BANGOR, Maine — Alonzo McCain sought something new and different as he approached the end of his two-year stay at Santa Barbara Community College in sunny southern California in early 2015.
He and his girlfriend, Darla Morales, then starters for the Santa Barbara Community College basketball teams, found what they wanted on the other side of the country.
Both McCain and Morales are now seniors at Husson University, where this winter, they are again playing key roles for the Eagles’ basketball teams.
Morales, a 5-foot-7 guard, leads the 4-0 Husson women’s basketball squad with 16 points per game.
“Darla gives us consistent outside shooting, but yet she has quick hands and plays with a lot of intensity on defense,” said Husson women’s basketball coach Kissy Walker. “She makes things happen, and her shot is a little unorthodox shot, but it goes in.”
McCain, a 5-11 point guard, has been a valuable reserve and captain for the men’s team averaging 5.2 points and a team-leading 5.2 assists for the 4-1 Eagles.
“He started the first couple of games, and I approached him and said, ‘The way you’re playing, you could really help us coming off the bench to lift us with energy,’” said Husson men’s basketball coach Warren Caruso. “He said, ‘Coach, whatever you think is best.’”
McCain and Morales are thought to be the first Californians on Husson basketball rosters during Walker and Caruso’s lengthy tenures as head coach — Walker is in her 26th year, and Caruso is in his 23rd year. That reflects both a spirit of adventure and the depth of companionship between the two, who met Nov. 21, 2013, while freshmen at Santa Barbara Community College.
Finding a place to play
McCain went to Cajon High School in San Bernadino, California, where he was a three-year varsity player and an Inland Empire all-star. At Santa Barbara Community College, he started about half the games as a freshman and all 23 as a sophomore, averaging 5.2 points and 3.2 assists for the Vaqueros.
Morales went to Pacifica High School in Oxnard, where she played varsity basketball for four years and averaged 8.2 points, 3.6 assists and 2.4 steals per game as a senior. She then came off the bench as a first-year player at Santa Barbara Community College before starting 14 of 26 games as a sophomore when she averaged 5.6 points while shooting 50 percent from beyond the 3-point arc and 81 percent from the foul line.
“I was the best player on the men’s team, and she was the best player on the women’s team, and that’s kind of how we met,” said McCain.
With two years of athletic eligibility remaining, McCain went on an internet search of possible destinations to continue his basketball career.
“My plan was to go somewhere where we both could play,” said McCain. “Darla wanted to stick together, and I was all for it as well, so wherever we ended up, we were going to do it together. We could have gone to Belgium, and she would have wanted to come with me.”
While exploring schools, McCain was intrigued by the East Coast.
“I looked at schools in Maine and saw there was one Division I and a bunch of Division IIIs, so I reached out to some of the schools, and coach Caruso got back to me, and from then on he started to recruit me,” McCain said.
“My mom was all for it because she went to West Point [the U.S. Military Academy] in New York and enjoyed her time there, and she told me I’d enjoy the culture and the atmosphere,” he said.
The internet recruiting process involving McCain wasn’t unique for Caruso.
“We probably get three to five emails a day from someone,” he said, “and if there’s a highlight film, we watch it, and if we like the highlight film, we respond, and probably one out of 15 of those respond back.
“When it’s someone from that far away, we might say, ‘You realize you’re emailing someone in Maine, right?’ But Alonzo emailed back and said, ‘I realize that,’ so we started a conversation,” Caruso said.
McCain ultimately was accepted at Husson, and he shared with his new coach that he had a girlfriend who also could play basketball.
“I honestly was extremely nervous,” said Morales. “I didn’t even know what was out there, it was all pretty new to me. But Alonzo came on a visit here, and I just went by what he saw and kind of winged it.”
Morales began her own email conversation with Walker, who initially wasn’t aware of the relationship between her new recruit and McCain.
“It’s kind of funny because I bumped into Warren at admissions one day, and he had a recruit with him,” said Walker. “I said, ‘Oh, is this your California boy,’ and he said, ‘No, he’s down in the gym,’ so I asked where [McCain] was from, and he told me, and I thought, ‘That’s where Darla’s from.’
“I went back and emailed her and asked, ‘By any chance are you two dating?’ That’s when she told me,” she said.
Trip of a lifetime
McCain and Morales packed his Volvo in July 2015 for what turned out to be a four-day, 3,500-mile cross-country trek.
“As soon as we started driving, that’s when I started to realize how far away it was,” said Morales, who had not seen the Husson campus.
They settled quickly upon arriving at their new campus, but the trip from southern California wasn’t completed symbolically until the couple experienced their first Maine winter.
“The snow was a surprise to me, and so far I like it,” said Morales. “I hate the heat, and California’s really hot, and I couldn’t stand it, so coming here was nice.”
While the Maine weather also has been an elixir of sorts for Morales’ migraines, McCain had a more predictable reaction to his introduction to snow.
“I was looking forward to it until I had to wipe the snow off my car and I couldn’t feel my hands afterward,” he said. “Then it was, ‘All right, I’m over it now.’”
McCain and Morales are well established in the community. They share an off-campus apartment and hold part-time jobs — Morales at Goodwill Industries on Stillwater Avenue, McCain at the campus dining hall — while playing basketball and pursuing their degrees.
“They’re very outgoing, very positive,” said Caruso. “Darla’s the rock obviously, I say with a laugh, but they’re obviously committed to each other and to finishing their education.”
McCain and Morales have been back to California only twice since arriving at Husson, during spring break by plane after the 2015-16 basketball season and then by car last summer.
McCain will get to play back home later this month when the Husson men’s team faces Chapman University on Dec. 30 at Orange, California, and at Pomona-Pitzer on New Year’s Eve in Pomona.
“Being here makes you appreciate having your family around you,” said McCain. “That’s big for me still to this day, and I know it’s big for Darla as well, that we can’t just get in our car and drive two hours and see our family.”
Morales and the Husson women’s basketball team are in North Carolina that weekend, meaning her next trip home may not come until next summer.
By then, both will be at or near graduation — McCain in liberal studies with a focus on elementary education, Morales in health care studies with an eye toward becoming a nurse.
“I am an adventurous type,” said Morales. “I’ve always wanted to travel, and this was my first step. I really want to travel more out of the country and see a lot of different places.”
McCain has similar inclinations.
“I’m just going with the flow of whatever opportunities pop up and wherever our degrees take us,” he said. “But this is definitely an experience worth having, kind of an eye opener to how different the world is.”
And no matter where that next step takes them, the California couple say they will have fond memories of Maine and Husson.
“I do miss being back home,” said McCain, “but this is a great place to call home for now.”
