-year-old Jameson Lovell of Township Elementary School in Simi Valley will be representing the Los Angeles area in the NBA’s Jam Van “Play Adidas” Basketball Shooting Contest.

In November, the sixth-grader scored the most points against 49 other basketball players, including adults, in the NBA’s contest in Huntington Beach.

The contestants shot from six locations on a basketball court, including one shot from three-point territory. Jameson made four out of a possible eight.

Though he plays basketball every day at recess and is a member on the park district’s Warriors team, Jameson admitted that scoring that final shot was pretty lucky.

So did his mother, Michelle.

“He’s good and he’s got the rhythm on the courts,” she said. “But we don’t know where that last three-pointer came from.”

Correspondent Lisa Fernandez contributed to this story.