High Aspirations, but Lower Pressure : Coach’s Humor Keeps Spirits High as Christian Girls Set Their Sights on State Basketball Championship

EL CAJON —  As the profile mounts, so does the pressure.

That’s what Terri Mann remembers most about the week preceding Point Loma’s Division I state championship bids. There were three of those, 1985 through 1987, and the Pointer girls’ basketball team won them all.

Mann, now Mann-Jacobs and five years removed from her last state title, has been married three years and has a 2-year-old daughter, Temperance.

“It’s a lot of pressure,” said Mann-Jacobs, the driving force behind the last San Diego County team to win a state championship. “The last two years even more. People thought if we can win one, then why not two? And if we can win two, then we can win three.”

That is a legacy the Christian girls don’t have to live up to . . . yet. But the Patriots might be getting warm. Christian left Friday for Sacramento and the Arco Arena, where at 10:30 a.m. today it will play Ripon Christian for the Division V state championship.

It is a repeat appearance for Christian, which lost the title to Menlo Atherton, 65-48, last season. The Patriots lost one player from that team.

But Christian, from first-year Coach Mike Zazvrskey on through the player ranks, claims that the talk all year of a second championship bid was limited to well meaning friends, teachers and family. The team never spoke of a run for the crown.

“I knew there was a lot of pressure on them,” Zazvrskey said. “I felt the best approach was not to talk about it. We didn’t even talk about winning the Harbor League.”

There were times players and coach alike felt they might not be capable of even that. There was that opening loss to Monte Vista, a league loss to Our Lady of Peace and a scare in the San Diego Section playoffs by unfearing Marian.

“After we lost to Monte Vista, and we looked bad, I was wondering, ‘Gee, maybe we’re not as good as everyone says we are. Maybe getting to (the state final) was a fluke,’ ” Zazvrskey said. “But people who had seen them said not to worry. It was just too early.”

Jenny Culbertson, one of two seniors on this team, is a 5-foot-11 center who had her own doubts the Patriots would get this far.

“There were a couple of times I didn’t think we’d make it,” said Culbertson, who sprained her ankle before the loss to OLP. “There were many times we came this close to being eliminated.”

But skating on thin ice becomes the Patriots, and the role of rescuer has been played by many.

Tiffany Stutz, the other senior and fourth on the section’s career scoring list, is usually tough and consistent. But when she’s off--Culbertson said that’s not often--or has multiple defenders in her face, others have stepped up their games.

In the section final against Julian it was freshman Stephanie Shadwell, against Marian it was junior Diane DeGrenier and in the regional final against Arcadia Rio Hondo Prep it was Culbertson.

“It depends on the situation,” said Culbertson, who lifted her team from a 32-24 halftime deficit against Rio Hondo last week. “We realize if someone doesn’t step in, we’re not going anywhere.”

But the Patriots are going somewhere, to bring life to the dream that dangled slightly out of their reach last time.

“Last year it was unbelievable,” sophomore Jennifer Jeremiah said. “I remember when the guys went to state (in 1990). I didn’t think we’d ever be going. But this year it’s like we can win.”

Said Culbertson: “The first time you don’t know what to expect. The second time around you expect to win.”

Jeremiah, a 5-4 guard and a starter, said the atmosphere throughout playoffs this year is more serious than last.

“It’s been very intense,” she said. “There aren’t as many smiles.”

Smiles no, laughter yes. Culbertson said Zazvrskey uses humor to comfort players after subpar performances.

“He’s so funny,” she said. “He brings everyone’s spirits up, encouraging you all the time. If you have a bad game, he says forget about it, you’ll do better next time.”

Coaching stints in Florida, Ohio and Brawley--mostly with boys’ teams--add up to 20 years of experience for Zazvrskey, who finds sprinkling fun in practice can be beneficial, with the right group.

“You can tell who’s committed and who’s not, and these girls are,” he said. “They didn’t need to be yelled at, so I tried to throw some humor into it. We’ll have a quick giggle and get back to work. Sometimes, boys don’t have the maturity to get back to work, they lose it. But these girls, I’ll crack a joke and they bounce right back.”

There is a lot from which to rebound. The game is the talk of the campus, if not the community, and the media has flocked. Tensions, expectations and demands are high.

Zazvrskey has given his team tips on how to handle it all.

“We’ve talked about how to eat an elephant,” he said. “The game seems like six months away, there’s so much to do. I told them to make lists and focus on one thing at a time. There’s great satisfaction when one thing gets done.”

But these players don’t feel the job, or their season, will be complete without that state title in pocket.

Shadwell, who has been a starter all season and who Zazvrskey calls a “very special player,” said it is important to her to win the title with the current roster.

“I want to do it with these girls because we’re so close,” she said. “I’m really good friends with (Culbertson). I want her to go out with a title.”

One on which Shadwell could add to in the future, what with such a young team--three freshman and juniors and two sophomores grace the Patriot roster.

“I have thought about it,” Shadwell said about building a dynasty in girls’ basketball at Christian. “It’s a great opportunity. This could be the start of something really cool.”

And something to remember for a long time. Mann-Jacobs said she didn’t realize at the time how much the titles would mean to her later.

“This is something you can pass onto your own kids,” said the three-time section player of the year. “When (Temperance) gets older I can say, ‘Look, this is what Mama did.’ But you don’t think about that at the time.”

Christian is currently consumed with what it must do to stop Ripon Christian, upset winners over top-seeded Sacred Heart Prep last week. The Patriots don’t know much about their opponents today, but freshman guard Jenny Miller could be the best player on a team taller than Christian.

“We have to contend with their height,” Zazvrskey said. “We have to be able to work on people on the block. And we need to bring the ball up quickly, get into our offense and get a cheapie.”

At that point, the pressure of the week will be history, but the profile, Christian hopes, will remain on the rise.