There’s More Than One Way to Find Success

A principal with patience, a coach with vision, players with passion and parents with loyalty. Those are the qualities needed to build a successful sports program.

At Walnut High, Aaron Cornell was 3-23 in his rookie season as boys’ basketball coach. At some schools, that record might get a coach fired.

“I went home and panicked every night but couldn’t let the kids know,” Cornell said.

He sought to boost morale through little victories, such as winning the final minutes of a 30-point loss.

The next year, the team went 6-19; the next, 11-12. That’s three consecutive losing seasons.

Fortunately, Cornell never lost confidence in himself or the program. His players were getting taller, stronger and better. A breakthrough was coming, and it has happened this season.

Walnut is 19-4 and shares the San Antonio League championship with Rowland Heights Rowland. Cornell, 32, who played basketball at Lakewood, Rio Hondo College and Chapman, passed along lessons from the misery of defeat to make his team tougher and more resilient.

He used Baseline League losses to Upland, Glendora and Claremont last season as building blocks for the turnaround.

“All these [players] were learning on the job,” he said. “You get your heads slammed so many times you’re either going to fight back or go home. We learned how to compete.”

Dreshawn Vance, who is 6 feet 8, and Vivek Vinjamur, who is 6-6, are seniors who have each grown close to 8 inches since arriving with Cornell four years ago. Vance is a shot blocker and the team’s top rebounder; Vinjamur shoots three-pointers and dribbles like a guard.

Ricky Fischer, a 6-1 junior, is the team’s best shooter. Mike Lee is a 5-11 guard recognized as the team’s emotional leader. Yuji Kimura is a 5-9 point guard with exceptional quickness.

Together, they’re creating their own tradition of excellence at Walnut. Thankfully, they were given the chance to succeed.

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In high school sports, too many people make judgments based solely on wins and losses.

There are good coaches who were wrongly tagged as bad coaches because they didn’t win quickly enough.

There are players who complain about not receiving college scholarship offers because they play for a losing team, then transfer and still find out they are unwanted.

There are teams that win two games all season and are looked upon as losers.

“Too many people are looking at the scoreboard as a final indicator whether it’s a good or bad program,” Canoga Park Principal Denny Thompson said.

Heed the plea of Isabel Gallegos, a senior at Compton Centennial. For three seasons, she played on a girls’ soccer team that never won a game. This season, for the first time in seven years, Centennial won two games. She was proud of what she and her teammates accomplished.

“We all know Compton is known for gangs and its negative reputation, but at least give us credit for trying to turn our school and city around by improving our grades so we can actually play soccer, go to practice every day, try to keep our school clean and work hard for our equipment so we can have a better chance of attending college,” she wrote in a letter to The Times.

Asked what soccer did for her, Gallegos said, “It made me become a leader.”

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When Antony Villalobos was hired to coach girls’ basketball at Canoga Park in 1997, the expectations were low. The Hunters hadn’t won a game in three years.

In each of his first two seasons, the Hunters finished 0-16. By season No. 3, they finally won a game and he allowed the players to cut off his hair as a reward.

There’s no telling what he’ll do after Canoga Park won the Sunset Six League championship Friday with a 10-0 record, its first league title since 1990.

“It’s exciting for the girls,” Villalobos said.

Alishia Barfield, a junior guard, is averaging 18.3 points. Ana Bantug, a senior guard, is averaging 11.4 points. The Hunters are 14-10 overall.

Thompson, the Canoga Park principal who won a City title as baseball coach at Sylmar in 1980, has always thought highly of Villalobos despite the Hunters’ many defeats in his early seasons.

“Villalobos has done a heck of a job building a program,” he said. “I like his work ethic. The guy lives at this school. He does all the right things.”

A principal with patience, a coach with vision, players who are passionate and parents with loyalty. It’s the formula for success.

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