Summer Blockbuster

It has been a fun summer for Troy High junior point guard Veronica Johns-Richardson.

She hasn’t done everything she wanted to do--an avid surfer, she’s only been to the beach twice--but she did do something important to her future as a basketball player.

Johns-Richardson, the county’s fifth-best scorer last season (19.3 points), played with the Swish club basketball team at several tournaments, including the high profile Oregon City (Ore.) tournament. The accolades are pouring in for the Times Orange County and All-Southern Section first-team pick.

“Several [college level] coaches told me she could play in the Pac-10 right now,” said Russ Davis, who is Johns-Richardson’s club coach. “And she still has two more years of high school.”

Johns-Richardson called the praise “an honor.” But the Freeway League player of the year has other things on her mind.

She wants to rid the bad taste left by Troy’s loss to San Clemente in the second round of the section Division I-A playoffs. It was Troy’s only loss in 28 games last season.

“I was upset because I thought we had the better team,” Johns-Richardson said. “But they hustled more and played better defense than us. We were not focused and ready to play. “I’m using [the loss] as a motivation. I think we can be even better this year.”

TALENT POOL

Davis, who coached girls at Estancia High five seasons before leaving for Vanguard University in the fall of 1996, said that this season could have the deepest pool of talent the county has ever seen.

“I’m seeing many great younger girls mixing in and holding their own with juniors and seniors,” Davis said. “I’m also seeing some of the best athleticism among girls in the nine years I’ve coached basketball.”

Davis credited the rise in club basketball and the countywide interest in the sport for raising the level of the girls’ game.

“When I started coaching in 1990 there were six to eight very good [high school teams] and a bunch of average ones,” Davis said. “Now there are 15 to 20 very good teams and a bunch of good ones.

“There will be several incoming freshmen good enough to start on varsity. I have a seventh grader [in my skills camp] that some coaches have told me could play varsity right now.”

DEATH IN THE FAMILY

Don Lovelace, one of the county’s biggest fans of girls’ and women’s sports, died July 11 after suffering a heart attack.

A graphic artist by trade, Lovelace, 61, was a constant spectator at girls’ volleyball and basketball events and a regular at Vanguard softball games and Long Beach State volleyball matches. He churned out hundreds of color paintings of local players and when he wasn’t drawing pictures, he could be found with a camera taking them. Lovelace said that he took up painting and photography as hobbies to help him relax and he presented his portraits and pictures to his subjects for free.

To honor him for his support, Vanguard University held a memorial for Lovelace in its campus chapel.

BAD WHEEL

Marina senior forward Amy Wheeler twisted her right knee at the Vanguard camp last week, and she will undergo an MRI exam on Wednesday to determine the extent of the injury. Wheeler, 17, said she did not expect the injury to keep her from the start of fall practice.