Athlete of the Week: Xochitl Byfield (Estancia)

Richard Dunn

COSTA MESA - Xochitl Byfield was rather flashy last year for

Estancia High’s girls basketball team while earning All-Newport-Mesa

District honors.

But the 5-foot-8 junior swing player has turned her inside-outside

game around and become Coach Paul Kirby’s most prolific offensive weapon

this season since experiencing a rash of physical aliments (stomach flu,

twisted ankle and mild concussion) in early December.

Byfield, who averaged 10.8 points per game last season and merited

second-team All-Pacific Coast League laurels, recovered in time for the

holidays and put together a string of team-high scoring efforts last week

(four out of five games) to earn Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week honors.

Byfield, whose contributions were limited in the first two weeks,

scored 20 points twice, 18, 15 and 12 as the Eagles claimed third place

in the Jim Hill Memorial Tournament at Mission Viejo High, where the

Eagles won four games in six days.

In Estancia’s 45-33 tournament victory over El Toro, Byfield canned a

career-high four three-pointers, although the former youth standout once

made six in an American Roundball Corporation game.

“We beat (the Chargers) and the last time we played them we lost by

eight (in the second game of the season),” Byfield said of her best game

in the tournament, in which she dropped in 20 points, before adding 20

the following game against Notre Dame Academy.

Byfield hopes adding the three-point shot to her arsenal will help her

become a complete player.

“I want to be a threat going to the basket and a threat at the

three-point line,” Byfield said. “I used to dribble to the basket a lot

and flash, then I stopped for awhile and started working on my

three-point shot. Now, I want to do both.”

Byfield’s 2001-02 season began slowly with the aforementioned

setbacks, including the third game of the season against Newport Harbor

in the South Coast Holiday Classic at University, where she twisted her

right ankle and missed most of the first half. But in the second half she

suffered a mild concussion while fighting for a loose ball in the waning

moments.

“Xochitl (pronounced like Soshi) kind of got off to a slow start, but

she’s been playing well lately,” Kirby said. “She had a good week for us.

She’s probably our most athletic player out there.”

Byfield, a third-year varsity performer, can also play defense, Kirby

said.

“She can do a little bit of everything,” Kirby added. “Against El Toro

the other night, she made four three-pointers, so she’s been shooting

really well ... she can drive to the basket, hit the open jumper and play

a little defense.”

Byfield, whose sixth-grade ARC squad finished second in the nation

(with current Eagles Trisha Wase and Crystal Mino also on the celebrated

youth team), has been playing competitive hoops since the fourth grade.

Her dream is a Division I college scholarship.

“I’d like to try to (complete college) by myself, without my parents’

(financial) help,” she said.

“During the summer, I look at the WNBA games and see the defense ...

defense wins games, and defense is what I’m trying to work on this year.

My goals are to win (the Pacific Coast) league as a team, play well on

defense and offensively help my team out as much as I can.”

So far, so good.