Staying Positive About the Future

At the earliest, Henry Myar will find out next week if his seven-year run as the Mira Costa High boys basketball coach is over.

But in the meantime, Myar reflected Thursday on the recent season, which included a lot of close losses, competitiveness, and a couple of free throws that reached the CIF 2A quarterfinals, and two seniors (Elliott Ozer and Thomas Johnson Jr.) who still managed to produce memorable seasons, he said.

“Despite the record (10-18, last in the Bay League), we were extremely competitive,” Myar said. “We lost a lot of very close games. I was really proud of the kids, that they stayed competitive to the very end. I was very happy for them with the way they finished up in the playoffs.”

The 6-3 Ozer averaged 20 points and 7.0 rebounds a game. The 6-6, 235-pound Johnson averaged 13.5 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks a game.

Those numbers were produced despite the fact both were the focus of the other teams’ defenses, either through double teams in the post or tight man defense.

“Elliott had a terrific career,” Myar said. “He was playing well last year during the regular season, but his game just elevated in the playoffs. He averaged 22 points a game in three playoff games and that just continued through this year… Thomas was a unique high school basketball player. People always thought he played basketball after football season ended. But he was just basketball and he was a very talented guy in terms of rebounding and blocking shots. He had a real knack for that.”

As more information is released about Myar’s future at Mira Costa, Patch will report it.

Test of Character

Sometimes, life just isn’t fair. It certainly hasn’t been fair to Redondo senior Brandon Boyd, a gifted athlete whose high school career should have been one of unbridled success and a lifetime of glorious memories.

Instead, two serious knee injuries in the past two years kept him out of two football seasons, at least temporarily took away the speed that made him a standout on the track and sabotaged his senior year on the basketball team.

Through it all, however, Boyd kept a stiff upper lip and kept trying—for himself and his teammates.

A fun-loving guy with plenty of charisma, Boyd raised his teammates’ spirits from the bench when he couldn’t play basketball in December. He was funny, encouraging, and a team leader without stepping on the court.

Then he gamely played on a sore right knee that he rehabbed in a hurry and helped the Sea Hawks reach the second round of the CIF playoffs. He limped noticeably at times, but he never stopped playing defense or attacking the basket with an “I won’t back down” passion that helped Redondo finish second in the competitive and talented Bay League.

“I was probably no more than 75 percent myself this year,” Boyd said Thursday. “The second knee injury was a lot more serious because I had a micro-fracture. I came back too soon, but I didn’t do any permanent damage… By next year I should be myself again.”

Boyd’s return gave the Sea Hawks the lift they needed to reach second place behind unbeaten Peninsula in the Bay League. His defense and ability to go to the basket even without all of his impressive leaping ability made a big difference.

When it ended a week ago with an overtime loss to second-seeded Mission Viejo in a CIF-2A playoff game at Redondo, Boyd had to be consoled by his father.

That wasn’t just because his high school career was over, it was because the Sea Hawks let a golden opportunity get away.

“It still bugs me,” Boyd said. “Knowing they beat the next team they played by 20 and we had a chance to beat them… That was my last high school career game. Our team was expecting to win CIF. We had all the right tools. We didn’t execute well that night.”

In the back of his mind, Boyd knows that if he was healthy the Sea Hawks would have won that game, and they probably would have won some big football games too.

“It’s been a struggle not to think about ‘what if,’” Boyd said. “Some days people say to me ‘Man, if you wouldn’t have gotten injured. You would have been beastly.’ They mean it as a compliment, but it makes me look back.”

“I wish I would have built my body more, maybe not run track,” he added. “I went year round. I never took a break, gave my body a chance to rest.”

Yet all is not lost for Boyd. There is still hope he can come all the way back by the time the next school year begins in September. If his knees cooperate there is no doubt Boyd has the will and the athletic ability to enjoy his college years as a student athlete.

“He’s a goofball at times, a vocal kid you have to love,” said Redondo basketball coach Tom Maier. “Brandon’s going to do therapy with some professionals. He needs to develop a jump shot if he plays basketball, but he can do that if he works at it and sticks to one sport. I think he can play somewhere.”

The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Boyd will go to a junior college and see if that leads to an athletic scholarship, he said. He may go to Harbor College or he may go out of the area if he chooses to give football a try.

No matter what happens, though, many of his teammates and Maier say Boyd will be a success.

Bright Future for Girls Soccer

Based on the way it finished the season and its young roster, Mira Costa’s girls soccer team has a bright future.

The Mustangs’ season came to a heartbreaking end Tuesday when third-seeded Long Beach Wilson scored a goal in the final two minutes and then won their second-round CIF playoff games, 2-1, in sudden-death overtime.

But that shouldn’t detract from the play of the Mustangs, who finished the season on a high note and will have many key players back next season.

The Mustangs beat Bay League champion Palos Verdes to make the playoffs, then won their first-round game before falling to Wilson in a game that could have gone the other way.

They have 10 freshmen or sophomores, many of whom contributed this season.

“A lot of people, myself included, didn’t think we’d make it to the playoffs,” senior goalkeeper Dana Eisenhauer candidly told a reporter after the playoff loss. “We were such a young team, to make it past the first round is a big success for us.”

The young Mustangs were constantly waging an uphill battle, which continued even during the playoffs when they lost key scorer Kimby Keever to a broken leg after the first-round game.

Sophomore Alyssa Covarrubio scored on a cross from freshman Mandy McKeegan for a 1-0 lead against Wilson.

Later, sophomore forward Taylor Foland just missed scoring what surely would have been the winning goal in the final minutes of regulation.

While Palos Verdes clearly had the best team in the Bay League and played a CIF quarterfinal game Thursday afternoon, Mira Costa may be ready to challenge for the league title next season.

Long Weekend of Honors

The best wrestlers from Peninsula, Redondo and Mira Costa high schools didn’t survive the individual sectionals last week on Friday and Saturday.

Twenty-eight wrestlers from the Bay League competed and 12 made it to Saturday in the consolation bracket, but only West’s Mat Boesen made it to the Masters Meet by finishing in the top five of his 171-pound weight class.

Peninsula's Sthefano Alvarado (103) and Danny Powell (125), as well as Mira Costa's Joey Beck also competed on the second day but failed to qualify for Masters.