Four years ago, John Bliss didn't have to reach for the stars, as the cliché goes.
He floated amongst them, on his own Cloud Nine, as the general of one of the most feared and most talked about girls basketball teams in the southern half of the Sac-Joaquin Section.
Back then, Bliss was the head coach. Deja Mann (now at Arizona State) was his star player. And Merced was their UConn, a regional power that collected a couple of Central California Conference crowns and probably would have achieved more had injuries not poked holes in their dreams.
Then came a new challenge. An opportunity to change schools, change locker rooms and cross over to boys basketball.
Bliss jumped.
That was two years ago.
And, in some respects, he's still searching for a handhold. Something to latch onto. Something to stop this fall from grace.
"When I was at Merced, our program was very, very successful," said Bliss, now in his second year as the boys basketball coach at Buhach Colony. "Now that I'm on the other side of it, it's going to take longer to develop that."
The transition has been marred by losses, characterized best perhaps by the frenetic style of play Buhach Colony tries to dictate. Instead of looking unchained and uninhibited, like "84 feet of hell" often does, BC has been, well...
Out of control.
Buhach Colony doesn't just press. It slams on the gas, ignoring the brake. Bliss' boys take chances at 100 mph, racing up and down the floor, side to side, as though they've got Nitro in their system.
It's a calculated risk, sure, one that has produced its share of carnage.
Buhach Colony has lost 66 percent of its games in a year and a half under Bliss. BC went 10-17 in his inaugural campaign, with most of those losses coming in a flurry to close the season.
BC began the 2008-09 by winning five of its first six games, but went 5-16 the rest of the way, including 1-11 in conference play.
It hasn't been any easier in Year 2.
Buhach Colony is staring down the barrel of a winless CCC season.
It doesn't look promising. With Wednesday's loss to Atwater -- a game it led in the third quarter -- Buhach Colony has lost six straight games and 11 of its last 12.
Its next three games come against the conference's brass -- at Turlock (tonight), at Merced (Jan. 27) and at home vs. Pitman (Feb. 3).
"It's hard for me to sit here and say, 'Yeah, I'm enjoying this.' I'm certainly not enjoying it," Bliss said. "It's going to take time. I'm not the most patient person, but the kids are working hard."
The style of play works when mastered. Ed Madec has turned the Fresno City men's basketball team into something of a junior college heavyweight using it. His Rams left Merced College players dizzy on Wednesday night.
But when you've only just begun to teach it and learn it...
It looks like a lost cause.
The irony is that Buhach Colony, a team that rarely uses the breadth of the shot clock, needs more time. Needs everyone to be patient.
More than this free-fall toward imperfection in CCC play, that's their reality. That's the message Bliss would like to relay to fans, parents, current players and future ones.
He's not trying to resurrect a program. He's attempting to grow one -- and these seeds won't sprout overnight.
This project may take years to produce its first prize-winning crop.
"All the coaches would agree, it's not something that's going to happen overnight," he said. "There are growing pains when you take over a program and implement a certain style of play.
"We're asking kids to guard 84 feet -- not 40."
To their credit, the players haven't bowed to defeat. Like last year's bunch, Jarrell Davis and Co. continue to punish their bodies, sprinting endline to endline. They grin and take it, though each loss feels like a cement fist to the chin.
They champion the cause -- this exhausting but entertaining brand of play -- because they know it won't be long.
The sophomores and freshmen playing at the lower levels this season will be Bliss' first homegrown crop -- the first four-year players to come through the "Hustlin' Thunder" ranks.
When they reach the varsity level in the next few seasons, Bliss expects Buhach Colony's fortunes to change.
Or so he hopes.
Remember now, this whole "reach for the stars" bit, it's new to him.
James Burns is sports editor of the Sun-Star. He can be reached at jburns@mercedsun-star.com.
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