Eagles in transition

Patrick Laverty

Russell King has been a basketball player and a coach at Estancia

High, but now he has taken on an entirely new role.

The 1992 Estancia graduate is now the leader of the Eagles’

basketball program, hired to take over for Chris Sorce this fall

after Sorce built Estancia into a 17-game winner last season.

Out of coaching for the last two years after rising through the

ranks as a freshman and junior varsity coach and then a varsity

assistant at Estancia, King knows there will be some bumps in the

road. But he hopes to mature at the same rate as his young, but

talented team, which also returns the leading scorer from last year’s

squad.

“It’s going to be quite a jump,” King said. “There’s a big

learning curve for me, especially being out of coaching the last two

years.”

But the best cure for inexperience is experience and King and the

Eagles will get a lot of that prior to the opening of Golden West

League play, beginning Dec. 3 with a home game against La Quinta and

continuing through the tournament season.

King will hone his game management skills in those early-season

games and work on his halftime speeches, while a strong group of

sophomores, including Mike McDaniels, Shaun Markley and Dallas Kopp

gain experience through playing time on the court.

Those youngsters will be balanced by junior Carlos Pinto, a

varsity starter since he was a freshman and the team’s leading scorer

last season (13.9 points per game), 6-foot-5 senior Scott Sankey (5

ppg) and guards Hugo Escobedo, a junior, and Jose Viramontes, a

senior.

The combination of youth and experience is one King hopes to blend

into a unit that can challenge league favorites Ocean View.

“After Ocean View it’s wide open,” King said. “We’ve got a good

nonleague schedule and if we get some good competition and we can

make some progress, we can give Ocean View a good game. Maybe we can

even beat them.”

Before the Eagles get ahead of themselves, they have to adjust to

King’s coaching style and his game plan. In early practices, King has

emphasized the transition break in an attempt to get easy baskets. So

far, King said, the adjustment has been a smooth one.

“There’s obviously some changes as far as putting in some new

material,” King said. “They’ve done a good job adapting. They’re all

good kids and they’re working their tails off.”

While King is confident any collection of players he puts on the

court can all score, there is little doubt Pinto will be the No. 1

option.

“He can score inside and he can score outside,” King said. “We’re

going to run the motion offense so we’ll have multiple options, but

he’s the go-to guy.”

Pinto scored in double figures in 23 of Estancia’s 27 games last

season, including a season-high 35 early in the year against Whitney,

a game in which he made five three-pointers.

McDaniels and Markley will also provide some marksmanship from

beyond the arc, while Sankey and Kopp, 6-4, will man the lane.

Escobedo is a returner at point guard and also has a good jump shot,

while Viramontes and Ray Verette can be a defensive stoppers.

Defense may just be the key for the Eagles this season. With

Sankey, Kopp and the 6-4 Pinto, Estancia has lanky players that

should help in its pressure defense.

“We want to be able to mix it up,” King said. “We want to be able

to throw different looks at teams. We have tall, lanky kids with long

arms, we can use that to pressure the ball and set traps.”

But King also expects some mistakes, particularly early, because

of the youth and the transition between coaches. He is hopeful that

once Estancia gets through December, experience will be able to

eliminate those mistakes.

“That’s the best way to learn is to get that experience,” King

said. “It doesn’t help to sit on the bench.”

The only person who will learn that way is King himself.