Laguna Hills’ Tournament Trip a Nightmare

LAGUNA HILLS — It was the trip from hell that Dave Brown and his Laguna Hills boys’ basketball team aren’t likely to forget.

The Hawks (4-10) experienced all sorts of travel problems going to and from the Oregon Holiday Tournament in Beaverton last month. Worse, they dropped all four games they played there.

The trip got off on the wrong foot Dec. 6 when the team, which had met at the school at 6:30 a.m., sat in their plane on the runway at Los Angeles International Airport for 2 1/2 hours, about as long as the flight to Portland. Once in the air, the pilot told the passengers that the Portland airport was closed because of bad weather and that the alternative, Seattle was also closed. He headed the plane toward Vancouver, British Columbia.

When the Portland airport reopened briefly, the pilot was able to land, but somehow half of the team’s luggage was missing and one of the lost bags contained a player’s uniform. By this time it was 3:30 p.m. and the Hawks were scheduled to play at 7 in Beaverton, a Portland suburb.

They scurried to their rental vans only to discover freezing rain and roads covered with ice.

“There was ice on the power lines, trees were falling over in the middle of the road and the main freeway was closed,” Brown said. The team hadn’t eaten either, but there was little time to stop for food.

The team used city streets and got to the Beaverton High gym about 1 1/2 hours before tipoff. The team was forced to play that game, and the rest of them, in their road uniforms because of the missing suitcase.

Over the next 24 hours, the Hawks lost three games. After their fourth loss on Dec. 28, they intended to go to the tournament championship game at the University of Portland, but it snowed. The rental vans were not equipped with chains.

“We didn’t want to take a chance because we thought we might not be able to get back to the motel,” Brown said.

The return trip on Dec. 29 was no picnic, either.

The Hawks’ flight out of Portland was canceled and the team was directed to stand in line with 400 other stranded passengers bidding for a few standby tickets. The lights in the airport went out, food vendors shut down and “it gets kind of cold in there,” according to Brown.

After a full day in the airport, Brown rented vans and the team drove as far as Medford, Ore., where it found a motel. The next day the team drove all the way to Oakland, from where the team was able to fly back to Orange County.

Brown says the trip was costly in more ways than the damage to the team’s record. The Hawks are out an additional $1,000 because of additional lodging and rental van costs. Additionally, Brown said, Alaska Airlines refused to refund the money for the team’s flight home from Portland, which went unused, because the tickets were purchased as part of a special promotion.

“It was crazy. I felt bad for the kids,” Brown said. “We went 0-4 on the trip and you never like to make excuses for how you did, but if there was a reason why we did so bad, that was it.”