Deep down, Costa Mesa High girls' basketball coach Jim Weeks always believes in his team.
There were times this year when few other people did, like when Costa Mesa got off to a 4-8 start. But Weeks, in his 15th year with the Mustangs, never lost faith.
The longtime math teacher also believes in geometry, so maybe he knew his team could perform a 180.
"I tell my girls, 'I'll either explain [plays] to you geometry-wise or you just trust me,'" Weeks said. "And they say, 'We'll trust you.'"
That trust has been returned all season long. Other people hoped the Mustangs would get far, but Weeks kept on believing they would.
"We knew we were good, but we never thought we'd be here," senior center Jennifer Courtney said. "I still can't believe it. He's a big part of that. He's the only one who believed."
So it's a sweet moment for Weeks today, when third-seeded Costa Mesa plays No. 1 St. Mary's Academy of Inglewood at 4:45 p.m. in the CIF Southern Section Division IV-AA championship game at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach.
Weeks is no stranger to section championship games. He was the Mustangs' coach in 1989-90, when the Mustangs won the Division III-A crown. A year later, he again led Costa Mesa to the title game.
"When I did it before, it was so fast and there was so much going on," said Weeks, 58, an Irvine resident. "And, the team wasn't the same kind of team. These girls are just fun to be around."
The Mustangs did enjoy a late-night trip to IHOP after their semifinal win over Arrowhead Christian on Saturday. But one thing Costa Mesa hasn't enjoyed the privilege of having is a high scorer.
Point guard Michelle Figueroa leads the team with 10 points per game. Quite different from the Olivia DiCamilli-led teams of the early '90s, when the Mustangs guard was an All-CIF performer all four years and scored 2,220 career points.
Then, in 1992, Weeks stepped away from coaching Mesa to pursue his master's degree in math at Cal State Fullerton. He watched Costa Mesa, in DiCamilli's senior year, win the '93 Division III-A title and advance all the way to the state championships.
In the meantime, Weeks served as an assistant at Tustin High for three years. But, still on campus at Mesa as a math teacher, he said he knew he would come back to coach the Mustangs.
He did just that in 1997, and hasn't looked back. Costa Mesa girls' basketball has now made the playoffs 17 of the last 18 seasons.
