Madigan Sepulveda-Sanders (42) goes high
to win opening tipoff against Scripps
Ranch's Devante Robinson Feb. 21.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
Basketball is my number-one love, since I played it in high school and community college. My long lankiness counted against me as the years went on in baseball. But in basketball, it was an advantage.
Therefore, I have really linked emotionally with the La Jolla boys team, especially, over the past 10 years. (You've probably read the story--contained in an earlier blog--that I started taking photos at LJHS when my granddaughter Alexis, now 23, was a cheerleader in Vikingland.)
I kind of missed out on leisurely enjoying the latter part of the 2013-14 season, because two trainings I had to do for my job (I teach juvenile court students) started simultaneously in mid-January. Kapow! I kept going to games and taking photos, and covering sports events for the La Jolla Light. But I didn't have time to linger, to hang out, "in the manner in which I had become accustomed." (My mom used to use that phrase sometimes.)
So, here, March 10, the season all over for the boys and girls teams, I am sitting at my computer, composing--exhaling and relaxing a little bit. Finally. Time to think and write about the boys season.
Paul Baranowski, the Vikings' head coach the past two seasons, has given me full access to the team on the sidelines and after games. I really appreciate that. He is just a super guy. He jokes about his hard edge. He's a motivator of young men, and that is one of his tools. He has a dialogical style with his players, meaning he carries on a conversation with them. He does not come off as a top-down dictator, though he speaks forcefully and he knows what he wants to accomplish.
I think he has shown superior skill in supporting and mentoring Reed Farley, the Vikings' 15-year-old freshman guard and most consistent player. Reed wears his emotions on his sleeve. He talks a lot to the referees, and he has a habit of pleading his case after a foul he doesn't think he deserves with anyone who will listen. This means going to the sidelines during an opponent's free throw to talk.
Paul meets him, listens, redirects him. I would be interested to hear Reed's feeling about it, but I would guess he would say he feels heard by Coach Baranowski. Reed can jump out of the gym, so often he tries to block shots. Part of the time referees are going to call fouls on the block attempts, whether justified or not.
Senior Nic Skala was brilliant in the upset win at Cathedral Catholic, in which he scored eight points in crunch time in the fourth quarter. He had some other outstanding games, as well. Fellow guard Ladd Castellano, a newcomer to the varsity, developed through last summer and into the 2013-14 season. Really, the triumvirate guarddom of Reed, Nic, and Ladd was the source of a lot of the team's propulsion through many of the games.
Madigan Sepulveda-Sanders, the most gracious person, played beyond any expectations I would have had for him when I saw him play a year ago as a junior. Madigan worked hard, evidently, to develop perfect forward rotation on his shot. This made his shot effective on both free throws and the periodic jump shot. I told him several days after one league game (my memory at 59 is not what it was at 22) what great rebounding he did. He politely corrected me on which game, because in the one I mentioned, he didn't play well. But he grew leaps and bounds in his ability to go get the ball off the backboard--beyond what I thought he could do a year ago. Good for him.
Anyway, here's hoping I can relax more and enjoy next season. There shouldn't be any new training required for my job next winter. And I can look forward to summer. So-called "team camps" are a fun way to see the guys play at local venues three days in a row (Friday-Saturday-Sunday) and to hang out with other basketball types. I got to meet Steve Fisher, SDSU coach who Paul Baranowski and his son Jake, the freshman coach, know, last summer. Just a nice guy, and got a good photo of him with Jake, who requested it.
Copyright 2013 Ed Piper
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