SENIOR Q & A

A Harvard-bound infielder . . . the Ojai tennis champion who chose USC over Stanford and UCLA . . . the captain of her high school soccer team who seeks work to help pay for her college tuition . . . a quiet girls’ basketball player of the year who will attend college close to home so her family can watch her play.

Too often high school athletics are presented only from the perspective of an adult--The Times wanted to hear from the student/athletes.

Staff writer Paul McLeod talked with Woodbridge’s Lisa Watanabe, Servite’s Ryan Moore, La Quinta’s Melissa Stearns and Ocean View’s Anna Lembke. The athletes were asked to share their thoughts on some important issues.

Some of the points they made:

* Coaches should be on campus every day or involved with the school in some way.

* Parents should be supportive and not interfere in their kids’ performances.

* High school counselors lack the experience or time to help athletes prepare for college.

1. WHAT QUALITIES DO YOU WANT FROM A HIGH SCHOOL COACH?

Lisa: Coaches should be very supportive and have a good, positive attitude. A positive attitude is the most important thing in athletics. They also need to have a willingness to develop players, starting from the freshman year all the way up to the senior year.

Ryan: Enthusiasm is important. You need a coach who is enthusiastic and wants the team to do well.

Melissa: You want one who will focus on this year, not the year coming up.

Anna: My coach was a walk-on. Our [boys’ basketball] coach works at the school. He’s a teacher there, and I liked that better because they’re more involved with school. They know about all the activities, like pep rallies. But my walk-on coach was at school every day and has an office there.

Lisa: I have an assistant coach right now who is a teacher. It is a lot of fun. I get to see him in class and talk and joke around with him, and also get to see him on the field.

Ryan: My coach is the only walk-on at the school. It is fine for me. He’s involved in the school even though he’s not a teacher. He sticks around the whole day. I don’t know what he does there, but he’s there all the time.

2. WHAT DO HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES EXPECT FROM AN OFFICIAL, UMPIRE OR REFEREE?

Anna: The main things are consistency and fairness. In dealing with a team that is ranked higher [whose players have] better skills and abilities, the refs or umpires seem to expect more from those players rather than being consistent all around.

Lisa: Call the same calls on both sides. Don’t be partial. Let the outcome be determined on the field.

Anna: Everyone is going to have bad experiences with refs or umpires. They’re not going to catch every call, but refs should do the best they can.

Ryan: I only get umpires in CIF about two matches a year. Outside of school I get them more. Umpires don’t really look at teams, they look at the individual. In tennis there are some kids who are known as cheaters because you call you own lines in matches. I like matches with umpires. There’s less chance of [an opponent] making an error or [cheating].

Anna: Refs need to get up and down the court. If they were in a better position, or have a better angle, they’d make a better call.

Lisa: That’s true in softball too. Angles are very important. If they can see it from a better angle, they’ll be able to make the call.

Melissa: I like refs who let you know how they’ll call the game beforehand. I like refs who tell the two captains what they [the referees] do differently from other refs.

Anna: When we were playing against teams that were really small, half our size, or lacking players who were over 6 feet and we were winning, sometimes I felt the refs would let calls go. When I was shooting if they fouled me, they would let that go, or maybe they thought I had more advantage with my height and ability and they’d let things go.

3. WHAT ROLE SHOULD PARENTS TAKE WHILE THEIR CHILDREN ARE PLAYING SPORTS?

Melissa: Parents need to be supportive. That’s the main thing. Just understand that we will be at school until 5, sometimes 6 or 7 at night and we will need to come home and won’t be able to eat dinner with them. A lot of parents want family dinners, but we can’t do that because we have away games. One time I had a game in Norwalk and I didn’t get home until 11:30 and I had school the next day.

Ryan: Sometimes they should let us grow up in our sports by ourselves. They should let you be a little independent, because that is what you are going to have to be [in college]. They’re not going to be there on your case.

Anna: A lot of parents try to relive their sporting ability through their children. After games they’ll yell and go off, like, “Why didn’t you do that?” and “Why didn’t you do this?” They’re just trying to do it over again for themselves. I know one girl who plays basketball on my club team. In the stands her dad would just yell at her. He’s never satisfied at what she does. She tries her hardest and does her best.

Ryan: I bet it hurts her confidence. That’s got to be more prevalent in team sports than tennis.

There are some pretty intense tennis parents, aren’t there?

Ryan: They just want their kid to do so well. In tennis the fewer losses you have probably means more scholarship money, so a loss is pretty big. Plus, you have the kid who takes the loss harder than someone in a team sport because it’s all on his shoulders.

Lisa: There are a lot of dads out there who are really competitive. They really get on the kid when they don’t do as well as they want them to do. My parents were very supportive. They gave me a lot of guidance and also helped me plan my path through high school and to college.

In softball there are a lot of parents who will just tear their kids up by yelling at them. It’s sad because the girl doesn’t mean to strike out. She goes up there wanting to do well, but sometimes things don’t go your way and people just get upset.

Ryan: There’s a nervousness among tennis parents. A lot of parents don’t even watch their kids play.

Lisa: They pace around . . .

Ryan: There’s this one dad, if we are playing at a park, he will go behind a hedge and peak through it and pace. There are dads with those stress grips that they squeeze because they’re nervous and edgy.

Lisa: Yeah, most of the parents on my team smoke; smoke and pace.

HOW CAN GUIDANCE COUNSELORS / CAREER CENTERS BE THE MOST HELP?:

Ryan: To tell you the truth, I barely even know my guidance counselor. I kind of went through it independently, trying to make my college choice. I had good enough grades to go anywhere. It was up to me. I didn’t really have reasons to know her. I could do all the stuff I needed to do on my own. I guess the best thing they can do is direct you toward a major in college.

Lisa: Same with me. I was pretty independent. I really only visited my counselor for recommendations, classes to take, the technical stuff. All the other college stuff I did on my own. I went to another counselor separate from school that helps you with applications, admission, your essays. He told me what each college was about, but you really have to go there to see what it is all about.

Melissa: At my school they set up our schedules, make sure we are getting the classes and make sure we’re graduating. We have a career center that helps us with our college decisions.

Anna: [Counselors are] more for students who aren’t getting college scholarships. They need them more. Mostly, athletes know where they want to go, so they investigate and find out what it takes to get there. People who really aren’t sure what their next step is maybe rely on the guidance counselor or career center.

Ryan: There’s a lot of forms to fill out, but I never filled out anything [at school], so I never had contact.

Lisa: When you think about it, there are so many kids that counselors have to support and guide. The counselors really don’t know athletics very well.

Ryan: It’s not in their job description. They’re helping kids get into colleges, but we’re getting into colleges because we have a scholarship.

Lisa: They don’t know much about the recruiting process.

Anna: My guidance counselor helped me with the NCAA Clearinghouse, but I don’t think they’re aware of all the different dates and guidelines we have to go by.

Melissa: My counselor knows what career I want to [pursue]. When she sees something about dogs or dog training, she gives it to me. At my school counselors don’t help you out with college, they help you out with high school. The career center will help you out with college and your coach will help you [determine which] colleges have the better athletic programs and which ones you can get into.

5. NAME QUALITIES YOU LOOKED FOR WHEN CHOOSING A COLLEGE.

Anna: I was looking for location. I didn’t want to move away from my family, so when I narrowed [my choices] I only looked at California. I wanted a smaller school because of my personality. I couldn’t see myself at a real large school. I checked out the coaches and the team and I felt comfortable with them, as well as the academics and reputation.

Ryan: Location is a big [factor]. If you’re a California kid and not ready for cold winters and you’re going to the East Coast, you have to be ready for it. I’m not saying that’s bad [to go to a school back East], but you have to be ready for it.

Lisa: My recruiting trip really helped [me make] my decision. I don’t know about you guys, but when I went to that campus, I got this feeling that I knew this was it.

Anna: You just know.

Lisa: It was everything: campus, location, the city it was in, a big school that is centralized. . . . There was action going on everywhere. Also, the athletic facilities, the team, the coach.

Ryan: The coach and the staff is huge. I mean, you’re going to be playing for them for four years. You better like them.

Lisa: And academics. That was important.

Anna: I knew Pepperdine had a 14-to-1 [student to teacher] ratio and I knew that I would get more from that than a 300-to-1 class.

Ryan: Seems like all of the schools that are good at academics are good at athletics too. UCLA, Stanford, Harvard. . . . Harvard has a good tennis team.

Melissa: What I’m doing is an apprenticeship. You can be an animal behaviorist. There’s a college in Moorpark that teaches you to train exotic animals, but there’s no sports program there. I’m going to Golden West College to get the basic associate’s degree.

I can’t go to school full time because I’m working full time, so I’m going to stay away from playing and work on coaching at different high schools. I’ve always liked coaching. I coached my sister when she started playing soccer and I really enjoyed it.

Anna: Some people think the big school is the best, but it’s an individual choice. You have to feel comfortable there.

Lisa: You have to be able to see yourself living there, playing your sport and being happy.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The Participants

Anna Lembke

Ocean View

Basketball/badminton. The state Division III girls’ basketball player of the year and most valuable player at the recent Costa Mesa Kiwanis high school girls’ all-star game. Class vice-president. Has signed to play at Pepperdine.

Ryan Moore

Servite

Tennis. Ojai champion. Chose USC over Stanford and UCLA and is interested in majoring in pre-law or psychology. Hopes to play professionally someday.

Melissa Stearns

La Quinta

The kicker for the football team and a four-year letterman on the girls’ soccer team. Also ran track one season and managed the wrestling team. Plans to attend Golden West College and eventually wants to be a Hollywood animal trainer, but is also considering a career as a high school coach.

Lisa Watanabe

Woodbridge

Cross-country/softball. Involved in student government, the California Scholarship Federation and a member of the National Charity League. Has been accepted at Harvard, where she will play softball. Wants to be a sports medicine physician.