Girls basketball: Sea Kings on the mend

Tony Altobelli

When the Corona del Mar High girls basketball season got underway,

the birds were singing, the flowers were blooming and all was right with

the world.

Then, following a 3-0 start, a dark cloud hovered over the Sea Kings

and suddenly, life wasn’t so peachy.

A slew of injuries, combined with an unforgiving schedule put CdM in a

tailspin of enormous proportions.

Gone from the lineup was last year’s Pacific Coast League co-Most

Valuable Player, Kristin McCoy to what was later diagnosed as a bruised

kidney. Gone was Kristin’s sister, Jackie McCoy and her 10

points-per-game average to an ankle injury. Gone for the past seven games

with a fractured wrist has been junior Carrie Hawkins.

From 3-0, the Sea Kings fell to 3-8 and the birds and flowers gave way

to bandages and ice packs.

“Boy I tell you, when all the injuries started occurring, I began

driving much more carefully,” CdM Coach Elbert Davis said. “Our team has

been through a lot already and league hasn’t even started yet.”

Big-time losses to big-time teams like Troy, San Clemente and Irvine

sent the Sea Kings to the mat.

But now, the Sea Kings are healing at just the right time. The McCoy

sisters are nearly 100%, while Hawkins has also seen some playing time on

her road to recovery.

With the return of the McCoys and Hawkins, the Sea Kings (5-9) have

won two of their last three games.

“It’s starting to look good again,” Davis said. “We’ve still got a

long way to go, but at least we’re getting much healthier than we were.”

Still not a totally healthy team with the loss of freshman Lauren

Snell with a high ankle sprain, the Sea Kings are ready to turn their

season around with the start of Pacific Coast League play, following

Saturday night’s 7 p.m. nonleague finale against El Toro at the Sea King

Dome.

Despite the team’s eight-game losing streak, Davis was able to see

some younger players jump into the varsity spotlight and some had some

pretty impressive results.

“Before she went down, Lauren Snell was playing great for us,” Davis

said. “Only a freshman, she really stepped it up for us. Fellow freshman

Colleen Marks has also been a strong force for us with our starters

injured.”

In fact, throughout the year the injury or flu bugs have taken a bite

out of everyone on the team except junior Courtney Kawata, the only CdM

player to have played in all 14 games.

“She’s a hard-nosed competitor,” Davis said. “Courtney is a rare

commodity. She shoots threes and she also does a great job on defense.

Even though she’s not very big, she plays tough out there.”

Now that the smoke has cleared, look for the Sea Kings to be a force

in the Pacific Coast League.

“In a way, the injuries might be a blessing in disguise,” Davis said.

“Our younger players who might not have gotten that much playing had our

starters been healthy, will be a lot stronger and that should be a big

help for us come league time.”

After the sudden rash of CdM setbacks, don’t look for Davis to predict

the future.

“We’re just going to take it one game at a time,” the ever-original

Davis said. “We know how fast things can change. If we stay healthy and

end up on top, so be it. If not, we’ll do the best we can.”