The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 44

Eos AnflcUe Sitnea 1 2. 1 '79-Part 1 Cypress Tall Order Is Talcing Great Strides SUPER SELECTION Nater that way, developed Rick Darnell, leading rebounder in European pro basketball, and now Eaton. "We've had a few misses, too," said Lubin, smiling. Last March, Lubin was driving to lunch, spotted Eaton writing up a work order, returned to school and told Johnson, "I've just seen the biggest guy I ever saw." Lubin said he grabbed a Cypress catalogue of studies, returned to the auto repair shop, apologized to Eaton for interrupting his work, told him who he was discovered and developed Swen and told Eaton that he, as a teacher and coach, owed it to any tall person he saw to talk to them of basketball or at least going to school. But Eaton lived in Westminster, which was out of Cypress' district.

Lubin said he didn't mention basketball again, except to say if Eaton wanted to work out to call him, "I'm in the phone book." Eventually, they worked out and when the lefthanded Eaton soon was pumping in right handed hook shots from 10 feet, Lubin knew he had a potential player. Please Turn to Ptf 13, CoL 1 1978 MODEL RENTAL UNITS EXAMPLE 1 978 ZEPMYft AUTO. PWR. STRG. BRAKES, FACT.

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While Eaton may not be too happy with his basketball progress, he is happy with his progress in the everyday world. There, he has made it. But it wasn't easy. After his miserable high school basketball experience, he went off to Glendale, to study automobile mechanics his 6-9 father, Budd, is an instructor in diesel mechanics and head of the work experience department at Long Beach City College. Mark is a successful automobile mechanic who earned $17,000 in 1978 "and it would have been about $20,000, but I only worked part time once school began." He was an Eagle Scout.

"Most of my merit badges were in the area of swimming, boating and outdoors. I still go backpacking for a week in the Sierras." He is also a certified Scuba diver who plunges into the deep to observe the beasts and flowers of the sea. In high school, Eaton played trumpet in the band, was a goalie in water polo and graduated with a 3.4 GPA in college preparatory courses. At Cypress, he is taking the solids, 17 units 12 is considered a full-time student. He has a 3.5 GPA.

Dennis Boswell was a basketball teammate of Eaton at Westminster High School. But Boswell, at 6-1, 200 pounds, was a far more gifted athlete. He was a Times All-Orange County fullback in football, starting guard on the basketball team and a 50-foot, plus, shotputter. Boswell talked about Eaton while he was at Westminster High: "He was a super nice guy. He was very sociable he wasn't shy because of his height.

In basketball, he just wasn't coordinated. "He tried very hard in practice. But he just couldn't do the things he had to. He'd get frustrated and then get down on himself. But the next day, he'd be back at practice trying hard all over again." It's maturity and subsequent improvement in coordination as well as intelligence and eagerness to learn and improve which may make Eaton the basketball player he hopes to be.

Cypress coach Johnson, 6-4, who played for John Wooden at UCLA in the early 1950s, said, "If Mark was 6-5, he would be a good basketball player right now. He has a great capacity to learn and wants it badly. "Probably because he is so pleasant off the court, is so intelligent, determined and so well-rounded, he is one of our favorite players of all who have come through here." There has to be a comparison to Swen Nater, the San Diego Clippers' leading rebounder, and former ABA Rookie of the Year, who played two years at UCLA behind Walton after spending two years at Cypress. Johnson: "Swen didn't play as a freshman. Comparing Mark as a freshman and Swen as a sophomore, Mark is a much better defensive player, but Swen was a better scorer." The comparison is necessary, because Nater, too, had never played basketball until he attended Cypress and because Swen was also discovered and taught basketball by a Cypress chemistry instructor named Tom Lubin.

Interestingly enough, Lubin, 6-5, played little at San Bernardino Valley College and Cal Poly Pomona before he quit the team to work. Lubin works with the big men, teaching them fundamentals, then finesse. Lubin now has a habit of talking to any tall young man he sees on the campus or on the street. He discovered Newport Beach (714)975-0440 Canuomi DEMO! BYALCARB Tim Stiff Wrtttr CYPRESS If you agree with the philosophy of the Muppets' song that "It Ain't Easy Being Green," you know for sure that it's no picnic being seven feet, three inches tall. "In a day, I can take the first 10 or 15 remarks about my height," said 21-year-old Mark Eaton, the center for Cypress College's basketball team.

It's the 16th person who may be just innocently curious or plain nasty who gets the withering glare from on high. "That's why I hate shopping malls," said Eaton. 'At Christmas time, I've learned to get someone else to do my shopping." There's another thing besides the open mouth stares, snide remarks and questions about how tall he is. Everybody expects very tall young men to be basketball players. Very good basketball players.

Sometimes, so do the very tall young men. Mark Eaton as a 17 and 18-year-old senior at Westminster High School stood 6-11 and weighed 175 pounds. He too, expected to be a basketball player. The problem was that it took too long for the messages to lln a day, I can take the first 10 or 15 remarks about my height said travel from the brain down the nerve paths to the foot muscles. He wanted the feet to move, but they didn't get the message in time.

You might call it lack of coordination. Now, he'll be 22 on Jan. 24 and he stands about seven feet, three inches and weighs 245 pounds. The feet and the hands are now getting the messages in time. He may not be the best basketball player on the Cypress College basketball team that honor may be reserved for 6-6 Ron Davis but Eaton is largely responsible for Cypress College's 16-1 record, 16 straight victories after an opening loss to Cerritos and the fact that Cypress is ranked No.

1 in Southern California. He is averaging 14.1 points, 11.9 rebounds and 4.1 blocked shots per game. He has twice blocked 10 shots in a game. There's another problem with being so big on the basketball court. His smaller teammates sometimes play the role of fight matchmaker.

In a recent game, 6-0 guard Dave Baker was having heated words with an opponent. Eaton went over to calm him down. Eaton said, "I got there and Baker said to the other guy, 'Hey, you wanna fight a 7-3 You'd think this brown-haired, hazel-eyed young giant would be reasonably happy with the degree of success he has attained the last six months. He'd had a painful experience in basketball at Westminster High. Imagine being 6-11 and sitting on the bench while a 6-5 guy played the entire game.

But no. He said, "I want to be a basketball player, a good one. I know I'm improving. But I want to get better quickly. I know my mistakes, I want to eliminate them." Mark Eaton's like his coach, Don Johnson, something of a perfectionist.

Eaton was in high school in the heyday of Bill Walton's UCLA basketball team. Right now, he'd like to go to UCLA next semester. "But I won't leave Cypress at the end of this year if I'm not ready. I think I will be ready to play. I won't go to sit on the bench.

I'll just have to wait and see how I develop and what scholarships are offered." He also met Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at least an inch or so taller than and Wilt Chamberlain was in the aisle above me at Pauley Pavilion) so I don't know how tall he really is. But he is very broad through the chest and shoulders and BIG. When I shook hands with him, my hand was like the hand of a child in the hand of an adult." Apparently, seven-foot-tall basketball players are shy about their height. Jabbar lists himself at 7-1. Eaton said, "When I go to college, I will ask to be listed at 7-foot or 7-1.

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