There’s no need for Sage Hill basketball coach Kerwin Walters to look behind him on the bus ride back from away games. He doesn’t need to check if his girls are horsing around, playing their music too loudly or making a mess with a postgame snack.
He knows exactly what they’re doing.
“If there is light in the bus, they’re reading on the way home,” he said.
Walters is in his second season as the varsity girls basketball coach at Sage Hill, a private school that essentially serves as a college preparatory academy for high school students.
The workload is hefty and rigorous, and unlike other Orange County high schools, athletics are often on the back burner.
Walters preaches the importance of academics to his players, but also pushes them to understand the joy that can come with being successful athletically.
“All the coaches at Sage understand what the priority is and we all take a backseat to academics, as we should,” Walters said. “Overall, Sage athletic programs have been growing. More and more kids are coming here that have played sports, but you have to keep building the environment. Academics are first but we take strong pride in athletics. Our mindset is going in that direction.”
The most recent example of Sage’s athletic success came this fall, when the girls volleyball team won its second CIF title in three years and advanced to the CIF state semifinals, the deepest playoff run in program history.
In addition, junior Kekai Whitford was named Division 3A All-CIF Girls Volleyball Player of the Year and coach Dan Thomassen was named Division 3A All-CIF Coach of the Year.
When asked what he told his players to focus on before games, Thomassen said that girls spent the majority of their free time studying, meaning that was their focus. On bus rides to playoff games, Thomassen said that he didn’t say much to the girls because they needed to finish their homework.
Walters’ players take the same approach to getting their work done.
“I would say that at a minimum, the students study six hours a day,” he said. “And if you play a sport or so something else, you have to set aside time for that, too.”
Walters also said that girls often miss practice in order to finish homework or study for tests.
“It’s been happening less this year because we put a big emphasis on time management with the girls, so we’re doing better there,” he said. “But if they have to miss, we understand.”
The Lightning finished 8-12 overall last season. They will look to improve on a fourth-place Academy League finish in 2012.
MADDOX TEACHING THE GAME BEFORE THE STRATEGY
Nichole Maddox is a teacher on the court. And she’s become somewhat of a tough grader.
“I’ll say we’re a B-plus one day and then a different day, I’ll say C-minus,” she said. “It can be like a different day, different team sort of thing. So we’re working on being consistent.”
Maddox is in her fifth year as the head coach of the Costa Mesa girls basketball team. The Mustangs are off to an 8-7 start, with league play set to begin on Jan. 14 against rival Estancia.
Although the season is still young, it’s been an up and down one so far. After a 5-1 start to begin the season, the Mustangs are 3-6 in their past nine games and are hoping to right the ship in time for league.
But if you look at where the ship began, 8-7 might be more impressive than it seems.
“I would say 20 percent of our girls have played basketball before high school,” Maddox said. “And that might be shooting high.”
Maddox and her coaching staff don’t enjoy the luxury of having experienced athletes entering the program each season. Instruction in fundamental play is a necessity for a majority of Mustangs players.
But even with that, Costa Mesa has held its own in league play, finishing in a tie for third last season before losing a one-game tiebreaker to Laguna Beach.
“We’re teaching them everything,” Maddox said. “We knew what we were getting into, so we just have to take that extra step. But we pride ourselves on making sure the girls know the game. We actually have to coach these kids because a lot of them know nothing about basketball. So we develop their skills, then we get into the Xs and Os. And the kids do a great job.”
Maddox said that the Mustangs pride themselves on defense and creating turnovers, which will then lead to offense.
In addition, creating team cohesion and gaining experience playing as a unit, Maddox said, will be vital to the Mustangs’ league title chances.
Plainly put, Costa Mesa’s 8-7 start is not a laurel the team can rest on.
“We’ve had good starts in the past, we need to work on finishing,” Maddox said. “We set team and individual goals each season, and one goal every year is to finish at the top of the league and try to take it as far as we can in the playoffs. And so far, we’ve played every game like it was a playoff game. Hopefully, we can get a league championship out of it.”
Contact the writer: bwatson@ocregister.com
