WOMEN’S BASKETBALL : Reyes Raises Her Game Over Language Barrier

VENTURA — Marina Reyes sits up close and stares intensely at her coach as he delivers a pregame speech. It’s almost as if she’s trying to read his lips while she listens to his instructions.

Reyes, Ventura College’s freshman point guard, must pay extra attention because English is not her native language. She moved to the area from Mexico in August and hasn’t mastered the language.

Basketball is another thing, however. Once Reyes understands what her duties are in a particular game, everything is fine. Carrying out the task is no problem for the 5-foot-4 guard.

For example, she followed her coach’s orders and dominated in Ventura’s 76-63 victory at Hancock last week. Reyes scored 26 points and helped her team improve to 25-2 overall and 9-1 in the Western State Conference North Division.

“She doesn’t have to talk,” said Oxnard Coach Alex Flores, whose team lost to Ventura twice this season in WSC competition. “Her game is so good and she’s not flashy either. She scored a very quiet 19 points against us. She’s just very solid.”

Reyes, 22, is the Pirates’ best all-around player. She averages 14.5 points, five assists and five steals. She also ranks among the state leaders in assists (130) and steals (132).

Ventura, ranked second in the state, will play host to Trade Tech (15-17) in the first round of the regional playoffs tonight. With Reyes running the offense, Ventura Coach Ned Mircetic predicts his team will go a long way in postseason play.

“With Marina you have the whole package,” Mircetic said. “She’s the best on-ball defender I’ve ever coached and that includes men. She’s also a good shooter and an outstanding ball-handler. You can’t ask for anything else.”

Reyes started playing basketball in her native Chihuahua, in Northern Mexico, when she was 11. She competed on six Mexican national championship age-group teams and an array of City championship clubs in Chihuahua.

“I didn’t even know they had leagues up there,” Flores said. “I was really surprised to see that Marina is so well-schooled in the fundamentals. It’s fun to watch her play.”

In 1984 Reyes represented her country at the Central American Games in the Dominican Republic and in ’88 she was the most valuable player of the Mexican National Tournament.

Reyes also was selected from a group of Mexican all-stars to compete in the 1985 Central American Games in Cuba, but the trip was canceled because a powerful earthquake hit Mexico City days before the team was scheduled to leave in September.

“During that time I trained every day for two hours a day,” Reyes said. “That’s a lot for a 12-year-old but you start off liking it, then you really learn to love it and finally you become so dedicated you just keep going.”

When Reyes completed the equivalent of high school, she became a secretary and only played basketball occasionally for fun. Initially she missed the game but later gained weight and didn’t think of competing again.

It wasn’t until she visited her sister in Ventura last summer that competitive basketball entered her mind. The youngest of five children, Reyes has a sister who lives in Oxnard and another in Ventura. Her grandmother lives in Santa Paula and for the last five years Reyes and her parents have visited the area regularly.

“Last year I accompanied my sister to take my nephew to the gym where he boxes,” Reyes said. “There was a basketball court and some kids were playing so my sister suggested I join them and I did.”

Evangelina Reyes urged her little sister to pursue basketball in America and perhaps earn a college scholarship. Evangelina asked some friends where she could get her sister started and several recommended nearby Ventura College because it had a strong women’s basketball program.

“I heard about her, but I had no clue as to what her abilities were,” Mircetic said. “Then when I saw her I thought, ‘Wow! This is going to be really good.’ ”

Reyes returned home, got a one-year student visa and moved in time for the fall semester. Her non-citizen tuition is steep at $110 a unit, but she makes ends meet with a part-time job and help from the family.

“It was really hard at first because I didn’t have a job and I have to take 12 units,” Reyes said. “To be on the team I have to take a three-unit basketball class and that’s a million Mexican pesos!

“I was so depressed at first because of that and the language barrier that I left the team for 15 days at the beginning. I just didn’t show up for practice because I thought for a million pesos I could take another English class that could really help me. It was really tough at first.”

But things soon got better for Reyes. A counselor at the school helped her get a job and realize how much she missed the game. Also, her English has improved dramatically. She understands more than she speaks because she took advanced English courses in Mexico, but rarely practiced because her family speaks only Spanish.

“Still, when they speak too fast I have a hard time,” Reyes said. “And when I play, since I always handle the ball, it can get confusing because the coach tells me what I have to do, my teammates say things and sometimes the referee will say something and it all gets very confusing.”

So she plays hard and often blocks out what is being said around her. It helps, she says, to see her family in the stands at most home games. Even her grandmother, who knows nothing about the game and speaks no English, cheers her on.

“That’s good for me,” Reyes said. “It means a lot to me to have them there.”

Reyes lives in Oxnard with another sister, Olivia, her niece and brother-in-law. She says the only thing that would stop her from returning to Ventura for her sophomore season would be a denial of an extension of her visa.

Her goal is to materialize her sister’s idea of earning a college basketball scholarship and then to earn a business degree.

“Then my English would be really good,” Reyes said with a smile.