Fan ... it’s short for fanatic

Roger Carlson

I’ve often wondered what would happen if somebody decided to hold

sports banquets for traditional rivals at the same time, and same place.

Can you imagine?

On one side of the banquet hall the girls soccer coach at Newport

Harbor gets up and announces his Most Valuable Player, who scored what

could well have been the winning goal, but it was disallowed because one

of the refs, who knows someone at Corona del Mar, nullifies the goal with

a penalty call.

Then the Corona del Mar girls soccer coach gets up to announce his

MVP, who actually scored the winning goal in the big game, and that side

of the hall goes crazy.

It would make a great scene for one of those Animal House-style campus

movies.

Next would be Most Inspirational, and I’ll leave it to you to imagine

the deed for the award.

While we’re at it, let’s throw in Costa Mesa and Estancia at the same

site and time. What the heck. We’re all one happy family here in the

Newport-Mesa District, right?

“We’re No. 1 in the CIF seedings,” one could correctly say.

“We were the defending champs,” another could correctly say.

“We are the champs!,” another could correctly say.

“We made it to the playoffs, and we’re in the toughest league around,”

another could correctly say.

Would there be a riot before the night was through?

These are some of the options I have here in the inner sanctum where

daily I find myself deciding what to do today, or tomorrow, in terms of

coverage, story placements and assignments, as well as such things as

space for that particular edition, the weather, who’s available, which

game has more at stake, which is the most competitive game, has a time or

site changed? And did everyone get notified? Where are the games, and is

there a coach in the pack you can count on to call and give you a report

in depth to help you obtain the most overall coverage. And, don’t forget

to try to balance things out.

Then there’s photo coverage. Just make sure the photographer

understands we want the shot of the winning goal, or winning save, or

winning steal, or winning smile of that one certain athlete.

In fact, the photographer’s assignment is to come back with photos

that tell the story of the game. He, or she, usually gets about 45

minutes to do it before hustling off to other assignments.

All of this leads up to the stir of the day:

. Yes, you’re right, sir. We covered Newport Harbor’s girls game at

Aliso Niguel because we like Newport. In fact, you’re right, we travel

with them on the team bus. Jeez, I wish they’d get some seat belts.

. Yes, you’re right, pal. We did a lot more on Corona del Mar High’s

girls in Tuesday’s CIF preview story because, in addition to their No. 1

status in the Division IV Playoffs, we like Corona del Mar, a lot more

than you. Always have, always will.

. Yes, you Costa Mesa fans, chances are we won’t do as much for you as

we did for Estancia’s boys a year ago when they swept to the CIF

championship. Why shouldn’t we? We like Estancia a lot more than Costa

Mesa. Hey, I covered Estancia’s first football game in 1965.

. Yes, you wild card Eagles from Estancia, we’re probably not going to

do as much for you this year, and maybe a lot more for Costa Mesa,

because, well, the fact is we really like Costa Mesa. We’ve always been

closet Mustangs, ever since Mesa scared Long Beach Poly in the 1966 CIF

Playoffs at Orange Coast College, and reaffirmed when Tom French’s

football team tied mighty Foothill, 14-14, in 1976.

Oh, and lest I forget. Yes, you Costa Mesa/Estancia fans, there’s more

in the sports pages on Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor, usually. Not

because of the success factor, but because they have more money, and they

lavish gifts upon us.

Well, that’s soccer. We’ll talk about girls water polo on another

rainy day.

And so it goes. Most of the criticism directed our way comes not from

what we’ve done lately for you, but what we’ve done for those knaves

across town.

I understand the feeling.

When I was a freshman at Monrovia-Arcadia-Duarte High School, the

school was split twice in three years. It became Monrovia-Duarte when

Arcadia was built, then when Duarte emerged, my school was simply

Monrovia High.

When our Monrovia News Post published a major story of Arcadia’s

football team winning something big, and of all things, bannered it

across the top of Page 1, I was outraged.

How dare my newspaper, which of course had many subscribers in Arcadia

and Duarte, chronicle the exploits of the Apaches, while my Wildcats were

buried in the back pages of my Monrovia newspaper.

I called them up, berated them, listened to none of the explanations,

and, to this day, I don’t think I’ve truly forgiven them.

Well, that’s how it is when you’re a dyed-in-the-wool fan.

I know, we’ve got plenty of them around here, too.