LJ b BB: Farley

By Ed Piper, Jr.


There is this element in journalism in which one avoids focusing too much on something that is apparent to everyone. This avoidance may be done in the interest of trying to satisfy the whole. Trying to promote a view of the team as supreme, above any individual.

What I'm getting to is, I haven't written a feature on La Jolla's Reed Farley since he was a sophomore. He was a good interview then, and he is a good one now. (I know, because I asked him for some quick comments before the Vikings' basketball game Sat., Dec. 3.)

I realized this morning, or last night, looking into the proverbial mirror in the bathroom, that this situation was true. Yes, there are other good athletes on Coach Paul Baranowski's team. But everyone knows that Reed is super talented--students and parents.

The neat thing is that Reed doesn't carry it like that. His teammates like him. I like him. He's nice, approachable--very articulate in breaking down basketball, I found in my interview two years ago during the Grossmont Tournament, sitting atop the stands during the game prior to La Jolla's.

So, this is one piece of deserved coverage of the young man headed for Harvard next year. (My wife, who knows who Reed is, asked me over the weekend: "Is Reed going to play basketball at Harvard?" I replied, "Yes, he has accepted a basketball scholarship to study and play there.")

"I don't think anyone played particularly well," said Farley Saturday night, regarding Friday's opening 69-27 thrashing of host Hilltop in Hilltop's own tournament. "It was a matter of skill level" (being better than the Lancers').

Which is probably pretty accurate. Honest, on target. But I realize he's human, despite his star status as a point guard who regularly dunks the ball during games (something we have never seen at La Jolla High before).

"But we'll be ready to go tonight." The Vikes were poised, ready to go out on the floor for warm-ups before their game against Mission Bay. This reporter had to leave at halftime, due to the football team's end-of-year banquet in the early evening. La Jolla trailed by three at halftime, but pulled out to a 16-point lead in the second half for the win.

Pondering the last couple of days what I would write, I remembered Reed as a precocious freshman playing for Baranowski: He was a starter, but at times he would get so emotional over foul calls by the referees that he would pull his jersey top up over his head.

He had quite a habit of talking to the referees that, in his earlier development, showed his immaturity and which carried over into part of his sophomore year, as I remember it.

Now, he plays with emotion but under control. When he made a two-handed slam dunk in the rout of Hilltop Friday night, he raised his right hand up in the air right after he deposited the ball, and which was a little dramatic.

The Hilltop boys supporting their team were numerous and had been vocal from the beginning of the game, so this could have been an invitation to them to start riding Farley. One boy called out, audible in the opposite stands: "You ought to do it again," and another sarcastic remark.

But shortly, the little taunting that had occurred basically died out. The Hilltop students were witnessing Farley and teammates scorch their local heroes, and so they wisely reined in their derision.

In fact, when Reed performed a wind-up dunk that was pretty impressive in the second half, the lead in the 30's, these Hilltoppers celebrated with cheers. They loved it.