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It's not all round ball all the time: Beliefs, motivation also come into play in NorCal championships

Modesto Christian High School player Reeves Nelson shoots a 3 pointer during play against Palma High School during first round State Division IV Playoffs at Modesto Christian Tuesday night. ( Adrian Mendoza / The Modesto Bee
Modesto Bee

By JOE DAVIDSON
THE SACRAMENTO BEE

last updated: March 08, 2008 12:29:47 AM

The on-court spectacle is about speed, agility, explosiveness and toughness. Players and teams good enough to reach the top levels of high school competition get there because they play hard, don't back down and get up when they've been decked.

But the personalities on display at game time often are part of the players' -- and coaches' -- toolbox, something donned for competition.

Underlying the competitive veneer, though, lie individual beliefs, backgrounds and motivations. There's plenty of diversity of thought and intellect.

Today, during the final round of the CIF Northern Regional basketball championships, players and coaches will, individually and as part of teams, channel what they are made of into a tightly focused athletic world.

Here's a closer look at some of them:

The Player

Reeves Nelson is an elite athlete. Just 16 and a junior at Modesto Christian, he has verbally committed to play for UCLA once he graduates.

The 6-foot-7 forward -- the primary reason his team is playing for the Division IV championship at 7 p.m. at Folsom High School -- was courted by schools throughout the country.

But ask him about the attention, and he politely tells you he just wants to be another face in the crowd.

"I'm not just a ballplayer, and I wouldn't want people to think that," Nelson said.

For starters, Nelson is the compelling sum of some eclectic parts. His bedroom walls attest to it, holding posters of Jesus Christ, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Elvis Presley and the '70s rock giant Queen.

His iPod includes Christian reggae, oldies and rap, and the literature he enjoys is all over the map.

"He is really protective of just being a regular guy," said his mother, Sheila Nelson, a Modesto Christian employee. "He is, but at the same time, he's not. You learn to wait in line to say hello to him after games because so many people want to take his picture or sign an autograph."

He's cool with attention, though, and takes it in stride. Invited by representatives of LeBron James to attend a Cleveland Cavaliers game against the Sacramento Kings at Arco Arena earlier this season, Nelson instead watched his friends compete in a football playoff game.

His parents urge him to keep priorities straight, and his father, Brian, provides a clear object lesson. Dad was a star quarterback at Modesto High in the 1980s, but he spurned college scholarship offers.

"Fell in love with a girl instead," Nelson said of his dad, who works in Modesto in the insurance industry. "He tells me to really focus on school, and I have."

The result is a 3.6 grade-point average in honors courses -- and a waiting line for interested girls.

"Oh, I get all kinds of offers -- 'Hey, want to hang out?' " Nelson said. "I have to focus on school and this team. It's more important."

The Coach

When he coached boys teams at Lodi's Tokay High in the 1980s and '90s, Tom Gonsalves' acid tongue could make the locker-room paint peel.

Rampaging along the sideline in trademark Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots, he projected a stereotypical image: a slightly chauvinistic screamer. He didn't like girls basketball, and he certainly didn't like St. Mary's High School, a rival institution down the road.

So what has Gonsalves, 54, been doing since 2001? Coaching girls hoops at St. Mary's and loving his evolution, sans the boots and denim.

"I came here to help coach my daughters a few years ago, and it's turned out to be the greatest experience," Gonsalves said. "And thank God I've matured."

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