Calvary Chapel Turns Negatives Into Positives

Their star player graduated. Their team captain didn’t consider himself leadership material. Their tallest player was 6 feet 5 and preferred shooting three pointers to rebounding.

Their coach wondered if he made the right decision to stay rather than take a more lucrative offer. And two potential starting players transferred one day before their first game.

A recipe for disaster?

Maybe anywhere else, but at Calvary Chapel, preparations are taking place for a second consecutive appearance in a Southern Section boys’ basketball championship game. The Eagles (23-6) play Santa Maria St. Joseph (20-8) at 8 p.m. Friday in the Division IV-AA final at the Bren Center.

Reaching this game seemed impossible three months ago.

“There is no way I expected this,” Calvary Chapel Coach Craig Falconer said. “The four previous teams we had had much more talent. But it has been a great year. Things just worked out.”

In December, still stinging from the memory of being defeated twice by Santa Monica Crossroads, first in the section Division IV-A final, then in the Southern California Regional IV title game, Calvary Chapel looked as if it was in for a long season.

The Eagles didn’t appear to have a go-to guy such as all-county point guard Kevin Falconer, now at Westmont College. He averaged 9.1 assists and is expected to become the all-time Southern Section career assist leader with 1,034 if the school gets around to submitting his totals this spring.

His father, who coaches the Eagles, made what he described as a gut-wrenching financial decision when he stayed to teach at Calvary Chapel rather than return to private business.

Then, barely 24 hours before the Eagles’ season opener against Esperanza in the Brea Olinda tournament, senior All-Olympic League forward Garid Beeler and his brother, freshman Torin, transferred to Ocean View.

“That put everyone out of position,” Craig Falconer said. “We really have five guards now. Their leaving made us very unbalanced.”

At 6-5, junior Brett Young, the team’s tallest player, had a nice touch from three-point range, but he was shifted to the low post because of Garid Beeler’s departure. The leadership role fell to senior shooting guard Joe Ortiz, a second-team Times all-county selection last season, who said he doesn’t see himself as much of a rah-rah type.

“I don’t go out to be a leader,” Ortiz said. “I try to lead by example and hope that the rest of the team will follow that.”

Young said the turning point came shortly after the Beelers left.

“It could have gone two different ways,” Young said. “You could say we lost two good scorers, or you could say that their leaving left us with a lot of emotional distress. But there was a division in the team [before they left]. We came together [after that] and began to jell. That was a big step for us.”

Ortiz did lead by example, Falconer said. The 6-3 guard averaged a team-high 22.2 points and has 2,001 career points, making him only the sixth county player to reach 2,000 points.

Senior guard Pat Dinnie adjusted well to being a starter, Falconer said. Another senior guard, Tim Baker, a transfer from Capistrano Valley Christian, blended in and was a “take-charge player.”

In addition, Jake Fabozzi, another senior guard, became the team’s defensive leader. “He hounds opposing guards,” Falconer said.

Ortiz is excited about getting back into the finals.

“Everyone expected us to be down this year,” he said. “We’re definitely not as talented as teams we have had in the past, but everyone knows his role.”

The Eagles won six of their first eight games and reached the finals at the Brea Olinda and Century tournaments. They swept through the Olympic League undefeated, extending their league winning streak to 30.

Their home winning streak stands at 26 and they take a 13-game winning streak into Friday’s final.

But they’ve shot poorly at the Bren Center and have an 0-5 record there to prove it.

“It’s been very disappointing,” Falconer said of past appearances in the Bren. “All of the guys have played there now four or five times, so [being nervous] playing in a big arena is not an excuse for poor shooting this time.”