Pancho Seaborn

Patrick Laverty

As a freshman at Mater Dei, Pancho Seaborn could have been considered

a one-dimensional basketball player.

When the Monarchs ran fast-break drills, Seaborn was told to stop

at the free throw line so he could take a jump shot. Running the

offense, he was almost always told to line up in the corner as a

spot-up shooter.

Seaborn is still a shooter, as evidenced by his 23 three-pointers

in the last five games. But now a senior at Corona del Mar High,

Seaborn has become a much more complete player.

Much of that comes from his defensive prowess, for which he

credits his freshman coach at Mater Dei who consistently emphasized

defense. Despite Seaborn’s 17.6 scoring average, which leads the Sea

Kings (5-5), it’s the other side of the court that produces the most

pride for the 6-foot-3 guard.

“I actually pride myself on playing strong defense,” Seaborn said.

“I like to be the stopper. If there’s a guy just killing us, say he

scores 19 points in the first half, in the second half, the coach

puts me on him.”

It was that exact situation in which Seaborn shined at the Arroyo

Grande tournament as a junior. Playing Arroyo Grande, CdM was

victimized for 19 points by an opposing player in the first half and

trailed at halftime. In the second half, Seaborn guarded him and

limited him to three points, allowing the Sea Kings to come back and

win.

This season at the Arroyo Grande tournament it was Seaborn’s

offense that carried CdM to three wins in four games and a

second-place finish in the round-robin format.

He scored 13 points in a tournament-opening victory and then had

22 points in each of the final three games, a season-high. He made 17

three-pointers in the four tournament games after hitting just four

in CdM’s first five games this season.

“Before the season I was shooting the ball real well,” Seaborn

said. “Then the practice before the opening game, everything just

started falling short.

“Shooting’s always up and down. Confidence seems to be the thing.”

Seaborn obviously came out of the tournament with a bunch of

confidence because he established a new career-high with 40 points,

including six more three-pointers, Monday in a loss to Servite.

An ability to shoot the ball has always been Seaborn’s forte (he

once scored 64 points in an eighth grade game), but so has the hard

work exemplified by his defensive prowess.

When he started playing All-Net in the sixth grade, he wasn’t a

starter. Through hard work he became one and scored 14 points in his first start.

“No one likes sitting on the bench,” Seaborn said. “I wanted the

opportunity to play.”

At Mater Dei, Seaborn saw firsthand the amount of work the

Monarchs put in to a program that regularly competes for the state

title.

“It’s like playing college ball it takes up so much time,” Seaborn

said.

After transferring to CdM prior to his sophomore season, his game

has expanded.

“There I was the designated shooter,” Seaborn said. “Here I have a

lot more freedom.”

He hopes to use that freedom to help a CdM team that finished with

five wins his sophomore season advance beyond the first round of the

CIF Southern Section playoffs, where the Sea Kings fizzled out last

year.

“Me and Adam [Freede] and Jay [Northridge], we’re all good friends

and we’re the three starting seniors,” Seaborn said. “We want to have

a fun senior year. We don’t want to go out and have a disappointing

end to it.”