LJ g BB: Saul worth her salt

Point guard Rebecca Saul (far right, with glasses)
at Vikings' game Dec. 12.
(Photos by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

"People confuse me, and math doesn't," said Rebecca Saul, point guard for the La Jolla High girls basketball team, explaining her projected major in college.

The 5'4 1/2" senior was recently accepted by Harvard. Coach Darice Carnaje chose to tell the team during the sideline huddle between the third and fourth periods in the December 12 game at home against University City. Squad members let out a loud collective whoop at the news.

"She (Carnaje) knew before," said Saul, bespectacled, manic on the court but quiet off. "I don't know why she waited until then."

One suspects it was one more motivational trick by the wily coach. The Vikings thereafter rallied, but lost to University City by eight points.

What's interesting is that, while Saul plans to pursue a math major at Harvard, she plans to go into politics as a career. Hence, her befuddlement at people seems curious.

Saul and her friend, the assertive Grace Dessert, who sat beside her at a recent boys basketball game, both are active in the Resistance club on campus. Saul founded the group last year.

"It's a political action club," explained Saul, peering through her prominent spectacles, one of her trademarks on the court as a four-year starter for the basketball team, three of those under Carnaje. "I started it in reaction to (President) Trump being elected."

When first asked about her involvement in the club, she asked, "How did you know that?" A reporter replied, "I know how to Google."

"We talk about politics," she said about club meetings. "We educate and take action."

Dessert interjected, "We discuss and educate..."

Saul said, regarding her Harvard acceptance, "Both my parents went there. So I'm on double legacy." (She got points or credit toward acceptance from the legacy factor.) "It's a really good school, and it's really hard to get in."

Rebecca, who has improved her off-hand (left-hand) dribbling considerably since her first two years, and who has even gotten comfortable enough to put up layups left-handed, was born in New Jersey. The family moved to the West Coast when she was six.

Skyla Loux, a teammate, was the reason the interview happened. When the team let out the loud whoop in the team huddle days before, Loux turned from the bench to a reporter and asked, "Did you hear that?" Receiving a "no", she informed him of Saul's college news.

Then, at the boys game December 15, Loux, not one to be shy, approached the reporter and said, "You should do a full article on Rebecca going to Harvard." This reporter said, "Will she talk to me?" Loux: "Yes. She thinks you think she's invisible."

Skyla Loux, the interlocutor.

Asked if she felt that way during the interview, across the gym in the stands behind the scorer's table, Saul said, "I didn't say that." It was some high jinx from Loux, who loves having her basketball team covered, often asking this reporter when he will attend games, including offseason summer league games.

Dessert is another matter. Captain of the Vikings girls soccer team, the senior pushed in during the interview of her friend, Saul, in the stands, "We won our game in a tournament, so now we're in the finals."

"She's teaching me basketball, and I'm teaching her soccer," said the co-leader of the Resistance club. "Rebecca is explaining to me things about basketball."

Dessert, who has provided information on her team's progress the past three years to this reporter, since she was a sophomore, via text, was on a trip to India with her family over Thanksgiving break when she replied to this reporter's text question about the soccer team. "I'm getting back six rolls of video from my India trip," she informed him.

The pair make quite a contrast, in appearance and introversion/extroversion.