Tough Rites of Spring for Athletes

Marina High School senior Logan Odden hopes to win a title in the boys’ pole vault at tonight’s state finals, the most prestigious track-and-field event of the season. When he’s through, he’ll launch into the evening’s unscheduled event: the prom relay.

Odden’s 5 p.m. event will be followed by a scramble home to shower, shave and don a tux before he rushes off to meet his date and catch the tail end of his senior prom.

Tonight’s state finals in Cerritos offer the starkest example of a dilemma facing high school athletes across Orange County: Traditional end-of-the-school-year activities from proms to picnics to senior field trips often end up crashing into the most competitive stretch of the spring sporting calendar, forcing teenagers to make adult choices about commitment and sacrifice.

It’s good training for the future and teaches youngsters about difficult-to-teach values, said Newport Harbor counselor Peggy Hoyt.

“That’s what life is all about, making decisions,” she said. There’s also no downside: Sacrificing the prom to keep a commitment to the team is equally as valid as ditching a matchup or a meet for a one-in-a-lifetime event like the senior prom, she said. “They’re both good choices.”

Odden and some of his friends, however, are determined to do both.

He set a county record vault of 16 feet 7 inches this season and goes into tonight’s competition as the state leader because of that jump. A chance to win a title at the biggest meet of the track-and-field year takes top priority, he said, and he’s resigned himself to the possibility of missing much of the prom.

“I’m just going to the afterward stuff,” he said.

Friend Caroline Rebello is in a similar position. Rebello is one of the state leaders in the girls’ pole vault and is seeded second at 11-6. Her event ends in the late afternoon, but she’s informed her date that she plans to stick around to cheer on Odden.

“He’s just going to have grin and bear it,” she said of her date.

Newport Harbor’s Trevor Jones is another state leader who expects to miss out on prom night because of the state finals. The UCLA-bound senior has the state’s fastest high school time this season in the 300 hurdles, which is scheduled for 6 p.m.

“I probably won’t actually make it to the dance, just the after-party deal. It’s kind of too bad,” Jones said.

It could be worse, said Newport Harbor Coach Bim Barry.

At least Odden, Rebello and Jones can partake in some of the festivities. When the finals are held in Sacramento, as they are every other year, teens miss out.

Schools--and sporting teams--sometimes try to work around conflicts. When Capistrano Valley High School’s Senior Ball clashed with the date of its first-round game against Foothill High School, the team agreed to move up the play date.

Foothill’s baseball team wasn’t so fortunate when it found that its traditional team barbecue conflicted with a Rialto High game. Rialto refused to change dates, and were beaten 6-5.

The problem for the vast majority of Orange County athletes involves trying to get enough rest for their meets, games and matches come the end of the school year.

Mater Dei senior Lindsay Wells went to her prom May 25 and stayed out late. Too late, in fact.

Although she considered going home immediately after the prom, she decided instead to enjoy the night out, even though she had to compete the next day in the 300-meter hurdles at the Southern Section Masters track-and-field meet at Cerritos College, a qualifier that attracts the top athletes from the nation’s largest section.

Wells finished seventh, about a half-second slower than she ran on the same track a week earlier.

“It kind of put me in a bind,” said Wells, who will attend UC Santa Barbara next season.

For some the choice is more clear-cut.

Corona del Mar senior Liz Morse, the national leader in the 800 meters, ruled out going to her prom tonight when she realized it conflicted with state finals.

Morse discovered the conflict in March and immediately made the decision to forgo the prom.

“It’s a hard decision, but for me it’s a no-brainer,” Morse said.