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Callan McClurg
THE POINT: This past Saturday brought a bittersweet ending to what has been an incredible first season working full-time for the Baseball team and part time for the Women's Basketball team here at PLNU. The Baseball team concluded their 2015 home schedule this past week with a four game series with rival California Baptist which I announced the first two games of the series on Thursday and Friday, but naturally I've got to add another chapter to my very popular story from The Point.
In spite of having the weekends off from announcing the Baseball games, I still attended the games to both get out of studio for the day and also just in case I'm needed to fill in for any reason. This past Saturday was both a day off along with a school day. I'm now roughly four weeks away from finishing up my broadcasting school program and now it's time to finish up my final projects. The first final project was conducting another one on one interview with an athlete. I had previously interviewed two professional athletes, WNBA superstars Candace Parker from the Los Angeles Sparks and Candice Wiggins from the New York Liberty. This interview guest was both the easiest interview I scored, along with a no-brainer for who my guest would be.
Probably not much to your surprise, but Jessica Escorza from the Women's Basketball team was my draft pick to be my interview guest for my first final project. Our outstanding Sports Information Director Danny Barnts quickly gave me the all clear to conduct the interview with Jess. Even though I do work at the university, I still followed PLNU's Media Interview Policy of arranging for the interview by going through Danny with my interview guest along with a preferred date and time for our conversation.
Not only would I be able to nab another star athlete and one of my close friends on the PLNU camps, I raised the bar for this interview. My interviews with Parker and Wiggins were both done via phone conversations that were pre-recorded, edited and posted hours after on my Mixcloud page. The demand on pre-recording, along with doing production work were the last things I wanted to do over the weekend, so I raised the bar for this interview.
The interview was LIVE STREAMED on both my personal YouTube channel along with a simulcast stream right here on the website. Live streaming the interview was important to me, not just because of the demand of pre-recording and editing everything, but I chose to live stream it for not just my school staff up at RRF in Los Angeles, but also for both the families and friends of Jess and myself and it was also shown live to show once more show my gratitude and appreciation to Jess and her family for what happened back in Pt. II of the story.
It was only felt like the right thing to do was that if I was going to interview Jessica, there would be no better place to interview her than at a place where she made her name become legendary amongst past and future PLNU Women's Basketball players, and that's inside of Golden Gym. Danny was kind enough to let us use his cubicle inside the Athletic Offices inside the Gym to use an Ethernet connection due to the campus having a weak Wifi signal.
GROWING UP: Much like my previous interviews with Parker and Wiggins, I gave Jessica an open forum to talk about how it was growing up with her two brothers Anthony and Matt, what inspired her to start playing Basketball and who she grew up watching professionally.
HIGH SCHOOL: Jessica had a decorated High School career, she was a four-time Lettermen and lead Notre Dame Academy to the Virginia State Championship and would graduate from Freedom High School as the school's all-time leader in Assists.
WOFFORD COLLEGE: Jessica committed to Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina where she spent one season playing for the Terriers where she started in fourteen games.
HOW SHE FOUND PLNU: The Escorza Family made the move to the West Coast after Jessica's Dad got a job transfer. While her and her Dad were working out during a basketball tournament in Los Angeles, PLNU assistant coach Alan Nakamura approached her about if she had ever heard of the university. She came to Point Loma for a weekend visit along with a workout with the team. She would end up receiving a Scholarship to come to PLNU.
SOPHOMORE YEAR: In her first season with the Sea Lions, Jessica realized that her game finally clicked as she was named an All-NCCAA West Region Team Member, plus an honorable mention for the All-PacWest Conference Team. She also lead the team in Free Throws Made and had a streak of five games scoring twenty or more points.
JUNIOR YEAR: I did mention that Jess' name would become legendary. She became only the second player in PLNU Women's Basketball history to post a Triple-Double. In the Sea Lions' comeback victory over the rival California Baptist Lancers, she scored sixteen points, grabbed ten rebounds and chipped in ten assists.
THE DECISION: Following her Junior year, Jessica graduated from PLNU with her Bachelor's Degree in Special Education. It was a tough decision at first for her to return to the team due to seeing familiar faces leaving the team. She decided to return to the team while she began pursuing her Master's Degree.
FINAL ROSTER: Jessica was one of two seniors named to the 2014/15 season roster. She felt it was a transition year for her in regards to her new role as a vocal leader and stepping out of her comfort zone of being a silent leader. Jess also said that some of the new players were afraid of her at the start of the season.
500 OR BUST: Going into the season, Jess' main goal for the season was for the team to finish above the .500 mark. She cited the age and experience of the roster as the reasons why she wanted the team to finish above the .500 mark.
LOS DOS: Jessica's squad would win their first game of the season, when they took down the number two ranked team in NCAA DII Basketball. PLNU defeated number two Cal Poly Pomona 63-60. She mentioned that the team chemistry was still lacking, but it was improving for the rest of the season.
SLIM JIM: Following a successful 20-12 regular season, Jess and her teammates anxiously waited around on Selection Sunday to see if they would be invited to play in the NCAA DII Tournament. Despite being told that they had a slim chance of making the eight team field for the tournament. PLNU would in fact make the field as the number eight seed in the West Region. This marks the first NCAA DII Playoff for PLNU.
THE LAST FRONTIER: The Sea Lions would venture up to Anchorage, Alaska for the West Regional. Jessica's initial reaction...COLD.
DAVID VS GOLIATH: Jess and her squad had quite an uphill climb for their first ever playoff game. PLNU would face the number one seed and host team, the University of Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves, who went 29-1 on the season and carried a twenty game winning streak into the match-up. On top of all of that, PLNU faced the most hostile crowd that Jess has ever played in front of. A crowd of 2,500 were not to kind to PLNU.
LIGHT 'EM UP: A fired up and motivated Sea Lions team came out and shocked UAA by beginning the game with a fourteen point lead at the first media timeout. Jessica lead the team with seven points during the run. The score left Jess in shock during the timeout.
EVENTUALLY: UAA grabbed the lead at 63-62 with nine seconds left on a made three pointer by Jenna Buchanan. PLNU calls timeout.
THE FINAL PLAY: Head Coach Bill Westphal's final play would mean Jessica and Madison West would be used as decoys. UAA quickly double-teamed Jess and Madi, and the ball would be in the hands of PacWest Freshman of the year Roya Rustamzada, who took the ball the length of the court, spun past one defender and made the biggest shot in PLNU Women's Basketball history. Her basket gave the Sea Lions a 64-63 lead with 2.1 seconds left.
SHOCKING THE WORLD: The Sea Lions became legends when the final buzzer sounded as they hung on to beat the number one team in the country. Jessica will never forget the arena, atmosphere or having the other teams in the region thank them for beating UAA. It was a game where you were both physically and emotionally drained.
FAMILIAR FOES: The Cinderella run came to a screeching halt the next night when the Sea Lions faltered to PacWest rival California Baptist 73-46 in the second round of the West Regional. Jessica admits she was still basking in the glory of beating the number one team in the nation, along with going from an all-time high to facing a team that they've played four times already.
HOMECOMING: Following their elimination, A small gathering of PLNU students, staff, faculty and others surprised the team upon their arrival back on campus on their travel day home from Anchorage.
WHAT PLNU MEANS TO HER: Jessica never plans on leaving San Diego and feels Point Loma has made her realize who she is as a person. Everyone from the students, staff, professors, administration. She couldn't have picked a better school to graduate from.
WHAT SHE'LL MISS ABOUT PLNU: The biggest thing she'll miss is he most important people to her on campus and that's her team. She will also miss coming to PLNU, working out and going to class. It will be tough for her to come to games next season as a spectator and not put on a uniform and being in the locker room with her teammates.
WHAT HER FUTURE PLANS ARE: Jessica has received offers to play professional Basketball overseas in Australia and Europe just to give it a shot. She wants to begin teaching Special Education, specifically Adaptive P.E..
THE STORY: When asked about the blog story that I wrote, she said it came to her as a shock and it caught her off guard that someone would write a story about her since she's not one for media attention. It was also weird to her because she NEVER had anyone write a story about her. But she said it was neat and that anyone would like for someone to write a story about her.
GROWING THE GAME: Jessica feels that Women's Basketball and the WNBA requires people being more interested in the sport. She feels that they put in just as much work as any other Basketball team. She notes that current WNBA stars Elena Delle Donne and Brittney Griner have helped bring much needed attention and recognizing to the sport, along with how much coverage PLNU received during the season.
You can watch the interview with Jessica Escorza in it's entirety below:
