Playing With Pain

The phone call came three weeks ago, and it hurt. It wasn’t intended for Lashay Fears, but she ended up on the phone with her father, whom she had not spoken to in a few years and had not seen in a few more.

“Maybe junior high,” she said. “When I was little, 4 or 5, I saw him a few times.”

He had called to tell Lashay’s mother, Sherry Merriweather, of funeral details for a cousin who had been fatally shot.

“My mom and him haven’t been together since I was born,” Lashay, 17, said. “He thinks that I hate him, and I really don’t. It’s just the fact that he wasn’t there. I still have the pain. I just let him know that, and that I’m doing great even though he wasn’t there.”

She told him about her basketball career at Sylmar. She led the Spartans to the City Section championship game as a sophomore and the semifinals last year. She has a scholarship to UC Santa Barbara.

“He didn’t say anything,” said Fears, who carries a grade-point average above 3.0. “I thought, ‘Dang, he doesn’t care.’ It hurt big-time.”

The oldest of 10 children in a blended family -- stepfather Leonard Merriweather and Sherry have five children together, plus Merriweather’s four -- has persevered. Basketball has been her medium.

“Ball is all I’ve ever thought about doing,” Fears said. “It was never to prove something to anyone, it was just me. It’s what I love to do.

“I give a lot of credit to my mom, though. My mom has always been like a mom and dad for me.”

Maybe because of her background, Fears has that attitude, that fire, that allows her to attack the basket in ways that teammates don’t, but Coach Michelle Chevalier wishes they did.

Maybe, because of her background, Fears has the desire to teach her younger siblings in a way that her natural father didn’t, but Fears wish he had.

“I’m just trying to set a good example for all of them so that when they grow up, they can do their thing,” she said.

Setting an example is Fears’ thing. She longs to be a college coach. She understands the value of defense, works hard on it and delivers judgment on teammates who don’t.

“She’s been the heart and soul of our defense her 3 1/2 years here,” said Chevalier, who credited Fears for carrying Sylmar to the 2003 City championship game by averaging 21 points in the playoffs after averaging 11 during the regular season.

The Spartans lost in the title game, 41-40, to Harbor City Narbonne in what has been Sylmar’s most successful showing during Chevalier’s five seasons as its coach.

“She has this relentless desire to play defense, and she’s the one that gets in the face of teammates if they don’t meet my expectations -- or hers -- which is nice. I don’t always have to be the bad guy.”

Chevalier too has been important to Fears, being there for heart-to-hearts as necessary.

“She doesn’t have a relationship with her father.... That still haunts her,” Chevalier said. “She deals with it on a constant basis.

“It’s incredible to see what this girl deals with, and it just amazes me what this kid is capable of. That’s what drives her. She wants a better future for herself. She’ll be the first from her family to go to college, and her younger siblings will have someone to look up to.”

Chevalier has built a program with Fears that has withstood the transfers of four players over the last two seasons.

When Chevalier took over, Sylmar had won four games in its three previous seasons. The Spartans (11-7), ranked No. 23 in the Southland by The Times, won 12 games during her first season and are 61-24 since Fears’ arrival.

She averaged eight, 11 and 15 points in successive years. This season, with more balanced scoring on the team, she has averaged 13 points, five rebounds and four steals. Fears can add to those totals today at 4 p.m. in a Valley Mission League game against visiting North Hills Monroe.

Fears says she brings something more than defensive play and scoring to the table.

“Leadership, heart, all that,” she said. “I just play hard with a desire to win.”

And, she found out, there are people who care.