Shooting to Revive Glory Days

Greg Winslow hopes well-wishers forgive him for not returning the dozens of congratulatory calls he has received since being named coach of the Ventura College men’s basketball team.

It’s not that he is being impolite, the 35-year-old coach says. He is just a little distracted. He doesn’t yet have a phone at Ventura College. Or an office.

More to the point, he doesn’t have a team, and the squad’s first game is five months away.

“I’m in a marathon, but I have to sprint the first quarter-mile,” Winslow said. “There are so many things I have to do that I don’t have time to start off jogging.”

His chief task is to revive a team that won three state championships in 11 years and provided the premiere sports entertainment in western Ventura County. The Pirates’ gym holds 3,000 spectators, and it often sold out during the years under former coach Phil Mathews. No other local event has produced those numbers.

But the show came to a halt two years ago, when college administrators disbanded the team after Western State Conference officials found numerous recruiting violations. The violations in the mid-1990s included free meals and hotel rooms for players, who also received preferential treatment as students.

Fans howled, not only for the loss of entertainment but for what many saw as a heavy-handed investigation and intentional foul against a team that had brought the college glory.

Winslow knows he has to win not only ball games but the trust and support of fans, students and faculty members put off by the squad’s tarnished reputation.

“I’ll do everything I can to rebuild this franchise,” Winslow said. “It’s a commitment. It’s long hours. It starts with one person but that enthusiasm carries over to other people and it starts to grow.”

Some Ventura College students are wary.

“There won’t be much of a margin for error,” said Robert Attema, 27, who attended Ventura College during the basketball team’s final, tense season in 1997. “They have to prove they will do things by the book.”

But Ya-min Lewis, 23, a political science major who attended many games, said it is time to forgive and move on.

“They’ve suffered enough,” he said. “What they were trying to do was build up the school, getting people to come here. And they just got caught. But everyone has a little dirt in their background.”

In rebuilding its team, the college is turning to a native son; Winslow was born and raised in Ventura, graduating from Buena High in 1982.

His wife, Janene, graduated from Ventura High a year later. She is an elementary schoolteacher and mother to the couple’s four children: Tatum, 9, Rex, 8, Tori, 6, and Kellen, 5.

Winslow has proved he can take a down-and-out squad and turn it around. His team at San Bernardino Valley College was 19-14 and 25-8 in his first two seasons after going 4-19 the season before he became coach.

Earlier, Winslow was an assistant at Cal State San Bernardino for three seasons and at Bakersfield College for two seasons.

But his dream has always been to return home, Winslow said. He was passed over for the job two years ago when former coach Virgil Watson left. That just made him work harder, Winslow said.

Winslow said he likes Ventura’s small-town feel and has many friends and relatives here. Janene is hoping to land a job at a local school.

His plan is to “work like a dog” fielding a team that is competitive and stocked with locally grown players. That would contrast with his predecessors--Mathews and later Watson, who built teams predominantly of players from outside Ventura County.

Winslow has been visiting county high schools since being named coach May 18. The new coach said he has not received any commitments but is seeing plenty of local interest.

“I’ve been inundated with calls from potential players and coaches,” he said.

And to be competitive, he sees the need to pluck some out-of-state players.

“I plan to get a mix because that’s practical,” he said. “That’s what most community colleges have.”

Beginning in 1985, former coach Mathews built a team that attracted fans and talented players by creating the feel of electric, inner-city street ball in a suburban college gym. Fans came early to catch the pregame “show,” watching athletes sink buckets in crisp formation to loud, skull-jarring rap music.

Winslow said he hasn’t given much thought to the “flash” aspect. For now, he is focused on fielding a team and preparing players for the squad’s first game Nov. 13 against El Camino College in Torrance.

“I’m not making a conscious decision to do things the same, or differently, than in the past,” he said. “I’m just going to do it my way. My way is we will play hard and be a disciplined team.”

The players’ academic records will be as important as their athletic prowess, said Winslow, a Cal State Fresno graduate with a 3.2 grade-point average in history. He is proud that in his last two years at Cal State San Bernardino, 11 of the 13 sophomores on his teams transferred to four-year universities.

When not drilling teams, Winslow will be teaching physical education classes, such as weight-lifting and golf.

Winslow’s appointment is also applauded by college administrators. College officials put great effort into the selection process, recognizing the new coach would be under scrutiny, said Steve Tobias, dean of physical education. Ventura College President Larry Calderon was closely involved in the decision, Tobias said.

“Greg brings a level of honesty and integrity that is important at this time,” Tobias said. “Having roots in Ventura will help establish him.”

College district trustee Pete Tafoya said he is anxious to see the program begin. Still, he hopes fans understand it may take time to rebuild the squad to its former stature.

“The community has to see the benefit of the program and start supporting it as it did in the past,” Tafoya said.

Kelly Ciarimboli, 21, a Ventura College student who is eager to see the team return, predicts it won’t take much to bring the fans back.

“As soon as they start winning games all will be forgiven,” she said.

Times Community News correspondent Jennifer Hamm contributed to this story.