Prep column: The first degree of separation

Barry Faulkner

Commencement holds singular meaning for most high school seniors.

But long before the Class of 2000 slips on the cap and gown, those whose

extracurricular resume includes a spring sport, are doing their darndest

to extend what could be their final organized athletic fling.

Most, including Costa Mesa High senior catcher Galel Fajardo, have

already been forced by fate to turn in their uniform.

Others, such as Newport Harbor High senior middle blocker Brad Craig,

have been sidelined by injury; relegated to rooter, as his teammates

pursue a CIF Southern Section championship between the lines.

No matter how inevitable, the finality of that instant -- when a

childhood passion becomes freeze-framed in the pages of one’s scrapbook

-- is difficult to witness.

Every so often, especially at playoff time, my duties thrust me into this

intersection. Like a speeding vehicle past the point of no return,

infinite innocence collides with reality, leaving the wreckage for mere

remembrance.

I still wince, every time.

For Fajardo, whose prep career ended with a loss to Corona del Mar in the

Pacific Coast League finale, reaching down, one last time, to unlace his

spikes, became an act of courage.

In the days that followed, Fajardo was asked to eulogize his own athletic

life.

Though his future goals include a run for Congress, Fajardo refuted the

notion that he would never again throw himself in front of bouncing

pitches, or take a foul tip off an exposed body part. He said he planned

to try out for baseball at UCI, which will resurrect its program next

spring.

Though realistic enough to know his chances at college baseball are

remote, he related the idea that years from now, on some diamond

somewhere, he’d be squatting between batters boxes, exhorting his pitcher

to bring forth whatever heat he still had.

“It’s like breaking up with an old girl friend,” Fajardo said. “I have so

much love for the game, everything I see right now reminds me of it.”

Craig’s athletic exit came much more unexpectedly, in the middle of a

rally last week against second-round victim San Clemente. Lost in the

vision of those following the volleyball, he landed on the foot of an

opponent after leaping at the net. Buckling to the court, as if robbed of

the ability to deter gravity, Craig lay motionless for a moment, face

down as the point played out above him.

When focus returned to Craig’s fallen figure, he began pulling his lower

body away from the net, as if scooting away from the scene would somehow

erase the pain throbbing from his damaged ankle.

Though he smiled as he was pulled to his feet and helped to the bench, it

was fairly obvious he’d need crutches to make it to school the next day.

And, with his ankle ligaments knotted like a golf ball under his ace

bandage, he later answered inquiries about his return with a scrunched up

scowl that stuff blocked optimism.

Also a popular student leader, who has already won a CIF title in

volleyball and football, Craig seems to have accepted his lot with

maturity and humor.

But former prep athletes everywhere feel Craig’s pain, which has nothing

to do with his swollen ankle.

Commencement? You bet.

Corona del Mar High track and field coach Bill Sumner was the deserved

recipient of praise for his strategic assistance to the Sea Kings’ girls

CIF Division III team title, spearheaded by senior Liz Morse Saturday at

Cerritos College.

But the veteran mentor said he is forced to remain humble.

“You know how parents are introduced as the mother or father of their

kid?,” Sumner said with a laugh. “We’ll I’m now introduced as Liz Morse’s

coach. She gets such a kick out of that.”