Players support fired coach

Barry Faulkner

Estancia High girls basketball players mobilized Thursday to voice

support for former coach Tami Rappa, who was fired Wednesday after

two seasons with the program.

Eight players, including four seniors, a junior and a sophomore

who played for the Estancia varsity this past season, said they plan

to campaign for Rappa’s reinstatement.

Team spokesperson Olivia Maldonado, a senior, said players put

commitments to work, practice and other school obligations, aside

Thursday afternoon to bring their words of support to the Daily Pilot

office.

“Our main thing is, ‘We want Rappa,’ Maldonado said in concert

with several teammates, who noted the players will urge Estancia

Principal Tom Antal to reinstate Rappa.

“If [meeting with Antal] doesn’t work, we’ll go to the

[Newport-Mesa Unified School] district office, then to the school

board,” Maldonado said. “We’re not just going to let this go.”

Maldonado, fellow seniors Nancy Castro, Krystal Mino and Anabel

Becerra, as well as sophomore Breana Neal, junior Imelda Pena and

junior varsity players Ashley Slattery and Krista Kistler, said they

don’t agree with the rationale Rappa said Antal used for her

dismissal. Rappa said Wednesday that Antal told her she ran up the

score in a 53-33 win over crosstown rival Costa Mesa, she conducted

illegal practices and that she made waves.

Antal declined to discuss reasons for his decision Wednesday.

Estancia players said they did not wish to refute any reasoning

behind Rappa’s dismissal, but wanted to publicize the many positives

she brought to them as students, athletes and people.

“Her main focus always went beyond winning games to making us a

better person,” Maldonado said.

“She made us set goals for ourselves,” said Castro, before

Maldonado explained further.

“She would make us write down individual and team goals, then meet

with us to find ways we could make them happen,” Maldonado said.

Continued Mino, “Then, we’d put [the list of goals] up in our

lockers [for motivation].”

Several players said Rappa’s emphasis on academics was a constant

and went beyond concern expressed by other coaches. Rappa required

them to hand in weekly grade sheets, updating their status in their

classes.

“She was an English major, so she helped me with my English

homework,” Pena said.

“One time,” Maldonado and Castro recalled, “she stayed after

practice for two or three hours reading our math textbook, until she

could help us with our math.”

Several players said Rappa encouraged team bonding and they

equated the atmosphere she created in the program to that of a

family.

Maldonado said players felt compelled to publicize these

positives, in light of the negatives reported surrounding Rappa’s

firing.

“We’re not going to give up on [Rappa being reinstated],”

Maldonado said. “There are four seniors here, who won’t even play

next year. But we’re thinking of the players to come. People in the

community, right now, are reading about the negatives, but we believe

there are far more positives. If we fail [to have Rappa reinstated],

at least we want to say we tried everything we could.”