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Girls Hoops: Eagles’ program on the rise

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Nothing about the 2013-14 girls basketball season at Maranatha Christian is worth remembering.

Yet, every painful detail about that season that includes being winless in Ocean League play and just 6-15 for the season serves as the backdrop for the amazing turnaround that the Eagles are attempting to finish off this year.

Maranatha is winding down on a regular season that may include not only the most wins since a 17-8 campaign in 2011-12 but also the first league championship for the program.

The turnaround coincides with Nate Jackson taking over the coaching duties halfway through that disastrous season in which the Eagles were in the discussion as to which team is the worst in San Diego County.

Look at their losses. Some of the worst scores were 72-9, 63-12, 60-13, 66-8, 43-9, 45-9 and one game was an embarrassing 14-6.

The Eagles scored 364 points in 21 games but surrendered 725 points on defense.

“I couldn’t wait for that season to end,’’ junior forward Julia Lawrenz, then a freshman, said. “Now I hate to see this season end at all.’’

Jackson, 34, thought his three-year plan to resurrect the program was a sound one.

It’s just paid dividends a year earlier than he expected.

“I knew we wanted to contend for a league title, which this school had never won,’’ Jackson said. “But I didn’t expect us to do this well this quickly.

“We had to change the culture of the program. They’ve worked so hard to make this happen by playing in the offseason, going to camps, finding a passion for the game.

“They used to be just girls playing basketball. Now they have become basketball players.’’

Jackson joined forces with Jim Wilkinson, a former coach from Pennsylvania who retired and moved out to Rancho Bernardo.

Wilkinson offered his vast knowledge of basketball in a conversation that first day that lasted more than three hours.

And Jackson convinced Wilkinson to become his assistant coach.

“He reminds me of Mick the trainer from the Rocky movies,’’ Jackson said, laughing. “He’s become quite a resource for all of us.’’

Last season the newly formed tandem guided the Eagles to a 6-4 league record and a 10-12 overall mark.

Maranatha won its first eight league games this season and are 14-7.

“I see a different look on the girls’ faces now,’’ Jackson said. “They’re more active in other things on campus, they’re school leaders and it’s not a pain to come to the gym like it was.’’

Just ask Lawrenz about the transformation.

“This year has been mind-blowing,’’ she said. “I used to ask why I was even doing this, but my mom said I had to finish it. I couldn’t quit.

“If someone had said we’d be on the verge of winning our first league title two years ago I would have laughed in their face. There was nothing to look forward to.

“I used to just come to practice freshman year. Now I see a sport that I’m passionate about.’’

Lawrenz, like her teammates, adopted a workaholic attitude toward basketball from attending camps to heading to a rec center to play for hours at a time during the summer.

All for a sport that was shy on rewards for the Eagles until now.

“I used to think we were just clumsy high school girls,’’ Lawrenz said. “We knew we’d lose the next game. We knew we’d probably get crushed.’’

Girls would even skip practice rather than spend any extra time in the gym.

Any Eagle who tries that now will get a visit from the older players like Lawrenz who remember the 72-9 games.

“When you lose like we did, you don’t forget,’’ Lawrenz said. “Every now and then some of the new girls will try to cut a corner on preparation and they’re reminded that if they aren’t serious about basketball and this team, they should change.

“None of us want to go back to two years ago.’’

Monahan is a freelance writer.

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