A couple of old friends and college basketball teammates from the 1960s are still having fun in the game decades later.
Santa Barbara High’s David Bregante and Sal Rodriguez of Laguna Blanca played together in SBCC back in the early 60s. On Monday, they were together at the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table press luncheon talking about their respective high school boys basketball teams and acknowledging one another.
Bregante’s Dons are 21-1 and ranked No. 1 in the CIF-SS 2A Division.
“I want to congratulate my college teammate, Dave Bregante,” Rodriguez said. “Twenty-one and one, that’s amazing.”
Bregante said he and Rodriguez “go back to 1962-63 at City College. Both of us got the basketball bug.”
He said they started coaching their sons at the Goleta Boys & Girls Club when the kids were in the third grade.
On coaching today, Bregante said he’s impressed with the quality of coaches at the local high schools, praising the work of John Slavin and Joe Zamora at Dos Pueblos, Landon Boucher at San Marcos and Santa Barbara High girls coach Andrew Butcher.
“I’m proud to be a part of it,” he said.
On his top-ranked team, Bregante said players are fighting the flu and dealing with ankle sprains as they head into the second round of Channel League play. The Dons went 4-0 in the first round.
“Our goal is to try to get healthy,” he said.
The Dons play a non-league game Wednesday against Oxnard before opening the second round against Buena at home on Friday.
Cate Boys: Andrew Gil, who assisted Bregante for five years at Santa Barbara, is the first-year head coach for the Rams. He has five sophomores, four juniors and two seniors.
“We’re improving and it’s been a ton of fun,” he said. “We’re super young and we have a ton of potential. And we keep getting better. I do believe we’re peaking at the right time.”
He introduced sophomore Marko Pliso, who is averaging more than 20 points a game. Pliso is the Athlete of the Week.
“Marko can score with the best of them. I’m convinced he can play with anybody in the Channel League or Tri-Valley. He’s a real stud,” said Gil.
Dos Pueblos: Assistant coach John Slavin said the loss to Santa Barbara last week was a good experience for the team.
“It was a learning experience, but we have to convert more shots to compete with them,” he said.
Slavin brought junior guards Anthony Marsango and Anthony Trujillo. He said Marsango has a sweet-looking 3-point shot and Trujillo worked on his speed and athleticism in the offseason, making him tougher to guard.
DP (15-8, 1-2) plays host to San Marcos on Wednesday night.
San Marcos: Landon Boucher finally has his whole team together and healthy.
“Of our six returners from last year, we’ve had five with some pretty serious injuries,” he said. “Our team hadn’t had everybody healthy until three games ago.
It’s really exciting to all be healthy.”
Kele Mkpado is the latest Royal to receive a clean bill of health. The returning all-league first team player was out nine weeks after suffering a deep laceration on his wrist. He had a strong game against Buena last Friday, scoring 16 points, grabbing eight rebounds and blocking five shots.
Laguna Blanca: Coach Rodriguez said Atty Roddick is not bashful about putting up 3-pointers and team captain Pierce O’Donnell is the leading rebounder and scorer, “and a real bulldog. He’s really, really tough.”
The Owls are 7-7, “but we can easily be 12-2. The games we’ve lost we haven’t been able to finish,” he said.
WATER POLO
UCSB Women: After going 3-2 and taking No. 4-ranked Cal into double overtime at its Winter Invitational, Gaucho coach Serela Kay feels good about her team this season.
“We’re in the mix with the best of them,” she said.
Kay introduced juniors Brenna Thomas and Taylor Shore. She said Thomas “can change the momentum of the team because she’s such a fast counter-attacker.” She called Shore “our clutch player. She’s someone who’s all over the place.”
Kay noted that UCSB will be hosting the Big West Championships this April.
San Marcos: Coach Chuckie Roth introduced JJ Stryker and Paige Hauschild. He encouraged Stryker to keep working hard and appreciated her for being a great young leader on the squad.
On Hauschild, he explained how the Royals’ top player has worked her way back from “a really bad place.”
She suffered a burst appendix while in training with the USA Water Polo Junior National Team before the FINA Women’s Junior World Championships last summer. She had surgery, suffered some complications after the surgery and was hospitalized for 8-9 days.
“I saw her in the hospital and she was in a really bad place,” Roth said.
When she returned to the pool at San Marcos, she was so weak she could barely swim a lap and couldn’t get herself out of the pool, Roth explained. “She swam one lap that first day back, and this is a girl who was a two-sport All-American athlete.”
She has since regained her strength and her game and is leading the Royals again.
“What she’s done in the pool is phenomenal. The way she came back and achieved after being down in the dumps, and just working her way back to the top, makes her an inspiration to our whole team,” Roth said. “The way she is is just amazing.”
Looking at Hauschild, the coach said, “It took a lot of courage and perseverance to overcome what you overcame.”
Santa Barbara High: Coach Mark Walsh said he felt truly blessed to have seniors Jessee Ransone and Kristina Garcia on the squad.
Ransone is a four-year varsity player who is headed to UC San Diego.
“All the girls work really, really hard, but in games no one works harder than her,” Walsh said. “Literally, she gives it her whole body in every game, every ounce on every possession for our team.”
He said Garcia, a three-year starter who is headed to Cal, is the team’s leading scorer and top defender.
Dos Pueblos: Speaking for coach Chris Parrish, athletic director Dan Feldhaus said sophomore Thea Neushul has done a good job handling the thankless job of playing in the post when the Chargers are on power plays.
DP is 11-5 and 2-1 going into this week’s league games against Ventura and Santa Barbara.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
UCSB Women: Assistant coach Evan Unrau dropped in before practice to send a message to the community. “The exciting thing is we’re winning,” she said.
The Gauchos are 4-2 in the Big West.
Westmont Women: Coach Kirsten Moore said she’s pleased how her team responded after a 55-53 loss against Cal State San Marcos last week. The Warriors followed with an 81-56 win over Menlo and a 65-37 rout of William Jessup in GSAC games.
“Every year we had a good run in a national tourney, even when we won the national championship, we’ve had a loss in the season which has been defining for our team because of how much better we got because of it,” she said. “I’m proud of my team on how we responded to that loss. I hope we can keep it going this week.”
Westmont Men: Coach John Moore said his team has the top three 3-point shooters in the NAIA in Hayden Anderson, Cory Blau and Gerry Karczewski. Anderson has made 30 of 54 for 55 percent, Blau is 48-of-88 for 54 percent and Karczewski is 40-79 for 50.6 percent.
WRESTLING
Dos Pueblos: The Chargers are rolling.
“It’s been a great year for us,” said Anthony Califano, who is working in an assistant’s role this season. “It’s been fun to work with these young men.”
The Chargers are 11-0 in dual meets, repeat champions of the Channel League and No. 2 in the CIF-SS Northern Division.
Califano brought wrestlers Joel Garcia, Justin Moua and Elijah Fitch. The three were instrumental in the Chargers winning at Buena and Ventura to clinch the league title. They beat Buena on a pin by Garcia in the final bout of the night and dominated Ventura, which has been a nemesis.
“We go to Ventura and it’s all black and AC/DC playing and all that kind of stuff,” Califano said. “We went down there and dismantled those guys. Out of 14 weight classes, we won 12.”
He said Fitch has a “unique style of wrestling. The basics win but he adds his own personality. At Ventura, the guys shoots for his legs and he does something I’ve never coached before. He jumps on the guy’s back like a monkey. I had no idea what to do and I didn’t know what to say. So, he gets the guy down and ends up pinning him in a cradle.
“It was a fun night.”
Califano announced that the Chargers’ final home dual meet against Santa Barbara has been rescheduled to Tuesday, Feb. 2.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
San Marcos: Like the UCSB women, it’s an exciting time at San Marcos because the team is winning games, assistant coach Aaron Solis said. “This group of girls is fantastic to work with.”
Junior Sierra Hearron is the leader of the group. “As Sierra goes, we go. She’s a fantastic athlete,” said Solis.
He also introduced sophomore Anna Reed, a role player who has given the team “key minutes when she’s in there.”
The Royals play at DP on Thursday.
Carpinteria; Assistant Weldon Nomura said as defending league champions, the Warriors have to work a little harder. The team is 4-3 in league, with two of the losses by one point.
He brought three players, Adriana Rodriguez, Harmony Reed and Tori Kelley. Kelley, the point guard, whose nickname is “Turbo” because she plays “super fast,” is difficult to defend. Reed thrives on physical play and is “super competitive” and Rodriguez is starting to adjust to speed of the game at the varsity level.
Santa Barbara: Coach Andrew Butcher took responsibility in the Dons’ defeat at Ventura last Thursday.
“I did a lousy job,” he said. “I tell the kids, when one of you isn’t proficient or isn’t good at something, it’s your fault. When all of you aren’t good at something, it’s my fault. And we were not good at a lot of things: defense, offense, and we’re always bad at rebounding.
“I really did a poor job. I’ll do better.”
He said freshman Rose Nadis and sophomore Anais Jimenez are athletic and bright, and the future of the program. He also introduced senior back-up point guard Jackie Tran and told her she would be the bench captain for Thursday’s game against Buena.
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