Eagles’ hoops have always had the gift

ROGER CARLSON

Prep basketball is not far around the corner and there is a sequence

that always seems to circulate within my mind when the subject comes

up.

Best coach? Larry Sunderman.

Best run? Estancia High’s 17-0 burst at the start of that state

championship game when Tim O’Brien’s Division III Eagles defeated

Washington High of Fremont, 82-72, in 1991 at the Oakland Coliseum.

Best micro-moment? When the cords snapped with no time left as the

ball fell through for the winning margin in Estancia’s memorable

overtime victory over Foothill in a 1982 CIF playoffs encounter

before a packed house at Villa Park High.

There were no three-point shots then, and no shot clock as the

Eagles ate away the first 2:57 of a three-minute overtime before

Steve Kraiss found himself surrounded in the corner. His moon ball

from behind the backboard sailed up and over the backboard before

finding home to the delight of Sunderman’s Eagles.

What great memories. Nothing has faded from any of it, but time

marches on. Sunderman retired from teaching in June, giving him more

time to spend with his dad, Bud; more time for golf; and more time

for perhaps a book of short stories about, what else?, hoops, and the

like.

“I have a couple of ideas,” said Sunderman during a recent

conversation.

“One idea was ‘Semipro Sundays,’ looking back on some of the

things that have happened to me growing up in Inglewood and the L.A.

area. Things like some of the places where I played, like Sawtelle

Field, Huntington Park by the railroad station and Centinella Park in

Inglewood.”

His son, Ryan, also played in those venues.

Surely, he’ll find some chapters for those seven pulsating years

as the Eagles’ coach, and perhaps for his most recent role, as an

assistant at Estancia.

Sunderman, now 60, had a memorable stint in his early days of

coaching when under head coach Buck Smith at Inglewood High. For

three years Sunderman served as the only Bees and Cees coach, then

would guide the junior varsity in the second half while Smith was

preparing the varsity for its game. Then he would serve as Smith’s

assistant in the varsity game. That, you can be sure, is a load.

But that’s how Sunderman attacked things, just as he did last

season at Estancia as an assistant for third-year coach Chris Sorce.

“I really enjoyed being around Chris,” said Sunderman. “He has a

great sense of humor, he’s a sportsman and he can tell you anything

about any sport.

“He was a lot like Joe Reid in that he always had a game plan.”

Sorce’s value to the Estancia basketball program was evident when

he stepped in to fill a void which was thrust upon the Eagles by a

would-be coach who stuck around for a cup of coffee and then left

Estancia in the lurch.

“I really felt Chris saved the basketball program,” said

Sunderman. “That guy bailed out after one or two summer league games.

I admired the good decision Chris made in taking over the program,

and it’s one of the reasons why I stepped in (as an assistant last

season).”

“The last high school game I had coached was Estancia’s CIF

championship game (against J.W. North of Riverside) in 1984,” said

Sunderman. “I enjoyed the kids and most of the parents were really

great (1978-84). I didn’t seem to have the problems that a lot of

coaches had, but winning has a way of doing that.”

Sunderman was still active as a teacher and had spent time earlier

as an assistant to Bill Mulligan at UC Irvine and Irvine Valley on

the community college level. He was, and still is, a gym rat in

principle.

“Chris and Tom (Antal, the principal) would kid around with me and

say there was always a spot if I wanted to coach, so I thought maybe

I’d give it a shot.”

Sunderman’s relationship with Sorce goes back to when he was the

Eagles’ coach in a seven-year reign which produced five championships

and two second-place finishes in what was annually a wild Sea View

League showdown with Corona del Mar, and Sorce was a 14-year-old

wannabe hanging around the gym before coming full-cycle as the

Eagles’ head coach.

“There were no three-point shots in basketball when I coached and

Chris’ team was one of the best disciplined teams I’d seen and I

liked that,” said Sunderman. “He had an old school approach and we

won 17 games last season.”

While Sunderman’s role as an assistant at Estancia may be one of

the chapters, there are many others, such as his associations with

John Wooden and Bob Boyd during their heydays at UCLA and USC, the

time when Elgin Baylor pulled his Lakers out of the Inglewood gym

because the floor was just too hard for their practices, and the time

Costa Mesa High’s John Sweazy and Isiah Robertson mixed it up in the

paint, big time, during an exhibition game at Mesa.

Sunderman was Costa Mesa’s coach for three years before he began

his tour at Estancia.

Another chapter might well be his relationship with his dad, now

85, a machinist who finally decided to retire about three years ago.

Larry’s mom, Selma, passed away two summers ago.

“It’s definitely where my work ethic came from,” said Sunderman.

Every coach has his style, but Sunderman stood alone in terms of

sheer intensity and volatility, and his teams reflected his

personality. If anyone could “will” a win, it was Sunderman, who at

times resembled a volcano about to explode.

“I might have raised my voice, but I never demeaned anyone during

the game,” said Sunderman. “We would get after it hard in practice

and say some things, but players don’t need the pressure of a coach

screaming at them during the game. We had our practice time, and at

halftime, that was private time.”

Sunderman’s dedication to the game was such that he would, after a

full day’s work and evening’s schedule, return home and watch re-runs

of UCLA and USC games, taking notes.

When coaching at Inglewood he would dash over to practice sessions

at UCLA in Westwood and downtown to USC, where a great deal of his

coaching philosophy was developed.

“Wooden stuck to his basic philosophies, and Boyd was inventive

with his high-low passing game, which was what we ran all seven years

at Estancia,” said Sunderman. “My wife, Pam, was pretty cool about

all of it,” alluding to the extra time devoted to the game.

It would be difficult to find anyone with a more depth of honesty

than Sunderman, who has been enjoying a lot of his time this past

summer with his dad while on auto trips in Elko and surrounding areas

in and around Nevada.

Reflecting back on his coaching career, thoughts often return to

the camaraderie with the players and their parents, and to the bottom

line: Winning.

“I would be a hypocrite not to say I didn’t enjoy the winning the

most,” said Sunderman. “And I think the kids enjoyed the winning the

most. You see kids like Jeff Gardner and the first thing we talk

about is winning this game and that game. And then we’d talk about

‘how’s your family?’

“It all started with Bill Wetzel and (principal) Bob Francy, and

Joe Reid. Wetzel had the freshmen and Reid had the JV. These kids

would come up knowing what they were doing.” And Francy was the

ultimate support factor.

“But I have to say the thing I enjoyed the most was winning,

secondly the relationship with the players.” His Estancia teams won

149, lost 44, about 21-6 year-in and year-out.

There are still embers burning within the veteran Sunderman,

although he’s seeing things from a different angle.

“I had about 60% of my thyroid taken out about three years ago,”

he said. “It really left me with a different perspective. Luckily

there was no cancer, but they said I had better have it done. It was

really ironic because about two months later I saw this sign on a

restaurant marquis in Sunset Beach, and it’s something I want to

adhere to during my retirement time.

“It said: ‘Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today

is a gift.’ ”

Now if he can just hold the thought as he lines up a 12-foot putt.

Hey! See you next Sunday!

* ROGER CARLSON is the former sports editor for the Daily Pilot.

His column appears on Sundays. He can be reached by e-mail at

rogeranddorothea@msn.com