Orange County Prep Review : Orange Coach Graham Leads a Life in the Fast-Break Lane

Ed Graham is running out of time.

Free time.

Graham, the boys’ basketball coach at Orange High School the past four years, has added the duty of coaching the Panther girls this season.

And get this. The guy volunteered.

“The former head coach, Barb Granger, left in October to become an assistant at Chapman (College),” Graham said. “I applied and I got the job.”

Graham also teaches economics at Orange besides coaching both teams. And he’s working on his master’s degree in administration from National University of Irvine. On top of that, he and his wife, Denise, are rearing two children and expecting their third in March.

Some guys just don’t know when to stop having fun.

“It doesn’t leave me a lot of free time,” Graham said, and then joked. “My wife and I are going out for dinner tonight. We like to see if we can get together and talk once a week.”

Graham remembers Denise’s reaction when he informed her that he would be coaching the girls.

“She just stood there and stared at me for a long time,” he said.

Graham said he took the job because he’s looking ahead--to a college coaching job perhaps, men or women.

“I’m keeping my career options open,” he said. “I don’t want to close any avenues.”

After he gets done teaching his four economics classes, Graham is in the Orange gym with the girls from 2-4 p.m., and the boys from 4 to 6. It sounds very organized, but it rarely runs on time.

“Everybody has been great about it,” he said. “We’re always juggling practices around. I try to be careful as I can about giving time to each program. I don’t want people saying I’m neglecting the girls or the boys. But it’s tough; you can’t please everybody.”

Though Graham can decide which team will practice when, he has no power over when the teams play. One Saturday, the boys had a game against Brea-Olinda in a fifth-place game in the Sonora tournament, and the girls had a consolation game against Fullerton in the Brea-Olinda tournament.

Graham coached the boys first (they lost), then drove to Brea.

“I only missed the first quarter,” he said.

The girls lost also.

“It’s tough when you go 0 for 2 in one day.”

The boys are 5-7 overall and 0-1 in the Century League after losing to Foothill Friday. The girls are 6-5.

Besides providing Graham with a winning record, the girls have given him a few lessons. First, he learned patience.

“The skill level is so different in girls’ basketball,” he said. “A lot of these girls are still learning. I try not to get upset, I’m much more patient. My wife says she helped with that.”

There was a time when Graham wasn’t quite so understanding. This isn’t the first time he’s coached girls. From 1976 to 1978 he was the girls’ coach at Villa Park. Young, aggressive and impatient, he made life tough for his players, and in the end, for himself.

“At Villa Park I was too intense,” he said. “I thought I created a lot of problems because I was impatient with the players. I’m not going to let that happen here.”

Not that the experience has changed the way he deals with the boys.

“I still get in their faces,” he said. “I treat them the way I treat the kids in my economics class. I expect them to know the material I teach them. I expect them to study it. To the girls it’s still kind of new.”

Graham also has had to adjust to a 30-second clock with the girls. It’s something he’d like the boys to start using.

“I think it improves the pace of the game,” he said. “It takes a little of the strategy out the game, but overall I think it’s good for the game.”

But Graham really doesn’t see any great differences in dealing with players whatever gender.

“The game is still the game,” he said. “These kids are all 16 to 18 years old. There are going to be days when they want to practice and days when they don’t want to practice.”

And there must be days when a guy just doesn’t feel like dealing with kids in the classroom, the gym or at home.

“You got to love the game to do what I’m doing,” he said. “Either that or be crazy.”

Ocean View guard Dana Douty set the CIF Southern Section girls’ assist record Thursday in a game against Millikan in the Cypress tournament. Douty passed the old mark of 651 set by Charise Bremond of Inglewood.

Douty set the record by giving the ball to forward Trina Vlachos, who made a three-foot shot.

The game was stopped the next time the ball was dead, and Douty was awarded the game ball with, “652 and counting,” and all of the Ocean View players signatures written on it.

The delay came as Millikan guard Connie McGiffert was preparing to shoot the front end of a one-and-one opportunity with one second left in the first half. The game was finally resumed and McGiffert was allowed to shoot her free throw.

She missed, and Ocean View won by a point, 56-55. Give Douty another assist.

Prep Notes

In a game that concluded late Saturday night, Burbank defeated Kennedy, 54-32, in the final of the Santiago tournament. The Bulldogs were led by Peter Van Dam’s 14 points, and their ability to shut down Kennedy’s high-scoring Darrin Keith. Keith, a 6-foot 3-inch senior, had 48 points in the first two games and had been averaging 23 points per game. Keith had only five points against Burbank. . . . The Garden Grove girls’ basketball team was forced to forfeit a game to Schurr in the second round of the Costa Mesa tournament after coach Cindy Pummill was ejected for yelling at officials. Pummill received three technical fouls and was ordered to leave the gymnasium. Since the Argonauts don’t have an assistant coach and there wasn’t a school official to take over, the game ended in the second quarter with Schurr leading 28-13.