Sports Education Includes Plenty of Life Lessons

On the night of Nov. 23, Dave Anderson cried.

His football career at Thousand Oaks High had just ended in a 28-21 playoff loss to Ventura.

“That had to be my worst moment,” he said. “It was the end. Right then, I had no idea if I was going to play college football or not. I had nowhere to go.”

The next morning, nothing had changed.

“I was really bummed,” he said. “I was hoping it was just a dream.”

The hope of winning a championship was gone, but Anderson’s outlook brightened a couple of hours later. A recruiter from Colorado State called and offered him a scholarship.

Since he was 5 and playing T-ball, Anderson has used sports for fun, learning some of life’s many lessons in the process.

Losing your biggest game one day, then achieving your biggest personal goal the next is part of the high school sports experience. There are highs and lows, and dealing with them prepares teenagers for the real world.

“Sometimes life isn’t fair,” Anderson said. “The referee is calling holding when there is no holding. There are a lot of ups and downs. During football games, I forget everything. It’s a release from pain. It’s something in life I need to do. Yeah, it’s just a game. Things go wrong. But in your senior year, it’s your last game. It means a lot, as opposed to when you’re a 5-year-old.”

Anderson, 5 feet 11 and 190 pounds, was a three-year starter in football at receiver and defensive back. He is a four-year starter for the 9-1 basketball team. He was chosen most valuable player at the Arroyo Grande tournament last Saturday. There’s a competitive gene in him that won’t let him give up.

When no one gave Thousand Oaks a chance of defeating Marmonte League champion Westlake this season in football, Anderson didn’t listen. So what if the Lancers had been outscored the previous two seasons, 98-0? Anderson scored all three touchdowns in Thousand Oaks’ 21-14 victory.

On his game-winning punt return, shown live on Fox Sports Net, he ran past two Westlake players who had transferred from Thousand Oaks.

“It was a great feeling, not so much as getting back at those guys, but the fact Westlake has an aura about them,” he said. “They did give up on us. If you go to a school, stay at that school. If those guys had stayed, they would have added a big dimension to our team.”

Perhaps no one would blame Anderson and his best friend, quarterback Ben Olson, if they’d quit basketball to start preparing for their college football debuts this fall.

But that will never happen. They have too many friends on the basketball team, and showing loyalty to friends is important to them.

“I’ve always had a love for basketball,” Anderson said. “I’ve been playing for a long time and if I can get that one dunk, it will fulfill all my basketball needs. There’s no way I’m going to let down.

“If anything, I’ll play harder because it’s going to be my last time playing organized basketball.”

People know all about Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. At Thousand Oaks, it’s Ben & Dave’s practical jokes that have teammates on edge, especially on trips.

Once, they confiscated mattresses from players’ rooms. Another time, they took all the fans out of dorm rooms.

When they were in the sixth grade on a trip to Ohio, they played football in a Wal-Mart and got chased away.

“Nobody else wants to stay with us,” Olson said.

Anderson’s athletic success extends a tradition started by his father, Tom, who was an All-City Section 880-yard runner for Van Nuys High in 1954. Of course, Anderson and his two brothers have been skeptical about what All-City track means.

“Did you beat Chatsworth?” they asked.

“There was no Chatsworth,” Tom said.

“Did you beat Birmingham?” they asked.

“There was no Birmingham,” Tom said.

“Well, did you beat Taft?” they asked.

“There was no Taft,” Tom said.

“Well, no wonder you were All-City,” the boys said.

Teasing a father about athletic honors is another part of the high school experience. When Anderson graduates in June, he’ll know one thing: He hasn’t missed out on anything.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.