Advertisement

Virgen: Costa Mesa’s LaBare is everywhere

Share

Do you believe in stereotypes?

If you do, Paige LaBare can shatter them all. Then just when you think you have the Costa Mesa High junior pegged she goes and does something out of the norm. She takes a risk, just after she already defied the standard.

Who ever met a cheerleader that can outrun several boys? Whoever met a cheerleader that can do the rarest of skateboarding tricks?

You can’t really call her a girlie girl. You can’t really call her a tom-boy.

Just call her Paige.

“When I’m skating, they say stuff like, ‘So you’re a skater,’” she said. “Then they say, ‘Wait, you’re a cheerleader?’ So, it’s like the best of both worlds.”

Advertisement

But there’s more to LaBare than being a base (someone who catches and supports the fliers) on the cheer team, and more than probably the only girl to perform an elguerial, a skateboarding trick named after world champion skater Eddie Elguera.

That’s when the skater approaches the halfpipe wall at an invert angle, the rear hand is planted, a 360-degree backside rotation is made, and the rider lands going forward.

In other words, she’s very good.

She’s also a track star for the Mustangs and a soccer standout. This fall she decided to compete in something that doesn’t seem as extreme as skateboarding. She went out for the golf team.

“She wanted to play right off the bat,” Costa Mesa girls’ golf coach Casey Swanson said. “She was ready to compete. She’s just always ready to go.”

Swanson is in his first year as coach and asked LaBare to come out for the team. LaBare had somewhat of a golfing background, as she had enjoyed hitting balls when visiting her grandparents in La Quinta.

Part of the reason LaBare joined the girls’ golf team was for her grandparents, Sandy and Marv Kassen.

They can be proud.

In her first season, LaBare earned second-team All-Orange Coast League status by finishing eighth at the league finals Oct. 20. She was three strokes from earning first-team all-league honors, Swanson said.

She shot 45 for nine holes on the par-35 Mesa Linda course on the first day of league finals at Costa Mesa Country Club.

Then, on the final day, she shot 98 on Mesa Linda’s par-70. It was her first time competing for 18 holes. Also, she couldn’t dedicate as much practice time throughout the season because of her crazy, packed schedule.

But now she’s thinking to devote more time to golf. It will be a challenge to fit it into her daily routine. However, LaBare is not one to back down from challenges.

Maybe it comes from her father, Art, who was once a competitive weightlifter, or her mother, Jennifer, who competed in a few sports and stayed fit as an aerobics instructor.

You can also take into account that LaBare is the youngest of three girls. She often showed her competitive side, yet still got along OK with Teagan and Bree.

“I’m very competitive,” LaBare says. “I always want to win. That’s the way I am. Ever since I was a kid.”

She says she’s learned to have a better attitude with winning and losing.

She came oh so close to being the best sprinter in the Orange Coast League as a sophomore in the spring, finishing less than a second behind Estancia standout Persis William-Mensah in the 200 meters and less than two seconds in the 100 at league finals.

This year, LaBare wants to make sure to be the best in the 100 and 200. She recently had a bit of a setback as she suffered a broken big toe on her right foot.

She can make room for overcoming adversity in her schedule, too.

The injury doesn’t seem to make Costa Mesa track and field coach Steve Moreno too nervous.

“Paige is a pretty smart athlete,” Moreno said. “She knows when track is on that is her sport.”

LaBare is No. 5 in the 200 (26.1 seconds) on Costa Mesa’s all-time list and eighth in the 100 (12.5). She passed Teagan in the 200, Moreno said.

“That was one of her goals,” Moreno said.

But LaBare also wants to be similar to her older sisters and attend college. Of course, she wants to compete in track and field in college, however.

Teagan, 23, recently earned a degree in anthropology at UCLA and is planning to start education in nursing. Bree, 22, attends Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she is focusing on ethnic studies.

LaBare’s dream school to attend and compete at is UCLA. She believes all the activities she’s involved in somehow help bring balance to her life. It also prepares her for the future, she says.

Being a cheerleader certainly helps. She’s part of a team that has won several awards and is highly active when it comes to community service.

Costa Mesa cheer coach Kori Johnson does her best to help LaBare with her schedule and sometimes provides advice when it seems like LaBare is taking on too much.

“It is challenging to have an athlete do multiple sports but she is an incredible athlete,” Johnson said. “I want her to compete in other sports.”

In an age of specialization for young athletes, LaBare practically scoffs at that trend. She wants to have fun. She wants to compete in multiple sports.

“There are so many things I like to do,” said LaBare, who is also a part of the Associated Student Body as the tournament director, and in January she wants to join a firefighters explorers club. “If I get burned out on one thing there’s more than that one thing. So far I don’t have anything to be burned out on.”

LaBare, who carries a 3.6 grade-point average, says she’s not sure if she will be on the girls’ soccer team in the winter. For now, she’s all about cheer, even though she’s dealing with a broken foot.

She says she just wants to stay in shape for track and field season. She says she might join the girls’ water polo team for early-morning workouts to help her stay in shape.

It probably wouldn’t surprise anyone if she jumped in the pool and joined that team.

“No matter what the sport is, Paige gives 110 percent,” said Katrina Foley, Swanson’s wife, who started the skate team at CMHS and also wears several hats, as she just won the first seat for the Costa Mesa City Council. “She’s an extremely talented and competitive young woman … I can’t wait to see what Paige does with her life because she has so much potential. She takes risks, like golf. You have to take risks in life to progress. She’s figured it out.”

Advertisement