The local rock group Three Heads has used its power-pop harmonies and group chemistry over the last several years to develop a cult following — mostly female — and become one of the Beach Cities’ brightest hopes for a breakthrough band.
So they were only doing what comes naturally Saturday afternoon when the Three Heads team used their power-hoops harmonies and great group chemistry on the basketball court to win the annual Live Oak three-on-three Tournament over a team named, appropriately, the Rockstars.
Three Heads lead singers Heath “3-pointer” Francis and Pat “Smooth” Cleary — who have been balling and singing together since they grew up in Humboldt County — did most of the scoring in leading their team back from a first round loss. Continually finding each other open for their favorite shots, they played with the kind of sweet harmony that can only be achieved when your mothers meet in a prenatal class in a small town named Eureka.
After their first-round loss to the Rockstars, the pre-tournament favorite led by the dynamic “Little Stevie” Rich and the fiercely competitive Mike Roth, the Three Heads slogged through the wilderness of the losers’ bracket all the way to the promised land of the finals, where tournament rules dictated that they had to win twice in a row in order to vault past the winner of the winner’s bracket, the Rockstars.
But the rules were different for the winners of the winners’ bracket, composed of those teams that won in the first round. The Rockstars only needed to win the first game of the final to end the tournament. Or they could lose the first game, win the second and still claim the coveted title, which brings with it a T-shirt and bragging rights that run all the way from Live Oak Park through the where-you-from Marine Avenue courts and south to the everybody’s-gone-surfin’ courts at Clark Park in Hermosa Beach.
In other words, the Three Heads were faced with the task of playing a team they had just lost to a couple of hours before and having to beat them twice in a row.
Twenty minutes later, in front of a roaring crowd that circled the court and offered a lot of free advice, helpful officiating and colorful commentary, it was Mission Accomplished, thanks mainly to the third man on the Three Heads team.
While all the scoring stats pointed to the two pretty-boy singers, Francis and Cleary, as the heroes of the against-all-odds comeback, they both disagreed with that assessment. In the immediate afterglow of victory both singers insisted the MVP was the band’s former manager, Chris Censi — a skinny beanpole who stood out in a sea of serious, hit-the-weight-room ballers with his knee-high pink socks, revenge-of-the-nerds glasses and an old-school headband.
“Couldn’t have done it without Censi,” said a sweat-soaked Cleary as he took off his sneakers and rubbed his weary dogs. “He got every important rebound for us… got us a lot of second shots.”
Indeed, an unofficial courtside count credited Censi with 17 rebounds over the course of the two hotly contested championship games. Most of them were pulled down while wrestling with Ross “Double-wide” McKenna, a roadie, publicist and all around go-fer for Three Heads who wasn’t good enough to make the band’s team but was good enough to make the opposing team in the finals.
The Three Head’s one-and-gotta-do-it-again triumph in the final round was the culmination of what everyone agreed was the most successful, sportsmanlike and least physical tournament in 30-something years. Where some years were highlighted by hand-to-hand combat on the perimeter and sumo wrestling in the paint, this year’s event featured more skillful passing and dead-eye outside shooting.
“I think it was the best ever,” said Live Oak Commissioner Harry Lewis, who was lauded by everyone involved for the hundred little unseen tasks that go into making an organized event so successful that many of the same players come back year after year.
The early rounds featured some great play from annual crowd favorites like Kevin “Step-back” Barry, Blake “Bank-shot” Hamilton and Jeff “Hack” Foley. But just as noticeable was the absence of such living Live Oak legends as Mike “Streaky” Foley, Eric “Sky Pilot” Goldbach and Joe “Shellback” Straight, who all patrolled the sidelines and talked to their fans but declined to get into the arena this year.
The final round of the losers’ bracket was a worthy undercard to the main event as the Three Heads fought off a strong challenge from the Pals, featuring Juan “Tower of Power” Moreno, Chris “Red Bull” Palisan and Stu “Focus” Waldman, finally winning 11-8 when Francis drilled a 15-foot jumper on a nice inside-out pass from his pal Cleary.
Like all good playoff teams facing a team they had just lost to, the Three Heads made some critical adjustments heading into the final round, with the two singers flip-flopping their defensive assignments.
“I took Stevie,” Francis said. “That freed up Pat to control the inside.”
The final began with plenty of quick scoring but neither team was able to establish any kind of dominance. Little Stevie Rich, a 5-foot-10 volume shooter/scoring machine from El Segundo with a pogo-stick jumper and a power baseline drive to go with it, drew first blood with a stick-back off his own miss. Cleary, a 6-foot-2 do-it-all forward, answered with a get-out-of-my-way drive, little Stevie hit a 10-foot jumper and Cleary responded with his own foul line jumper to level it at 2-2.
That jumper began a decisive 7-1 run that featured a long rainbow jumper by Francis, a herky-jerky drive and layup by Censi, and several power-in-the-paint moves by Cleary that ended with graceful at-the-rim finishes.
The first game ended with the Three Heads prevailing 11-7 after two straight jumpers by Cleary, the game-winner a 12-foot banker from the right side that set the stage for a climactic, winner-take-all second game.
With just a few seconds to chug down some water and assure each other the finish line was just ahead, the Three Heads came out on fire and grabbed control like Conan O’Brien taking over from Jay Leno.
Little Stevie again drew first blood with a 10-foot step-back banker from the left side, but the Heads scored the next six points and effectively ended the game right there. It started with a 15-foot nothing-but-net jumper from Francis followed by yet another slithery drive and finish from the increasingly confident Censi. Cleary hit a 5-footer, Francis drilled a foul-line jumper, Cleary hit another 5-footer and Censi grabbed a rebound, banged into the flailing McKenna and threw it high off the backboard and in to make it 6-1 and stun the Rockstars, who by now had lost the chemistry that got them to the final.
Little Stevie kept firing away and finally hit a 10-footer to stem the tide and make it 6-2. But Cleary went on a can’t-stop-me tear and it was soon 9-3.
It ended with Cleary gliding to the hoop, drawing two defenders and finding his buddy Francis all alone 20 feet from the hoop on the left side of the court. Francis caught the ball, set his feet, leaped, shot a rainmaker and shook his fist in the air when it fell from the gray, cloudy sky and straight through the net.
“I knew he would make it,” Cleary said. “He always makes it in practice.” ER