My own Super Bowl

Tony Altobelli

After this week, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no way

on Earth I can ever be high school head basketball coach.

Aside from the fact that I have no game whatsoever, the emotional

roller coaster these people go through game in and game out is enough to

drive a mere mortal man crazy.

I feel like I’ve aged 15 years over the past five days and it’s all

because of “Rivalry Week.”

I was fortunate enough to cover both the girls and boys basketball

games between Costa Mesa High and Estancia and it was two of the

noisiest, chaotic, entertaining, intense and exciting games I’ve

witnessed in quite some time.

Starting with the girls game on Thursday, all I had to do was gaze at

the Costa Mesa side of the rooting section to see all the celebrities.

Spider Man was there, the Incredible Hulk was there, King Tootsie Roll

was there, among others. It was truly a sight to behold.

In the Eagles’ stands all I heard was bells. Rally bells, rooter

bells, whatever you wanted to call them, they were loud and in force.

Oh yeah, the game was pretty cool too.

First Estancia led by four, then went a quarter without a field goal

to trail by nine.

Despite the frenzied crowd, the Eagles clawed their way back into the

game, but still trailed after three quarters by two.

With the score tied, the momentum went back and forth in the final two

minutes. Mesa’s Leigh Marshall found a great time for her only three

points with a clutch trey that gave Mesa and their crazies a three-point

lead with 1:13 left.

After an Eagles’ hoop, Mustangs’ free throw and a quick whiff from the

oxygen mask, I strapped in and watched Estancia’s Zuyin Barrera hit a

game-winning three-pointer with nine seconds left to pull out the miracle

win for the Eagles.

Not finished, Barrera then stole Mesa’s inbound pass to seal the win.

I’ll always remember Lisa Hirata running out the final few seconds like

she was being chased by a pit bull.

After coming down from that experience, I went back to Mustangville

for the boys game the following night.

The game may have lacked a big-time shot down the stretch, but it

didn’t lack a big-time player.

Costa Mesa’s Steve Whittaker used the “Rivalry Game” as his own

personal shooting gallery, lighting the Eagles up for 27 points on seven

three-pointers, giving Mesa a 65-50 win and a season sweep over the

Eagles.

The last time that happened (1967-68), Lyndon Baines Johnson was

President, Magic Johnson was lighting up the playgrounds in elementary

school and Randy Johnson was probably a 6-foot-1, five year old.

The coolest thing about Whittaker’s night was that he knew the

importance of the rivalry and wanted to make the most of his last

association with it.

“I understood that this was the last time I’d ever play against

Estancia,” he said after the game.

Again, a packed house filled with bells, war paint and crazies

consumed the Mesa gym, forcing me to lunge for the aspirin.

As an afterthought, I went to the Corona del Mar-Newport Harbor girls

hoops game the next night figuring I had seen it all.

Not even close, bud.

During the halftime intermission of the Sailors-Sea Kings clash, I was

trying to come up with a way to sum up what I just saw. Here’s what I

came up with:

“The saying, ‘Throw the record books out the window on this one,’

could not be used since neither team would be able to find the window

with their throws.”

Following a field goal-less second quarter, the Sailors managed to

hold a brick-laidened 13-11 edge on the Kristin McCoy-less Sea Kings.

A 15-4 third-quarter run gave CdM a nine-point lead and I figured this

was where CdM would put the camel clutch on the younger Sailors and force

them to submit.

Instead, Newport battled back, forgetting to remember that it wasn’t

supposed to be this close. A 7-0 fourth-quarter run pulled the Sailors to

within one. After CdM stretched the lead out to three, Newport sophomore

Amanda Campbell did a great impression of Zuyin Barrera to nail a

game-tying, three-pointer with 45 seconds left.

But CdM’s Courtney Kawata, all 90 pounds of her (at most) broke the

Sailors’ hearts with a game-winning, 12-foot jumper on the run with 13

seconds left, giving the thankful Sea Kings a 37-35 win.

I hope I can recover from all this in time for the CIF playoffs.

When’s that Estancia-Mesa boys soccer game?