Young Finds Basketball at Buena Is to Her Liking

Those basketball purists in Ventura County who enjoy visiting a park or a gym to play pickup games, beware of a ringer lurking nearby.

Her name is Courtney Young, and UCLA, Connecticut and Tennessee would gladly offer her a scholarship if she weren’t only a junior at Buena High.

The 5-foot-10 Young is near the top of every college recruiting list for underclassmen. She averaged 26.0 points last season for Santa Monica Crossroads.

Then she did something usually boys only do--she shopped around for a basketball program that would best prepare her for college. Buena became her final destination.

“I wanted to go to a program that would make me better,” Young said.

Equality has reached girls’ sports in the 21st century.

Young watches SportsCenter as religiously as any boys’ player. She practices just as hard, too. During the summer, she was running stairs near Santa Monica beach and going on two- and three-mile runs. She was traveling across the country with her club team. And she was receiving extensive media scrutiny as to what would be her final high school choice.

She’s no different than any ambitious boys’ player.

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to get a scholarship,” Young said. “That would be the greatest thing in the world.”

Young is growing up at a time when there are far more opportunities for girls’ players to obtain college basketball scholarships. Division I women’s programs can offer 15 scholarships; men’s programs are limited to 13. Since there are 311 Division I men’s programs and 307 Division I women’s programs, the math is simple: There are more than 500 extra scholarships available for women.

That doesn’t mean girls’ teams have achieved equality. Joe Vaughan, who has spent 25 years coaching the Buena’s girls’ basketball team to unrivaled success and is nearing 600 career victories, said some schools still treat girls’ sports as inferior.

“The mentality is, ‘It’s a girls’ team, anyone can coach them,’ ” Vaughan said. “That’s not right. They deserve the best like anyone else. There’s still an old-guard mentality about girls.”

There’s nothing archaic about the way Young went about becoming an elite basketball player. Hard work, dedication and a love for the game put her on a path to success.

She started playing at the Westchester YMCA as a 7-year-old, one of only two girls in the league.

“I played against all guys until I was 12,” she said. “A lot of guys didn’t have a lot of respect for me, so it made me try harder. I just played my game and gained their respect over time.”

She has no problem playing against guys. If they want to throw an elbow, fine.

She can give as good as she takes.

“Playing against guys brings out a whole different side in your game,” Young said. “Sometimes I go to the park and I like playing with guys. It’s pretty fun. When a guy tries to get physical, it makes you play harder and you do certain things you wouldn’t do if a girl is guarding you.”

At Buena, Young joined a girls’ team with so much talent if it stayed together through the years, it probably would form a productive college team.

The reason many college programs are interested in Young is her ability to make things happen on the court. She’s athletic, quick, unselfish and decisive.

“There are a lot of good basketball players, but there aren’t a lot who create things on their own offensively,” Vaughan said. “She can create.”

Young praises the men’s game but she said the women’s game is making tremendous progress.

“I love watching men’s basketball,” she said. “I think the guys’ dunk is awesome. I think we take more pride in defense and passing. Once we get on fastbreaks, it’s just as fun as watching the guys. Women’s basketball has changed so much and a lot of people are starting to respect us and I think that’s great.”

Young has no intention of shying away from playing against boys at the park.

“It’s totally fun,” she said. “Even if they beat me, you’ll get something out of it.”

As Spike Lee would say, she got game.

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Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422 or eric.sondheimer@latimes.com