It\u2019s a Thursday afternoon at Compton High, and the school\u2019s girls\u2019 basketball team is in the gym. Five coaches are on hand and nearly 20 players\u2014enough for a full-court workout with coaches talking to each position group\u2014while still more players wait on the sideline, eager to get in.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a scene that, for many years, was unimaginable for a team that struggled not only to be competitive but to simply sign up enough players to keep the program going. Now, under the guidance of seventh-year head coach Derrick Anderson, Compton finds itself in a place it hasn\u2019t been in several decades: the top. The team was No. 1 in Division 4AA in the first CIF rankings that came out this year.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s become a sports cliche to talk about \u201ccoming from the bottom,\u201d but when Anderson talks about where the program was when he inherited it, he\u2019s telling the truth. Compton has just two winning seasons in the last 20 years and has lost twice as many games in the last 14 seasons (210) as they\u2019ve won (104).<\/p>\n
Anderson\u2019s first practice as head coach was attended by just five players\u2014that was his entire roster for a frosh\/soph, junior varsity, and varsity team. Aside from the flagging enrollment, there was also the issue of basketball experience or lack thereof.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of AAU kids or travel ball teams in Compton,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cA lot of our girls haven\u2019t picked up a basketball until ninth grade. My first practice every year always starts off with a test on \u2018what\u2019s the three-point line, the baseline, the sideline.\u2019 We go over that every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a dilemma that has faced new coaches at many of the Moore League\u2019s struggling programs. The biggest difference between most of those coaches and Anderson is that he stayed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s stuck through some really tough times at that school, it\u2019s admirable that he\u2019s still there and he deserves whatever success comes their way,\u201d said Millikan girls\u2019 basketball coach Lorene Morgan. \u201cYou always want to beat everyone you play but when we\u2019re not playing them I think everyone is rooting for them, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson\u2019s first years, he had to get a team ready to play a national powerhouse such as Long Beach Poly or a deep, talented team such as Millikan knowing that they wouldn\u2019t get much rest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t have enough players to practice all the time and so a lot of us weren\u2019t in shape,\u201d said senior Shayna Sanders, one of a few four-year varsity players on this season\u2019s team. \u201cThere were five or six of us for a game so we really don\u2019t have any subs, and we\u2019re playing Long Beach Poly with 20 kids. It was hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sanders said that she considered quitting at one time, but decided to stick with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was coach D,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause he\u2019s determined, I\u2019m determined. Because he stayed, I stayed. He\u2019s a father figure for a lot of us. I\u2019m glad we all stayed because look at what we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Compton has now is a 9-3 record and a real chance at a CIF-SS championship, something that\u2019s been unimaginable for a program that hasn\u2019t hosted a playoff game in more than 30 years, according to Anderson.<\/p>\n
The ultimate vindication of the Compton program was that CIF No. 1 ranking to start the season. Anderson didn\u2019t bother assuming a tough guy posture about the honor, rather, he was open in talking about how much it meant to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was emotional, it was unbelievable,\u201d he said. \u201cCompton No. 1? I just couldn\u2019t believe it. I jumped up, I was running around, I called all the coaches and players just excited. All the work we\u2019ve put in, it hasn\u2019t been easy, just trying to get any kind of success, anything positive to build on. To be No. 1 for however long it is, it\u2019s an honor and a testament to these kids and what they\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s team has legitimate senior talent with Sanders, who already has a 30-point game\u00a0along with several 25 point efforts. She\u2019s not the only senior that stuck through the hard times to find success, Janae Owens has also been a four-year starter. Sanders is a 5-10 force in the post while Owens is a 5-4, lightning-quick point guard.\u00a0Leading a talented group of underclassmen is Makayla Smith, a six-foot power forward.<\/p>\n
Sanders, a member of Compton\u2019s early college program, has a 4.07 GPA and attends classes at Compton College a few days a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe program is growing quickly,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re all doing better with grades than when I was a freshman, so we\u2019re all eligible, and we\u2019re growing a family here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Compton is 9-3, on pace to win more games than they have in any year this century, and has only three seniors on the roster\u2014they\u2019ll return 10 varsity players next season. The immediate challenge is to try and earn an automatic playoff berth by finishing in the top four in the Moore League, needing to edge out Poly, Millikan, Wilson, or Lakewood, the four teams that have held those positions the last few years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just going to continue to play hard,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cTry to get this game, and then the next game, and then the next game. I don\u2019t like to put too much on them, just try to keep them in the moment. We\u2019d love to be top four, and I think we have the players to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
If they don\u2019t sew up a top four spot, they should have a good possibility at an at-large bid, which would give them a chance to make more history in the playoffs.\u00a0Sanders admits that the team is already feeling a deep sense of satisfaction about how far they\u2019ve brought the program, but said that they\u2019re still hoping for more.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so happy to see it, from where we came,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re really happy to be where we are, but at the same time, we have to take advantage of this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Compton will open Moore League play at Millikan at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 12.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Under the guidance of head coach Derrick Anderson, Compton’s girls’ basketball team finds itself in a place it hasn\u2019t been in several decades: the top. The team was No. 1 in the CIF’s first Division 4AA rankings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":16420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,28],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-instagram","tag-moore-league","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}