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John Zant: UCSB Womens' Basketball Banquet an Upbeat Affair |
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By John Zant
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Wednesday, April 25 2007 |
At the UCSB women's basketball award banquet Sunday afternoon, I was reminded why this team captured my heart 15 years ago.
It displays the best qualities of college athletics, whereby young athletes strive to be winners on and off the court, learn to be good citizens, grow as human beings and represent their school and their community with class.
 John Zant
They were in the same situation in 1994 and 1995, when they fell short of the standard set by the 1992 team that went 27-5 and almost knocked off NCAA champion Stanford. Those lean years were followed by a run of 12 consecutive postseason bids, which was extended by the Gauchos' appearance in this year's WNIT.
All the players will return next year with valuable experience under their belts, and they will be joined by redshirts Lauren Pederson, a point guard who transferred from UCLA, and Kat Suderman, a 6-foot-4 post player who has rehabbed her aching knees; and three high school recruits who appear capable of conrtibuting as freshmen.
Assistant coach April McDivitt, who led UCSB's women into the 2004 NCAA Sweet 16, is bullish about the immediate future.
"This team is on a mission," she declared at the banquet. "They have the tools to do great things next year."
McDivitt was so fired up that she asserted Tennessee's NCAA champions might have to reckon with the Gaucho women.
"I went to a conference and heard people saying, 'How 'bout them Lady Vols? I do believe we're going to win the championship again next year,' " said McDivitt, who played for Tennessee before finishing her career in Santa Barbara. "I said, 'Don't be so sure. The Gauchos are on a mission.' "
But the Gaucho women do have other goals, which were exemplified by head coach Mark French's annual "top 10" presentation at the banquet. Only a couple of them had anything to do with basketball games. Here were the top three, in ascending order:
• The team's community service day at the YMCA, where the women had to show patience and organizational labilities to put on a clinic for dozens of children ages 4 and up.
• The winter quarter report cards. Final exams in March "couldn't have come at a more challenging time," French said, but his team came out of them with a cumulative 2.93 grade-point average, "the highest in six years."
• Ashley Hall's basket. Hall, a freshman from Antioch, made the team as a walk-on. She had to work just as hard as everybody else in practice but saw only a few minutes of action during mop-up time in the games. At UC Davis, she hit a short jumper for her only bucket of the season. French said, "Her dad, Mark Hall, stood up and quite loudly and proudly shouted, 'That's my baby!' "
Jenna Green, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, was honored with the Gaucho Award as the outstanding role model in the program and the team's most excellent scholar. The junior center has been named to the Division III-A Academic All-America team. Assistant coach Camille Burkes presented other academic citations to Pederson, Suderman, Chisa Ononiwu and — most heartening — to Jessica Wilson, who improved her grades from marginal to commendable. The defensive player of the year award, presented by assistant Carter Shaw, went to sophomore Whitney Warren.
For me personally, the highlight of the day was Phil Womble's presentation of the Never Give Up Award. Womble, a paragon of perseverance (cerebral palsy has not curtailed his enthusiasm for UCSB sports), gave the prestigious award to me. It is too bad the honor could not have been shared by the News-Press, which published all my stories about the Gaucho women until we parted ways in February, one of many fractures in the newspaper's relationship with the community.
I cannot recommend strongly enough that fans get out and support the Gaucho women. They will open the 2007-08 season at home against USC, and other games will include a visit by 2006 national champion Maryland over Thanksgiving weekend.
MIDWEEK NOTES: Santa Barbara's Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser hit the first two stops on the AVP pro beach volleyball tour (Miami and Dallas) like a hurricane. They swept to a pair of titles and ran their winning streak to 17 consecutive matches, dating back to last season. The next three stops on the tour are Huntington Beach (May 3-6), Glendale, Ariz. (May 10-13) and Hermosa Beach (May 17-20). . . . If you want to see the Santa Barbara Breakers at their best, do not go to the team's road games. Five players who appeared in the International Basketball League team's 149-134 home victory over the Tri-Valley Titans on Friday did not travel for the rematch on Saturday at Livermore, and the Breakers lost 124-120. The Breakers will take a 2-3 record into their next game against the Chico Force (0-5) at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at SBCC's Sports Pavilion. . . . Upwards of 300 people showed up Sunday morning at the Riviera Theatre screening of the documentary "Quantum Hoops," a benefit for injured Dos Pueblos High athlete Brad Ebner. The film, directed by UCSB graduate Rick Greenwald, was a hit with the audience. It expertly juxtaposes Caltech's highs and lows in sports, basketball in particular, with the school's spectacular accomplishments in science and technology. |
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