Tuesday Time Machine -- University of Orange Coast College???

2005-06: In one of the most remarkable seasons in OCC women's basketball history, the Pirates advanced once again to the state's Final Four before losing to eventual state-champion Mt. San Antonio in the state semis. Coast was besieged all season long with injuries, illnesses, and discipline issues that have been rare to the Pirate program. Through it all, Coast just kept winning. They eventually won 30 games which is the second highest in OCC history. They went undefeated in the first round of OEC play including a state-record, five-overtime victory over Fullerton. In the Fullerton victory, guard Crystal McCormick tied the school record for points scored in a single game with 46. She also set a single-game record for 3-point field goals with 10. OCC finished second in the OEC and was seeded No. 4 in the regionals. They defeated Long Beach City and Imperial Valley at home to advance to the state finals for the fifth time. In the quarterfinals, the Pirates met a very talented Merced team as they had in 2003. History repeated itself and the Pirates won again. Sophomores Teeya Fernandez, Jillian Ricks, Madison Parks, Valerie Katayama, Crystal McCormick, and Nancy Castro led OCC to a remarkable and outstanding season. Ricks was an all-state selection who battled through injuries and a lifetime illness to have great year. She went on to become a starter on UC San Diego's NCAA Final Four team in 2007. Katayama had a great career at the University of Redlands and is now an assistant coach at OCC. Fernandez is in her eighth season as an assistant at OCC after several knee surgeries cut her career short. Castro finished her playing career at Bethany College in Kansas where she graduated from in 2010. 

 

2006-07: With only one returner from the state tournament team of the preceding year, Coast put together the best regular season in school history going 28-3. An outstanding freshmen class led by OEC Player of the Year Courtney Ford and all-conference selection Rachael Maulit along with Irvine Valley College transfer Robin Smith provided the foundation for this OEC championship team that went 14-0 for the first time in school history. The season came to a sudden end quickly however as OCC was upset by San Bernardino Valley in the second round of the regionals. Smith and Maulit were ill during the week prior to the game but the Pirates played poorly, missing several uncontested lay-ups in the one-point loss. Smith was an all-conference selection along with Ford and Maulit. Ford was selected first team, all-state.

 

2007-08: Using the motto "Ready for the Challenge", the OCC women managed to produce one of the finest seasons in school history. The Pirates finished with an overall record of 29-4 establishing for the second consecutive year the most wins during the regular season. Also for the second consecutive season, the Pirates were eliminated in the second round of the regional playoffs after earning the No. 1 seed for the first time in school history. Antelope Valley knocked off Coast at the Peterson Gym, but this time there were some unusual circumstances. All-state point guard Rachael Maulit was unable to play because of a season-ending illness. Several other players were suffering from various ailments that prevented them from performing up to par. The quick playoff exit however could not take away from all of the team's accomplishments for the last two years. The Pirates were ranked No. 1 in the state for three weeks early in the season. They gave eventual state champion Mt. San Antonio its only loss of the season, ending their long home court winning streak. OCC captured its second consecutive OEC championship with a 13-1 conference record. It was the first time in conference history that Coast had won back-to-back conference titles. Coast won three tournament titles throughout the season. Courtney Ford was selected as the OEC Player of the Year for the second time. Ford was the MVP of three tournaments and also earned first-team, all-state honors for a second consecutive year. Maulit was a first-team, all-conference selection for the second time and was a second-team, all-state selection. Sophomores Brittany Taylor and Katie Kissee joined Maulit and Ford on the all-conference's first team. The season brought to an end the careers of seven outstanding sophomores who had a huge impact on the OCC program. Courtney Ford, Rachael Maulit, Katie Kissee, Brittany Taylor, Lee Wang, Erin Barney, and Sarah Schmidt will be remembered for a long, long time for all the positive things that they accomplished in their OCC careers.

 

So in this exercise, I offer the hypothetical scenario of ... what would the 2008-09 team look like if players from all three years were a part of this team? Let's piece together a "Fab Five" of starters for the 2008-09 team. 

 

Point Guard: Rachael Maulit -- The "junior" guard enters her third season with the Pirates second all-time with 428 assists and her 6.7 helpers per game are also second-most in school history. Maulit has sparked an OCC offense that has averaged nearly 80 points per game over the past two seasons. A second-team, All-State selection as a sophomore, she enters her "junior" year ready to distribute the ball to her "Dream Team" teammates for the next two seasons. She also holds the all-time, single-game mark with 18 assists and dished out 11-or-more-assists five times total through her first two seasons. 

 

Shooting Guard: Crystal McCormick -- Bouncing back for her "senior" season, McCormick is one of the purest shooters to ever come from the Pirates' program. As a sophomore sniper, she currently sits atop the OCC single-game scoring list after posting 46 points in a five-OT win over Saddleback, which topped her 31-point performance against Cypress as a freshman. She led all of California in free-throw percentage (.872) and was in the top-20 in the top-five in made 3-pointers with 84. 

 

Wing Guard: Courtney Ford -- OCC's "junior' superstar returns after earning just about every accolade that she could earn as a sophomore. She was Orange Empire Conference Player of the Year, a three-time tournament MVP and a two-time, first-team, All-State selection after averaging 23.2 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Ford scored 30-or-more points six times during her first two seasons, including a career-best 38 against Irvine Valley. Oh, her freshman year (20.3 points, 8.3 rebounds per game) was pretty good too. I'm playing her out of position in this hypothetical, but she was a good enough player to make these adjustments!

 

Forward: Madison Parks -- On a team blessed with plenty of weapons, "redshirt senior" Madison Parks was one of those hard work down low earned her a trip up the freeway at Long Beach State. As a Pirate sophomore in 2005-06, Parks pulled down a team-best 9.8 boards per game (fourth-best in school history for one season) and her 361 rebounds in 37 games that same season were the second-most for one season in OCC history.

 

Center: Jillian Ricks -- "Redshirt senior" Jillian Ricks returns to the Pirates after battling injuries and illness, but when she's healthy, she's as dominant as they come. She earned first-team, All-State honors in 2005-06 and at 6-1, she will be a dominant force on the boards for the Pirates in 08-09. 

 

In addition that collection of superstars, there were a plethora of clutch role players and sharp-shooters and rebound-getters that would give the Pirates the depth to go up against any team in the state. Players like Valerie Katayama, Simone Ibbotson, Casey Gomez, Teeya Fernandez, Nancy Castro, Robin Smith, Brittany Taylor, Devin Hundley, Sarah Schmidt and Lee Wang -- among others -- would keep Thornton up every night, filling up his brain with endless combinations and strategies that would keep every team on the schedule up every night as well. 

 

"Those years were defenitely special years for us," Thornton said. "I think we could've been a good D-I school in the mid-range area if we could have taken that group of players ... all together ... to play somewhere. That was a good run, especially if you include our state championship team of 2003. The 2004 squad was our only 'below-par' team in that era, but even that team made the playoffs and lost a close game to a Pasadena City team that reached the State Final Four!" 

 

It was an incredible selection of talent that went through the OCC program during that four-year program and it's an awfully high bar that has been set for future Pirate programs to scale. But imagine them all on ONE TEAM?!?!?! It's definitely a fun "What If" ... that's for sure!

 

Well ... fun for us ... not our opponents.