Once Slighted, There’s No Ignoring Chapman’s Werdel Now

To say that Tim Werdel was overlooked when he graduated from Santa Ana Valley High in 1997 would be an understatement, according to Mike Bokosky, men’s basketball coach at Chapman.

Bokosky even took a pass on Werdel when the 6-foot-1 guard arrived on campus in the fall of 1997. Bokosky placed Werdel on the Panthers’ junior varsity team.

But it didn’t take long for Werdel to prove himself. Halfway through last season, he had earned a spot on the varsity and started 10 games, averaging 12.6 points.

This season, as the first player off the bench, he ranks second on the team in minutes played per game (20), third in scoring (10.6) and first in three-point shooting (26 of 51). On a team that utilizes a 10-man rotation with six players averaging nine points or better, those numbers are difficult to overlook.

“I don’t think Tim Werdel has had a bad day of practice in two years with us,” Bokosky said. “That’s his personality. I don’t think he’s ever had a bad day.”

Bokosky originally figured Werdel would need a season or two of seasoning.

“It’s hard to assess recruits at this level, especially guards, because there are so many average-size players out there,” Bokosky said. “You can’t always evaluate their passion or the fact that they really want to play the game.”

At Santa Ana Valley, Werdel played in the shadow of two highly recognized teammates, current Cal State Fullerton forward Ike Harmon and point guard Olujimi Mann, who began this season at Santa Ana College but broke his foot.

Werdel had hoped to attend the Air Force Academy but didn’t receive an appointment. He applied to Stanford, where he didn’t figure to continue playing basketball, but was turned down. He then enrolled at Chapman.

“I feel great now,” he said. “We have a couple of really good players on this team. Everybody gets the same amount of playing time and nobody is bitter. Personally, I don’t mind if I don’t start. I just have to play the best when I get into the game.”

Bokosky thinks Werdel has a great future. “He can become one of the best Division III players in the Western Region,” Bokosky said. “He is so solid in all categories.”

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Chapman dropped its junior varsity men’s basketball team this season because of a lack of players, the third time in the last seven seasons that it has done so. Bokosky said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Panthers reinstate the program a year from now, if there is increased interest among students.

Chapman was the only college in Orange County to have a junior varsity team, Bokosky said. Junior varsity teams disappeared on the Division I and II and community college levels decades ago, and more small colleges are also doing away with them.

Bokosky says he likes the idea of having a JV team because it augments the varsity team, essential at a Division III school like Chapman where there are no athletic scholarships.

“It was a feeder level for us,” he said. “Maybe two or three players on the JV will eventually be a part of your varsity core group. It gives the opportunity to compete that a player may not get otherwise.”

Bokosky said he believes there are several factors contributing to the demise of JV teams. Having a men’s JV team without a comparable women’s JV team puts an institution at risk of being out of compliance with Title IX, which mandates equal playing opportunities for women.

The expense of running a JV program is also a factor. Even using hand-me-down uniforms, it costs about $3,000 for referees, transportation and meal money for a 12-to-14-game season.

Finding opponents is also difficult. Occasionally, Chapman would play community college teams.

“But they would have several Division I-caliber players and they would overwhelm our JVs,” Bokosky said. “So we would find ourselves playing Occidental’s JV team three times just to get games in.”

Notes

Hope International has hired Minister David Nelson, who spent the last eight years as a high school and club coach in Brazil, as its men’s soccer coach. . . The Concordia women’s basketball team (6-6) has lost three of its last four home games. Concordia opens Golden State Athletic Conference play at 7 tonight, hosting Biola.