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Coaches square off over Pacific Shores tourney
by Paul Teetor
Local basketball fans who think they're seeing double when they read about two 49th annual Pacific Shores Tournament are in good company.
"I was confused myself when I saw them both in the paper," said Ted Gossard, the first basketball coach at Mira Costa High School and one of the founders of the prestigious tournament.
The confusion stems from a basketball divorce with a lingering custody battle.
Last spring, after more than 40 years sharing the tournament, Mira Costa and Redondo Union High School agreed to disagree on the future of the hoops shootout. The two area high schools had co-sponsored it since the early 1950's, when Gossard, Walt Jacobs-Meyer, Mel Seifert, Red Walden and a few other local legends decided the South Bay needed a strong tournament to showcase its emerging talent. Over the years, stars like Paul Westphal, Bill Laimbeer, Paul Pierce and Byron Scott have given South Bay hoop fans a glimpse of their future greatness at the Pacific Shores.
Until 10 years ago, Redondo, with the bigger gym, traditionally hosted the finals while Mira Costa hosted most of the early round games. More recently, the schools alternated hosting the final.
But this year Redondo felt it was time Mira Costa bring its aging gym up to modern standards, as it has been talking about doing for years.
"We're bringing in nationally ranked teams, and we felt we had to have a venue that was appropriate for that level of competition," Redondo coach Jim Nielsen said. This year's winner, Westchester High School, is ranked 12th nationally by USA Today. Among the 2,000 spectators at the final were Kansas coach Roy Williams and USC coach Henry Bibby.
So Nielsen made a proposal: Redondo would host the final game for the next four years while Mira Costa built a new gym. Then Mira Costa could host it for four years. Then they would go back to the normal rotation.
But acting on a consultant's recommendation to cut the bells and whistles, Mira Costa proposed a school bond last spring that did not include money for a new gym. At that point, according to Mira Costa Athletic Director Rich Egan, both schools agreed to go their own way.
That left the issue of who had custody of the name Pacific Shores Tournament.
"My impression was that we had agreed neither one of us would use the name,"
Egan said.
Nielsen had a different recollection.
"They asked me not to use the Pacific Shores name, but I said I couldn't do that," Nielsen said. "Since Redondo had founded the tournament and hosted the final for 40 years, we felt we were entitled to the name."
After that, it got ugly. Bush-Gore ugly.
"When we saw Redondo was still using the Pacific Shores name for its own tournament, we decided we wanted to do something similar," Egan said.
So MC decided it would hold its own, smaller tournament featuring only local teams.
The First Annual Mustang Classic? Nope. At first it was called the South Bay Coaches Tournament. But when publicity about the tournament started a few months ago, the name had morphed into the 49th Annual South Bay Coaches Pacific Shores Tournament. Hence the confusion.
After both tournaments had concluded Saturday night, Egan said it has turned into a win-win situation for both schools.
"They had a higher quality field than ever, so they got what they wanted. And we had over 1,000 people at our final, so we got what we wanted also," Egan said.
And there is hope for a reconciliation at some point in the future.
"There's a private campaign going on now to raise funds for a new gym," Egan said. " Down the road, if we get a new gym, I would be open to working with them again."
Nielsen agreed.
"If they build a new gym, it is possible we could go back to alternating the
final," he said.
Until that time, however, the question of who is entitled to use the Pacific Shores name is unresolved.
"I wish we could come to some kind of amiable agreement, but I'm not going to drop the Pacific Shores name," Nielsen said. "Who knows? We might have to get a copyright on it." ER