Wade Vickery's All-American team
- 03-25-2006
- By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions
Santana High girls basketball coach Wade Vickery admits there were times his mind wandered as he watched La Jolla Country Day's Candice Wiggins or San Diego High's Charde Houston — both McDonald's All-Americans as seniors two years ago — and imagined what it would be like to coach such talent.
"You want to be loyal to the girls on your team, but, yeah, I'd think, 'It'd be great to coach a Candice Wiggins or a Charde Houston,' " Vickery said. "Now I get to coach a whole team of them."
Vickery, the San Diego Section's all-time winningest coach in girls basketball, was named last month to coach the West squad in the McDonald's All-American High School All-Star Girls Game on March 29 at San Diego State's Cox Arena. The East will be coached by Leta Andrews of Granbury, Texas.
"I teach first-year algebra," Vickery said of his teaching position at the Santee school. "To coach this game, it's like me working with calculus kids."
Vickery's record at Santana is 609-115 in with 19 leagues titles and nine CIF San Diego Section championships after winning the Division III title in the 2005-06 season.
"You never expect to coach this many talented kids," Vickery said. "I've had some good players at Santana, but never so many on one team."
The is only the fifth year of the McDonald's All-American Game for girls, although the boys game is in its 29th year.
"We want to get the word out to youth leagues and younger kids in San Diego to see these players," Vickery said. "It's like anything else - when younger kids see older kids playing great and having fun, they want to be like them."
Vickery also named Rancho Bernardo coach Peggy Brose as an assistant coach along with former El Capitan coach Jim Mottershaw. Brose announced her retirement from coaching, but she will remain as the school's athletic director.
In the boys game, Carlsbad coach Scott Ogden is an assistant coach for the West.
Tom Shanahan can be contacted at 619-699-2334 or toms@sdhoc.com.
