Durham Dazzles in Job as Coach

Occasionally, Sherwin Durham gets the urge to show off.

“Every now and then,” said the coach of the La Habra Whittier Christian girls’ basketball team, “I go into the gym and do some tricks for the girls, just to keep them in their place.

“Even though they’re the center of attention, I just want them to know the old man’s still capable.”

The old man is only 39, but he still has his tricks, all right. He is a former Harlem Globetrotter whose ballhandling and basketball sleight of hand managed to get him into the Globetrotters’ famed circle that passes the ball to the music of “Sweet Georgia Brown.”

“When you can do that, you know it’s special because it’s only five guys in the circle at a time,” Durham said.

Durham, who is only 5 feet 11, graduated from Garden Grove Bolsa Grande High in 1981, then attended Golden West College before transferring to Southern California College (now Vanguard University).

Durham joined Meadowlark Lemon’s Shooting Stars, one of Lemon’s post-Globetrotter traveling entertainment teams, getting his start on the opposing team.

“I trained under Curly Neal and Gator Rivers,” said Durham, who is still called “Shake” by many. “Those guys really took me under their wing. Meadowlark had Pete Maravich on the [Shooting Stars] team -- that was my first pro assignment.

“I was a 22-year-old kid who was just awestruck at the time. You grow up watching them, and then you’re on the same court. It’s quite the dream.”

Recalling his first night as a pro, Durham said, “Maravich took me for 16 points in the first three minutes. I thought, ‘I’m going to take this challenge.’ I was 22, he was about 38. I’m like, ‘OK, I want Pete Maravich tonight.’

“I’m a cocky kid, I take my defensive stance at the top of the key and he pulls up from 25 or 30 feet and hits the bottom of the net. I was playing him like anybody else, like I’m not going to let him get to the basket. He wasn’t interested in going to the basket.”

Durham spent about three months on the opposing team before being called up to the Shooting Stars, for whom he played five years before joining the Globetrotters’ East Coast team.

Durham just finished his second season at Whittier Christian. The Heralds finished 14-10 this season after going 11-16 the previous season. The season before he arrived, they were 7-19.

Lindsey Shiomi averaged 18 points and 7.5 assists, and along with senior forward Sarah Randolph and sophomore guard Sarina Patel has led the Heralds’ resurgence.

Shiomi recalled her first meeting with Durham.

“It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to meet with a Harlem Globetrotter,’ ” she said. “It was like, ‘Wow, I’m getting a coach that really knows what he’s talking about.’ ”

The program has nearly doubled in size -- from 20 to 38 players -- since Durham’s arrival on the 351-student campus.

“We don’t want to cut anyone,” said Durham, who is branch director at Boys and Girls Club of Garden Grove. “If you decide you want to play, we have a spot for you.”

The program has modest expectations but has made some positive strides.

“Last year, they were just looking to win 11 games [to qualify for the playoffs], and this year we were looking for a league title and advancing in the playoffs,” Durham said.

The Heralds did advance a round, winning a Division IV-AA game against L.A. Milken, 79-35, before losing Saturday to last season’s Division IV-A champion, Montebello Cantwell Sacred Heart, 61-42.

They didn’t win the Alpha League title, though, losing their last five regular-season games.

“I’d probably give myself a ‘B,’ ” Durham said. “It’s important a coach get his team out of a funk, and we had that losing streak.... “ “

But Durham gets an ‘A’ in other areas.

“He teaches us not just about basketball but life lessons, what you can learn from every situation,” Shiomi said. “He’s taught me a lot about never giving up when things go wrong.”

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Melissa Garcia, a 5-1 guard, plays an integral role in the fortunes of San Bernardino, which is matched against fourth-seeded Perris on Wednesday in the Southern Section Division II-AA playoffs.

She is averaging 5.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.4 steals. San Bernardino is ranked No. 21 by The Times.

“She’s one of those pests that gets on your nerves and changes the complexion of an offense and defense,” Coach Paul Akahoshi said. “A person like that changes the whole pace of the game.”

In San Bernardino’s 35-34 victory over No. 22 Huntington Beach Edison on Saturday, Akahoshi said Garcia and Janevia Taylor alternated between guarding Rebecca Kepilino and Eva Camarena. Kepilino scored only 11 points and Camarena 10; they average 17 and 12.

Garcia became a starter during the Chino Hills Ayala tournament. Her first assignment was to guard Torrance Bishop Montgomery’s Noelle Quinn, who was The Times’ player of the year last season.

Quinn scored only 11 points in the first three quarters, and San Bernardino upset the Knights, 60-58, after having lost to them earlier, 63-47.

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Camarena turned out to be a success story, despite Edison’s short stay in the playoffs.

The guard was one of the top freshmen during the 2001 season while at Westminster, then admittedly began making bad decisions.

“When I was at Westminster, I was just hanging out with the wrong people,” Camarena said.

And she wasn’t hanging out in class, either. Her grades suffered. She didn’t play basketball as a sophomore, then transferred to Edison.

The team took her under her wing, especially junior guard Valerie Katayama, and helped Camarena regain her academic eligibility before the season ended.

Edison Coach Cory Kelly, who made the playoffs in three of the four seasons he coached the boys’ varsity team, said Camarena is the “the best shooter I’ve ever coached.”

She shot about 42% in the six games she played after her eligibility was restored.

“The thing that’s made me most proud is the way the team rallied around her and helped her,” Kelly said. “What’s a bonus is that she’s a great basketball player.”

Another bonus: All five starters -- Camarena, Katayama, Kepilino, Leila Abufare and Jessica Harris -- return next season for the Chargers (21-6).