San Fernando Learns How to Win

Last season, the San Fernando High girls’ team was involved in four 4-3 decisions in Northwest Valley Conference play, and the Tigers lost three of them.

This year, they had three consecutive conference victories by the same 4-3 score before a 7-2 loss Tuesday to perennial City Section powerhouse Granada Hills.

Although the Granada Hills loss was followed by a key 4-3 conference loss to Cleveland on Friday, the Tigers have a record of 7-2, including a 3-2 mark in conference play. Both records show a vast improvement over past years.

San Fernando has never made the City team playoffs. Just last year, the Tigers were winless in conference play although they were 4-7 overall. And as recently as five years ago, during San Fernando Coach Park Cockerill’s first season in 1994, they went winless with an 0-11 record.

So even after their recent defeats, the Tigers are still in new territory.

“It’s new, but it’s not hard for us to get used to,” San Fernando No. 1 player Gladys Preciado said.

Helping the Tigers adjust has been Cockerill.

“I am thrilled,” he said. “It’s not the winning; it’s how they’ve played that’s important. If they played their best and didn’t give up on a ball, then I’m happy.

“That’s been our approach to everything, and it’s paid off. Now we’re winning the close ones.”

They will probably need to win more of them to make the playoffs. The losses against unbeaten Granada Hills (9-0, 5-0) and Cleveland (8-0, 5-0) have left San Fernando 0-2 in conference play, with Kennedy (5-3, 2-3), plus the rematches against all three of those teams, still to come. But Cockerill and the Tigers are looking forward to the challenge, final results notwithstanding.

“Win or lose, we’re a better team than we were last year,” Cockerill said. “We’re not going to roll over.”

Since Cockerill’s arrival five seasons ago, the Tigers have made steady progress. They won two matches in the coach’s second year in 1995, and were even at 6-6 and finished second to 3-A Division power Van Nuys in league play in 1996 before coming out on the short end of several key matches in their first season at the 4-A level last year.

The winning ways are being built on by five juniors, four sophomores and lone senior Elizabeth Cardenas. Cardenas and partner Claudia Perez are unbeaten at 9-0 this season.

“The doubles is our strength,” Cockerill said. “But the singles are coming along too.”

Just like the whole San Fernando program.

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Yasmin Fisher, Buena High’s No. 1 player, missed three matches last week because she was attending an international summit of Roots and Shoots, an environmentalist group for high school students from throughout the world.

The conference, which involved about 40 students, was put on by the Jane Goodall Institute on the slopes of Mt. Hood in Oregon. Goodall, an acclaimed naturalist and conservationist famous for her studies of chimpanzees, attended the five-day event and made an impression on Fisher as one of the featured speakers.

“She talked about just doing your part in conservation and not getting upset that we can’t change the whole world. She encouraged us just to do what we can,” Fisher said.

“It was the best thing I’ve ever done. The whole experience, it was like a big smack in the head. You realize the kind of things that are really important. You’re not going to get everybody into conservation, but I feel like I’m doing my part.”

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The Top 10 Rankings of girls’ tennis teams from the region *--*

RK LW School (League) 1 1 Westlake (Marmonte) 2 2 Simi Valley (Marmonte) 3 3 Harvard-Westlake (Mission) 4 4 Calabasas (Frontier) 5 5 Camarillo (Pacific View)

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