1995 PREP PREVIEW / GIRLS’ TENNIS : Kojima to Try Being a Team Player Instead of a No-Show

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Edison’s Nichole Kojima might be the county’s most misunderstood and controversial tennis player. She might also be one of the most talented.

Kojima’s skills have never been questioned, but her commitment to the sport and her whereabouts have often been in doubt. When she plays and when she’s focused to play, Kojima can beat anyone in the county. Her private coach, Chris Ganz, said of Kojima: “She hits the ball harder than a lot of guys.”

This summer, Kojima won two local junior tournaments and won a match in the Southern California Sectionals before losing to the girls’ 16 champion, Marissa Irvin of Santa Monica. Kojima was invited to play in the U.S. Tennis Assn. national clay court tournament, but she chose not to play.

Kojima, a 16-year-old junior, also chose not play for the Edison girls’ team last season and there was some doubt as to whether she would play this year. But new Edison Coach John Nguyen and Kojima’s mother, Lily, confirmed Thursday Kojima will play for Edison this season.

“We need her to play,” said Nguyen, Edison’s third coach in the last year. “With Nichole, we make a pretty good team.”

Senior Kelly Foster agrees that Kojima’s addition could turn an above-average team into a possible contender for the Southern Section Division I championship. But two days before Edison’s first match with Corona del Mar, Foster was confused about Kojima’s playing status.

“We all want her to play,” said Foster, who played No. 1 singles for the Chargers last year and will contest Kojima for the No. 1 spot this year. “She’s a good player. But nobody knows what to expect. The team’s afraid she’s not going to show up.”

Kojima showed up for Edison’s first match against Corona del Mar, but she arrived after Nguyen made out his lineup. So she so will begin her season Tuesday when Edison travels to Long Beach Wilson.

“I’m excited about playing,” she said. “I want to play for the team.”

Lily Kojima said she didn’t want the team getting in the way of her daughter’s studies or her work with Ganz. Kojima missed several preseason practices and challenge matches while trying to rework her class schedule.

“How many hours in a day does my daughter have?” Lily Kojima said. “Does she give up two to four hours at the [Ganz Tennis] academy for the high school team? We don’t want any special privileges, but we do need to get her work with her coach in.”

Nguyen said he was happy with the compromise he and Lily Kojima worked out, but he is worried about disrupting team chemistry.

“Tennis is an individual game, but she needs some teamwork too,” Nguyen said. “That’s why it’s called the Edison team.”

But Kojima said, “I play for myself. I don’t have anything to do with the team.”

However Lily Kojima said her daughter will benefit from being on a team this fall. “The team camaraderie is real important for her,” Lily Kojima said.

Foster said she hopes the camaraderie is better this season than it was during Kojima’s freshman season. “We had a lot of individuals,” she said. “Instead of compromising, everybody wanted to go their own way.”

Kojima admits she is no different. Her friends do not play tennis and she revels in the fact that she is not part of the tennis crowd, but the “punk crowd.” It is fitting that her favorite tennis player is Andre Agassi, who for years portrayed himself as a rebel tennis player.

Said Ganz: “She’s not a normal tennis player. She’s a punker tennis player. She likes to listen to music that gives me a headache. She’s really into hanging out with her friends. But she’s beginning to realize she can play tennis and still do those other things.”

But last year, Kojima said she simply wanted to be with her friends. She stayed away from tennis for nearly six months. Even if she had wanted to play high school tennis, her grades were not good enough to keep her eligible.

Kojima, who went to summer school to catch up on her school work, said she has rededicated herself to tennis.

“I was playing every day and I just got tired of it, but when I was away I realized I wanted to play a lot,” she said. “I realized this is what I want to do. I wanted to go to college and get a scholarship. I knew that I would have wasted all that work I did if I never played again.”

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Girls’ Tennis at a Glance

Top players: Katey Becker, Villa Park, So.; Michelle Bray, Laguna Beach, Sr.; Katie Canright, Corona del Mar, Jr.; Tami Demaree, Edison, Sr.; Sarah Denson, Irvine, Jr.; Faye DeVera, Villa Park, Jr.; Natalie Exon, Woodbridge, Jr.; Kelly Foster, Edison, Sr.; Holli Freudenberg, El Modena, Jr.; Vanessa Godbey, Newport Harbor, Jr.; Michelle Johnson, Dana Hills, Sr.; Nichole Kojima, Edison, Jr.; Eleanor Luzano, Rosary, Jr.; Melissa Rosenthal, Los Alamitos, Sr.; Alissa Scott, Corona del Mar, Sr.; Katie Tierney, Dana Hills, Sr.; Nina Vaughan, Corona del Mar, So.; Megan Wachtler, Corona del Mar, Sr.; Michelle Weisz, El Dorado, Jr.; Shannon Wilkins, Canyon, Jr.

League favorites: Century: Villa Park; Empire: El Dorado; Freeway: Sunny Hills; Garden Grove: Santiago; Golden West: Rosary; Olympic: Brethren Christian; Orange: Savanna; Pacific Coast: Laguna Beach; Sea View: Corona del Mar; South Coast League: Dana Hills; Sunset: Los Alamitos.

1994 final poll: 1. Laguna Beach, 2. Los Alamitos, 3. Corona del Mar, 4. Villa Park, 5. Woodbridge, 6. Dana Hills, 7. Newport Harbor, 8. El Dorado, 9. Rosary, 10. Santa Margarita.

1995 preseason poll: 1. Corona del Mar, 2. Woodbridge, 3. Dana Hills, 4. Villa Park, 5. Los Alamitos, 6. Laguna Beach, 7. Edison, 8. Newport Harbor, 9. El Dorado, 10. University.

Key dates: Southern Section individual preliminaries, Nov. 18; Individual finals, Nov. 30, Dec. 1; section team finals, Nov. 21.

Notes: Fletcher Olson, who replaces Charlie Bleiker at Newport Harbor, inherits one of the county’s deeper teams. Olson doesn’t have any standouts but the Sailors are solid at singles with Godbey, Canright and Erika Nelson, a member of the USTA Zonal team. Newport Harbor should challenge Woodbridge and Corona del Mar for the Sea View title. The Sea View should be the county’s toughest league again with three of the top seven ranked teams. . . . Coach John Nguyen steps up from Edison’s JV team to take over the varsity. He inherits a talented team, but keeping everyone happy has been a problem in the past. . . . El Dorado came within six games of winning the Division III title last year. Five juniors and one senior return from that team and Amanda Oldridge is a talented freshman. . . . The Empire League will use a 24-point scoring system similar to that of college tennis. In the new three-round format, each player will play singles and doubles sets. Said Century Coach Chuck Lia, who designed the system: “It’s a little harder to understand, but you have to know your team better. Every player is worth the same amount of points now and that’s the way it is in golf and cross-country.” Currently, singles players can earn three points, doubles players can earn 1 1/2 points each.