Dream Team

Patrick Laverty

Prior to the beginning of the girls basketball season, then-Estancia

High Coach Tami Rappa said she expected senior center Nancy Castro to

double her production from a season ago.

Castro averaged 6.3 points last year. She more than tripled that

number this season.

With averages of more than 19 points and 9.7 rebounds per game,

Castro not only earns the most improved player, she also has been

named the Daily Pilot Newport-Mesa Player of the Year. She leads a

senior-dominated roster of six players who make up the 2003-04 Dream

Team.

Joining Castro are Estancia senior point guard Trisha Wase, Costa

Mesa senior shooting guard Susy Trujillo and a trio of Newport Harbor

players, seniors Jillianne Whitfield and Victoria Swigart, as well as

junior Vanessa Miller.

Castro helped the Eagles finish third in the Golden West League

and defeat Marshall in a CIF Southern Section Division III-A

wild-card playoff game before exiting the postseason with a

first-round loss to top-seeded Rosary. A relentless worker inside the

paint, the 5-foot-10 Castro was a handful for opposing defenses,

particularly in league play, when she had six games of 20 or more

points. It was a vast improvement from the previous season when she

scored in double figures just three times and had a season-high of 16

points.

Possibly the most exciting player in the area, Wase was

responsible for feeding Castro with passes into the post. A 5-foot-4

point guard, Wase could do so in spectacular fashion, often throwing

no-look passes that would catch the defense off guard. Also a capable

shooter, Wase averaged 10.1 points, but her biggest asset was her

playmaking skills.

Trujillo is a pure shooter who helped Costa Mesa reach the

postseason for the 15th straight season. Needing two wins in the last

two games of the season to make the playoffs, Trujillo took charge.

She scored 25 points in an upset of Westminster and added 17 in a

victory over Santa Ana. In the Westminster win, she set a school

record with seven three-pointers.

Her hot shooting continued into the playoffs, when she made five

shots from beyond the three-point arc and scored 17 points in a

wild-card loss to El Segundo.

For the season, Trujillo averaged 11.7 points and sank 55

three-pointers.

Whitfield, Swigart and Miller were the ringleaders behind Newport

Harbor’s advancement to the second round of the CIF Southern Section

Division II-AA playoffs. They helped the Sailors earn their first

postseason victory since 1997 with a first-round win over University.

Whitfield, Newport Harbor’s leading scorer as a junior, took on

the role of point guard this season. And though her scoring average

dropped from 11.1 to 9.1, she found other ways to contribute to the

team.

A coach on the court, Whitfield was the team’s vocal leader on

offense and defense. She was the team leader in steals and grabbed

5.3 rebounds per game. And when it counted most, she still found the

opportunity to score. It was her coast-to-coast bucket as time

expired that gave the Sailors their two-point victory in the first

round of the playoffs.

With averages of 10. 8 points and 7.8 rebounds, Swigart led the

Sailors in both categories. But her meaning to the team went much

deeper. Possibly the fiercest competitor, her passion rubbed off on

her teammates.

When she missed time late in the regular season because of a knee

injury, the Sailors lost two of three games. It was no surprise that

when she returned in the playoffs, Newport Harbor, which finished

with a winning record for the first time under third-year coach Jen

Thompson, returned to its winning ways.

The only junior to make the Dream Team, Miller provided a nice

contrast to Whitfield and Swigart, with a knack for knocking down

jumpers that helped open the floor for other players.

Miller averaged better than 10 points per game for Newport Harbor,

an increase from her average of 6.3 as a sophomore. She scored a

season-high 20 points, including four three-pointers, in a

late-season victory over Laguna Hills and had 13 or more points in

six other contests this season.