With the flick of a wrist about 12 feet away from the basket, and Long Beach State point guard Casper Ware looking on during warm-ups, she connected on nothing but net — in heels.
Hours later, the 26-year-old roamed the same Walter Pyramid sidelines with a microphone in hand for Fox Sports West.
The court, after all, should be familiar to reporter Crystina Poncher, a 2008 LBSU alumna, who used to attend the NBA’s Summer Pro League and work basketball camps in the same building while growing up.
As a member of the broadcast team for the network’s Big West Conference men’s basketball TV package, Poncher is allowed the opportunity to suit up for her own “home game” whenever the 49ers and the Pyramid appear on the schedule.
“Last year was my first season reporting on the Big West,” the vibrant Poncher said, hours before working the televised contest between Cal State Fullerton and the host 49ers on Jan. 29. “And, actually, my very first live televised game was here in the Pyramid last year.
“To work my first game here, it was honestly a dream come true.”
At the game in a nearby courtside seat on this night was her mother, Zorina Ricci, who saw Poncher’s love with sports evolve.
“We watched the Lakers and her dad was into NASCAR, and so it was sports all the time on the weekends,” Ricci said. “She just fell right into it, loved it, was a cheerleader from the beginning for the teams that were local …”
“Not a cheerleader! Like, cheering for the team,” Poncher interjected while laughing.
“But it was just in her nature, it was natural,” Ricci said.
Poncher landed the job after previously interning with Fox Sports West during her junior year. While working at Houston’s restaurant, she met John Black, the director of public relations for the Los Angeles Lakers, who referred Poncher to Fox Sports West.
“I would always talk about sports, we had sports on the TV and was always very vocal in school about what I wanted to do,” said Poncher, who also worked at an El Segundo community cable station.
When it came time for the journalism major to choose a path, Poncher — also a communications minor — said the choice between print and broadcast came down to the opportunity to be on TV.
She said her decision was aided by her experience in a broadcast writing class taught by journalism professor Jennifer Fleming.
With a year left before graduation, Poncher was faced with another decision: Quit school and work operations full-time for Fox Sports West, or complete her education.
Poncher convinced the network that she could do both, and that led to a part-time position.
“Her can-do attitude has obviously paid off,” Fleming said. “What impressed me most about Crystina was that she was more than willing to work behind the scenes to get her foot in the door at Fox Sports.”
Now, after two years reporting Big West games, Poncher’s colleagues are impressed with her progression — particularly through the early faults.
“She’s gotten very thorough with it,” said Fox Sports West color commentator Michael Cage, who has worked with Poncher each of the past two seasons. “I think she’s got a promising career — nothing but upside — she learns fast.
“This is live TV, you’ve got to be quick on your feet. You make a mistake, you’ve got to move on. We all make mistakes, I’m one of them, too. So, she’s done just that.”
Cage, a former 15-year NBA veteran, also drew comparisons between his transition to the broadcast booth and Poncher’s first season on the air. With time, Cage said that Poncher could eventually find work reporting on other, more high-profile conferences.
But, still, home is where the Huntington Beach resident’s heart is.
“I put in my blood, sweat and tears here,” Poncher said. “I fell asleep in the Student Union … I ate at The Nugget — all that stuff for so long. And to finally get a chance to come back and see my hard work pay off at the very place where I put in all the work for six years of college, it’s an amazing feeling.”
Crystina Poncher on the Big West Conference men’s hoops race
Early thoughts:
“I thought Santa Barbara, with a lot of their players returning, was gonna probably be the top team — and I think a lot of people did.
“I think this year, more than last year, there’s a lot of parity in this league. There’s so many teams stacked in the middle. You have a team like Fullerton who’s beaten Long Beach, Pacific and Santa Barbara, but gets waxed by Riverside and Davis by like 30 points, and then loses to Bakersfield (in nonconference play).
“So it’s kind of like you don’t know what team is gonna show up on any given night.”
Pick to win it all:
“I’m going to go with Long Beach because I feel like they’ve been in the pressure situations, especially with the [nonconference schedules] they’ve played these last two years.
“Not just because I’m an alumni, but I’m going to pick them and I think [face] UOP or Santa Barbara at the end.”
Next telecast:
UC Santa Barbara at UC Irvine (Saturday, 5:30 p.m., Fox Sports West)
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