Fans Love Lady Cats Stats : Basketball: With 55 straight wins, Brea-Olinda High girls are ready to go for the throat and another state championship.

BREA —  Co-Principal Jean Sullivan remembers a time 12 years ago when the then newly formed Brea-Olinda High School Lady Cats basketball team drew exactly three people to a game: herself, her husband and the school’s athletic director.

This past season, every Lady Cat game has sold out to screaming, adoring fans.

The team’s newly found appeal boils down to one factor: success. The current team boasts 55 straight wins, the 1989 state Division III championship title and recent recognition by USA Today as the fourth best high school girl’s basketball team in America.

Lady Cat fever continues to burn on the campus this week as the girl’s team is scheduled to compete Saturday morning in Oakland for what could be its second consecutive state championship.

“I love ‘em,” Carole Israel, a school secretary and self-described “super fan,” exulted Wednesday. “They’re the best.”

Israel and legions of other Lady Cats fans are planning to journey to Oakland and cheer the team on during its 9:30 a.m. game against the Auburn Placers at the Oakland Coliseum. Principal Sullivan said one man has bought 159 tickets for the game. She said at least 200 others are going to the Bay Area by car, bus and plane.

The team is one of three from Orange County in the state championships--the boys teams from Servite High in Anaheim and Mater Dei in Santa Ana also will compete.

On campus at Brea-Olinda Wednesday, students and teachers were wearing Lady Cat green and planned today to give the team a rousing send-off at a pizza-and-balloons party scheduled during lunch break. Banners are also expected to go up all over campus, with classes ending an hour and a half early Friday in honor of the team, Sullivan said.

“There’s a tremendous level of support for the team,” said Sullivan, wearing a green sweater, as she led a tour of the wind-swept campus atop a hill overlooking much of North Orange County. “We like winning, and we want to continue winning.”

Although the boys’ Wildcats’ basketball team has experienced more modest seasons, students and teachers said there is no jealousy or animosity between boys and girls.

“It’s not a ‘girls are better than guys’ thing,” said junior Scott Lehman, 17, a member of the school’s soccer team. “Everybody is just happy for them. When we boast about the school, we boast about the Lady Cats first.”

“Boys go to girls’ games and girls go to boys’ games,” added freshman Jennifer Prichard, 14, a junior varsity basketball player.

Boys’ soccer coach Manny Toledo said the Lady Cats’ success helps inspire all the other school sport teams--both girls and boys--to practice harder.

According to Sullivan, the Lady Cats did not come into their own until the 1983 season when student Da Houl led the team to a winning season and earned the school’s first girl’s basketball scholarship. Houl attended the University of Hawaii.

Each year since then, Sullivan said, one Lady Cat has been awarded a basketball scholarship.

“This has given the girls the opportunity for success and achievement like the boys,” Sullivan said.

Much of the team’s success is credited to Coach Mark Trakh, say school administrators and Lady Cats members. Trakh, a serious, intent man who has coached the team for 10 years, said his winning formula is simple: practice, practice and more practice. The team members work out a grueling 11 months each year, relaxing only during August.

Trakh also counsels his players to concentrate on the game, not to focus on whether they win or lose. Even though his team is up for a second straight state championship, for instance, Trakh was at Wednesday’s practice telling his girls that “a game’s a game” and that “pressure is only a state of mind.”

The coach, nonetheless, was so intent on preparing for the Big Game that he took little time to answer questions, working instead to tape the ankles of his players for a grueling practice session. The players, too, were not in a mood to celebrate, especially after coming off a one-point win over Palos Verdes in last Saturday’s semifinal game.

“That was a close game for me,” said senior Tammy Blackbone, 17, co-captain of the team that scored the winning basket in the 47-46 game. “We don’t want to get too cocky or too overconfident.”

Saturday’s championship contest holds special meaning for Blackbone and two other seniors, who are playing in their last Lady Cats’ game. Senior Aimee McDaniel, 17, the other co-captain, said the game will be memorable regardless of outcome.

“It’s a good way to end a career, whether we win or lose,” McDaniel said. “It’ll still be nice.”