By ED PIPER
Monday night, a tiny gym on an elementary school campus tucked away on a back street at Liberty Station. Only 14 people were in attendance besides the two teams, their coaches, and the two referees.
A reporter couldn’t find the location; it took a cell call to one coach to get further directions to a parking lot behind the gym.
“We’re doing a six-man layup drill,” remarks No. 34, Cayden Dawson, a junior forward for University City, the visiting team. A seventh Centurion later shows up for warm-ups before the game against host High Tech High, coached by Lance Beesley.
This is the way it is during another wave of COVID infections, as the Omicron variant cuts a swath in and out of classrooms and through high school sports teams. UCHS is missing several players, some of whom are unvaccinated and have been banished for five days after exposure to a COVID-positive individual.
“It’s hard to get a rhythm with so many players out,” says Alex Golland, the Centurions’ coach, now coaching in his second COVID-restricted season. He notes they haven’t been able to practice in a week. But, “It’s a fun team to coach,” Golland asserts by phone as he drives around his 1-year-old on an errand.
UCHS has a good mix of talented seniors, juniors, and sophomores who fought their way to a 9-9 record in their first 18 games this season. At High Tech High Point Loma, Golland was forced to use a limited rotation with so many team members missing, the squad falling to a full-roster HTH, 65-51. The Centurions still had a chance despite trailing by 24 points with one minute left in the third quarter.
Senior and leading scorer Ayden Lockett, averaging 20.6 points a game, went down with a sprained ankle in the third quarter. That left it to fellow senior Pavle Ristic to help lead a furious charge to within 13 at 62-49 with 1:33 left.
“(Ben) Gavani is talented,” says Golland of the 6 feet 5 inch tall power forward, among the “super sophs” Jaeden Robley, 13.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game; Luca Anzaldua-Bertholdo, a point guard; and Ash Aka, a point guard. Samuel Cooper IV joins Dawson among the juniors.
The story of how Golland ended up coaching the Centurions is the stuff of fables. Amid COVID last year, Terry Stonebraker, the 20-year coach who led UCHS to the Division II title game two years ago, stepped down. Golland, the eight-year JV coach, was offered the position.
“We had just had our second child,” the special education teacher at Torrey Pines High relates. “Our athletic director, David Asuncion, called me. ‘Do you want to coach?’ I said, ‘Let me call you back.’ My wife told me, ‘Go for it.’”
This season, “The football players (who went to the CIF Division II title game) joined us almost overnight.” Lockett, star quarterback Samuel Cooper IV, and Dawson, a defensive end, transformed the Centurions in a short time.