Double Duty
Whitney Jones hasn’t made it easy on herself, running the length of the soccer field one minute, and spearheading the pressure defense of the basketball team the next.
Never mind that she’s a focal point on both teams, San Clemente’s go-to player in two sports, with the demands of practice and games back to back.
“It’s not that bad after you get used to it,” said Jones, a San Clemente senior. “It becomes routine.”
Yet there is nothing routine about Jones and the role she plays in San Clemente’s athletic program.
Unlike the baseball or softball player who long jumps for the school’s track team between at-bats, Jones is an integral figure in two sports where team play is critical.
How’s this for being a high achiever? She was named to the all-tournament teams of the Orange County Championship in girls’ basketball and the Excalibur tournament in soccer in the same week.
“I just go from one thing to the next,” said Jones, who carries a 3.8 grade-point average.
The Tritons are ranked fourth in Orange County’s Top 10 poll in basketball, fifth in soccer. The Tritons were 23-3 on the hardcourt, 13-3-3 outdoors.
They begin their playoff run Saturday, with a 3 p.m. soccer game at Alhambra High and a 7:30 p.m. basketball game in San Clemente against the Corona Santiago-Riverside Poly winner.
“I think the player is really rare who can do this,” said Mary Mulligan, girls’ basketball coach and ardent supporter of Jones’ two-play act. “Most kids who try to do this would be mediocre in both, or good in one and mediocre in the other.
“It’s rare to find someone like this who excels in both, excelling meaning having all-county-type performances.”
Though Jones’ numbers aren’t as flashy as some of the county’s biggest names in girls’ basketball, her contribution has been invaluable. Jones is averaging 14 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 4.2 steals. She is a 5-foot-10 small forward, and one of the county’s best defensive players.
Her specialty? Creating chaos.
“We couldn’t press without her,” Mulligan said.
“She kills us,” Capistrano Valley Coach Pete Belanto said.
Belanto isn’t alone among Jones’ admirers.
“Whitney seems to have the instincts it takes to be a good lead person in the traps, she anticipates real well and almost sees the play before it happens,” said Troy basketball Coach Kevin Kiernan, whose team has perhaps the county’s best defense. “She has a good idea of what’s going to happen next, and she gets there real quick--and that’s the toughest part, reacting to the next sequence.”
It’s no surprise that what Kiernan noticed within the frenzy of a basketball court is similar to what Jones’ soccer coach at San Clemente sees on a soccer field. “She has great peripheral vision,” which helps her runs off the ball, said Stacey Juhl. “She’s always making the run.”
In addition to having great vision, Jones also has a great soccer shot, “hard as a rocket,” Juhl said. “She is able to adjust to a ball midway in the air and hit it dead-on low and hard.”
Jones doesn’t get much rest in soccer; she plays center halfback, a position of constant movement. She has 11 goals and eight assists.
On Monday, Jones said she made an oral commitment to attend UCLA on a partial scholarship, though she attracted attention from top-10 programs at Notre Dame (No. 2), Santa Clara (No. 3) and Connecticut (No. 9).
“She does more than her position requires,” said senior Tracy Walla, a forward on the soccer team. “She’s great working with teammates within the flow of the game.
On Wednesdays and Fridays, Jones practices basketball from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., and soccer from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. On Mondays, she misses between 30 and 45 minutes of soccer practice.
“As a team, we realize what she’s doing, and we respect that,” Walla said. “It’s not like she’s not at practice, she’s actually doing another sport. It’s nothing selfish. And when she comes to practice, she works just as hard as the rest of us. It’s a non-issue.”
On game days, Tuesdays and Thursdays, Jones played soccer until about 4:45, showered and ate, and was warming up in the gym before tipoff at 7 p.m.
“It’s not that hectic,” said Jones, who tries to be in bed by 10, awake at 6:50 a.m. and in class at 7:15. “I do a lot of homework in class when I have nothing to do. I try not to waste time.”
Part of the problem of playing two sports concurrently can be solved by coaches willing to allow it to happen. With such a competitive environment nowadays, many coaches want their players to play one sport year-round.
“The soccer coaches here have been very flexible,” Mulligan said.
There have been few conflicts, all before league play, and Jones went where she was needed most. Only once was she needed with the basketball team, after Mulligan campaigned that Jones attend basketball practice--instead of a soccer game--before a game against Troy. The choice paid off when San Clemente, then ranked fifth, defeated third-ranked Troy, 69-64, in overtime.
There has been a price to pay, however.
“She hasn’t played club ball, and no one knows that much about her,” Mulligan said. “The other drawback, obviously, is we will never know how good she could have been in basketball if she didn’t play soccer two hours before she plays a basketball game.”
Jones admits that she has, occasionally, wondered What if: “Me and my friend, Emily Ernsdorf, always think, ‘What if we had kept playing tennis?’
“We could have been the doubles champions of the world.”