Basketball team ends Mobil protest

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- The Estancia High School girls’ basketball team has

ended its protest against a Mobil gas station on Harbor Boulevard.

The players waved picket signs with “Honk if you support the Estancia

High School girls’ basketball team!” and “Down with Mobil!” on Monday

morning because the Mobil Oil Co. wouldn’t let them have a fireworks

stand this year in their usual spot on an adjacent property behind the

station.

The team has used the property, previously owned by C.J. Segerstrom &

Sons, for its biggest annual fund-raiser for the last five years. The

Mobil gas station, which bought the property over the last year, refused

to allow the team to use it for a fireworks stand this year because of

safety concerns.

Tom Antal, principal of the school, and Mobil Oil Co. representatives

are working out an agreement that will allow the team to continue its

basketball activities.

“I met with executives with the company this morning, and they were

most cooperative in working out an agreement,” Antal said. “Mobil wants

to take care of the girls.”

While an exact amount had not been determined by press time, Antal

said the company “wishes to cover the girls’ losses.”

At the protest Monday, Desiree Wilson, one of the players, said the

team usually raises about $5,000 from the fireworks stand, a large piece

of the team’s annual budget.

The coach, Paul Kirby, said he is relieved that the team will be able

to afford to play in the next season.

“It’s definitely been a learning experience for everybody,” he said.

“Mobil is very generous for donating the money. This will allow us to get

through our season. Honestly, I don’t know what we would have done if we

didn’t get this. The fireworks money pays for everything next year --

basketballs, uniforms, everything. However much we raise, that’s what we

can do.”

Players practicing at the school’s gymnasium Wednesday said they were

happy to hear about the agreement.

“This means we don’t have to get people to work the fireworks stand,”

player Xochitl Byfield said. “This is better. We will fix up our school

and get a cabinet to display photos and awards, which we have never had

before. We won’t have to work outside the school.”

In exchange for the donation from Mobil, the girls will have to do

work around the school, such as cleaning up the team room and replanting

the school’s Memorial Rose Garden and planters around the school, said

Yvetta Denise Gray, president of the team’s booster club.

Unlike the fireworks stand, which is run by the parents because the

girls are too young to be allowed to handle fireworks, the school

projects will be performed by the players, she said.

Tisha Gray, a player, said she is happy to do the work.

“We’re better off with this deal than we were when we were picketing,”

she said. “If we didn’t get this, the team players would have had to pay

for everything. This will save us money instead of having everything

coming out of our pockets. And I doubt everyone would have been able to

afford it.”

Booster club members said they are still worried about next year’s

funding.

“We never said anything to the principal about the situation,” said

Michele Wilson, the club’s fund-raising president. “It just never

occurred to us. But he helped out, and now we will be able to go to our

tournaments.

“We got a bigger response than we thought we were going to, and I’m

pleased with what happened. How could I not be? But I’m concerned about

next year because we still can’t use the Mobil property for fireworks and

the prime locations are already taken up.”