HIGH SCHOOLS:

The prospect of finishing a season without a win can be hard on any player, any program.

Last season, Mikey Molina almost lived through such a season as a member of the Costa Mesa High boys’ basketball team.

Molina helped the Mustangs avoid going down as the first winless team in the school’s history.

In the regular-season finale, the guard recorded a team-high 12 points as Costa Mesa hung on to beat Calvary Chapel, 38-36, in an Orange Coast League game.

Change is almost always on the horizon when a team goes 1-26, 1-8 in league.

Gone is walk-on coach Kevin Palmer, fired after one season and replaced by Bryan Rice.

Gone also are the Mustangs’ losing ways.

In his senior season, Molina has been a part of their resurgence.

Through 19 games, Costa Mesa has six more wins than last season. Molina has lifted the Mustangs (7-12, 2-1 in league) near the top in league.

During the Mustangs’ first three league games, Molina has averaged 14.3 points. Much of the program’s success, Molina said, is due to feeding off the football team’s turnaround in the fall.

Back then, the football team began the season 1-5. When league play began, the Mustangs won each of their four league games and claimed their second straight league championship. More importantly, it was the program’s first outright league crown since 2002.

Some members of the football team play basketball.

Rice has received contributions from senior forward Jeff Dye and junior backup guard Brian Waldron. Both players earned first-team All-Orange Coast League football honors, Dye as a linebacker and Waldron as the Defensive Player of the Year after playing safety and linebacker.

“We all believe in each other that we have a chance for a league title,” said Molina after the host Mustangs beat Estancia, 49-47, on Jan. 9, marking their first victory against their cross-town rival since the 2006-07 season.

Rice agrees a league title is possible after finishing in last place last season.

If the Mustangs are able to accomplish the feat, Molina will be a part of his second league championship team since his freshman season in 2005-06.

Rice, a 1999 Costa Mesa graduate, said it depends on one thing.

“We’re going to be in some games if we play hard,” said Rice, whose players already see their hard work paying off in victories.

 Corona del Mar’s run at its first undefeated girls’ water polo season in school history ended Saturday at 14 games.

The Sea Kings lost to Dos Pueblos of Goleta, 6-4, in the semifinals of the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions.

The Sea Kings’ 14-0 start tied the section’s eighth-best winning streak, according to the CIF Southern Section record book.

CdM (15-1), ranked No. 1 in last week’s Division I coaches’ poll, won its first two matches on the first day of the two-day event featuring elite programs in Southern California.

The Sea Kings faced Newport Harbor in the third-place match and won, 8-3.

The Sailors (12-5), ranked No. 2 last week, went 2-2 during the tournament.

Last season, CdM finished runner-up to Newport Harbor in the section title game.

At least the Sea Kings beat their Back Bay rival for the third time this season.

 Only two Newport-Mesa wrestlers placed at the Estancia New Year’s Classic on Jan. 10.

This has only happened twice in the last six seasons of the 29-year-old tournament.

The tournament showcased wrestlers from Costa Mesa, Corona del Mar, Estancia and Newport Harbor among others. Last season, 10 locals placed and the season before, five placed.

Those placing this season were Costa Mesa 140-pounder David Garcia (fifth) and Corona del Mar heavyweight Nicholas Delgado (eighth).

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].