The Bill intersection

By Ed Piper

Covering the retirement of Bill Walton's number 32 jersey at Helix High Fri., Jan. 3, brought some recollections of where, exactly, I had encountered the 6'11" behemoth in person.

The two instances, actually, came in basketball arenas, with me as one of the spectators during a basketball game or practice. Both occurred within less than two years of each other.

The first came during the Naismith Hall of Famer's freshman year at UCLA. Remember, freshmen at that time could not play on the varsity team. The freshmen beat the varsity, which won the NCAA title, in the annual game between the two! Imagine.

The UCLA freshmen, stocked with Greg Lee, a high school All-American, and Hank Babcock, another high school All-American, besides Walton, played at Moorpark College in Ventura County, where I grew up from age nine.

It was a packed house, everyone drawn by these future heirs to the John Wooden dynasty that was midway through its run, during which the legendary coach won 10 NCAA titles in 12 years--a feat that would be impossible now.

I remember Walton, a big redhead with long hair, as pretty goofy, prancing around the basketball floor down below--looking like a goof-off. He was big, gangly, and demonstrative. A guy that big and skinny draws attention. But, obviously, he could play ball.

The UCLA frosh wiped the Moorpark Raiders off the floor, winning by 30 points or more. Walton had four dunks, and generally was his playful self.

Despite the display of dominance, and the sizeable margin the baby Bruins beat Moorpark by, I turned to a friend who attended with me and remarked, "This guy is going to continue the UCLA tradition?" It was a little hard to believe at that point.

Well, the Bruins were even better with Walton at center than they had been with Lew Alcindor/later Kareem Abdul Jabbar in the pivot. Walton's gang won 88 games in a row, and Wooden was able to instill discipline in Walton that helped him the rest of his life.

The second "encounter" with Walton occurred only a short while later, two years later, beginning my sophomore year in college, when I enrolled at Moorpark College after spending one year in L.A. and feeling homesick as a too-young 17-year-old at Occidental College.

Our Raider basketball team was among the many teams invited to a "public" workout of the UCLA varsity, narrated by Coach John Wooden in Pauley Pavilion. It was awesome.

True to his reputation, Walton, by now a long-haired student protestor on campus (which I also became in college), goofed off during the practice and Wooden made some comment, like, "Yeah, someone's making a remark"--in other words, playing down whatever he did.

Wooden and Walton became close friends, despite their total difference in demeanor and style.

So, those were the two crossings I had from a distance with Bill Walton, and they came home to me when I ventured out to Helix High for the gathering of his high school teammates and coach, Gordon Ash.

LJ wrestling: Noah sails the ship at 122 pounds

Viking 122-pounder Noah Pace (in "Vikings"

singlet), holds Adam Winter-Smith of Granite

Hills in a cradle as referee (foreground right)

awards points. Pace piled up 16 points

before the match was declared a "tech fall"

win  by points in the second period.

(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Noah Pace, the Vikings' two-time defending All-Eastern League champion, rode a "get points" strategy to win the 122-pound championship at the Mission Hills Invitational Sat., Jan. 4.

It was a fabulous start to the New Year, as the blonde-haired junior, sporting Clark Kent-style black horn-rimmed glasses off the mat, recorded a tech fall (a decision on points), then three straight pins to the tourney title in his third year of high school competition.

Noah, whose parents viewed his moves from the stands at the San Marcos school, didn't even give his latter opponents a chance to gain further points against him with quick pins in 40 seconds, one minute five seconds, then the "marathon"--25 seconds into the second of three potential periods--to pin Kai Duckworth of Scripps Ranch in the 122-pound title match.

Asked his strategy after the "tech fall", a technical pin formerly called a major decision, a 16-0 win, the courteous La Jolla High student replied, "Get points".

Asked again as he headed to the distant drop-off point across the Mission Hills gym to deposit his match's clipboard report in a tray--having held opponent Adam Winter-Smith of Granite Hills in a cradle in the second period--if his goal was to go for a pin, Pace shook his head and said again, "Get points."

Pace (with glasses)

deposits his sweats

before his first

match Saturday.

The question only comes up because of a rule change this season: a wrestler is awarded three points for each takedown, formerly two points. That has altered the balance of matches, rewarding aggressors for getting takedowns, while the reward for an escape remains only one point.

In Noah's previous tourney competition, in the Marauder Invitational at Mira Mesa High Dec. 8, he had pursued the same strategy of piling up points through takedowns, then attempt a pin if the safety pad of points was sufficient to take the risk.

In Saturday's invitational, his approach became the perfect storm to overwhelm his opponents in the random draw of the tournament. His first-round pairing was a bye, conserving his energy that much more before his onslaught of tech fall-pin-pin-pin to the championship.

LJ b wrestling @ Mission Hills Tourney 1/4

Photos by Ed Piper

Vike Stanley Vishnevskiy (top), muscles

rippling (see left shoulder), works against

Santana opponent in first round.

La Jolla contingent, including Ayden Kim (far

left, looking over iPad), his mom (thumbs

up, black sweatshirt, middle top), Noah

Pace (black glasses, middle left), Joe Pace

(top far right, glasses, Noah's dad).

Jayden Williams is middle bottom, behind

Patriots wrestler (partially hidden by bars).

Vishknevskiy (blond hair) in vulnerable

position--could go either way.

Prep b BB: Walton's jersey retired

Gordon Ash (in Helix green jacket) at the Bill Walton

tribute. Ash, 90, was Walton's high school coach

in 1968-69 and 1969-70 when the Highlanders

won back-to-back San Diego CIF Section titles.

The others seated (L-R) include Steve Fonz, Felix

Rogers (next to  Ash), former Monte Vista coach,

and Emery Elles, 1963-64 CIF Player of the Year.

(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

Gordon Ash, 90 years young, was eating up the attention as he stood under the basket, supported by his walker.

Ash, Bill Walton's high school coach when Helix High won CIF San Diego Section titles back-to-back in 1968-69 and 1969-70, lingered for minutes as the tribute to Walton--and his belated number-32 jersey retirement--continued, with narration over the public address system as fans attending the Highlander-University City High boys basketball game took in the halftime event Friday evening, Jan. 3.

Gordon, with his wife Carolyn, spry as a bug, and eldest daughter (of three) Lisa on the sidelines, repeatedly tried to loft a basketball from his earthly perch near the basketball hoop. He tried overhand, then multiple times underhand. It wasn't to be, but video and still photographers beyond the baseline recorded every moment as Ash smiled, commented again and again.

Finally, he the gregarious nonogenarian struck up a conversation with his younger companion on the court, Pat Albanese, who played on Ash's teams with Walton.

The oft-repeated story was that Bill Walton himself was key in forming the squad that would eventually go on to win the two CIF championships: He had attended Catholic K-8 school growing up--St. Augustine High couldn't wait to get their chops into the budding basketball superstar--and went over to Mike Dupree's house to convince Dupree's parents that their son should enroll at Helix High and play basketball there.

"He saw what a good thing could happen here," said Dupree in a courtside interview before the Helix-UCHS game. Dupree, not a bad basketball player himself, had attended St. Martin's with Walton.

But the detour to Helix was a change from the normal, which would have plotted Walton and Dupree and their other Catholic school classmates continuing on to St. Augustine, an all-boy's school, which has a rich basketball tradition itself.

The rest is history, as the Highlanders under Coach Ash, a campus biology teacher, built dominant teams during the Walton years. Walton was CIF Player of the Year in 1970, his senior year. Dupree did fine in his own right, garnering First Team All-League honors.

Walton, who overcame a marked stutter in his younger years to become an NBA and college basketball analyst, had the persuasive words, convincing Mike's parents that it would be a good thing to put their son in the public school--a difficult choice for any parent who has sent their kids to private and/or parochial school.