After the Olympics, Then She'll Really Be Cooking : Field hockey: Serra graduate Diane Loosbrock has reached the elite in her sport and would like to do the same as a chef one day.

By JIM LINDGREN

March 23, 1990 12 AM PT

SAN DIEGO — As a freshman in the spring of 1982, Diane Loosbrock was cut from the junior varsity softball team at Serra High School. She was naturally upset, but older sister Michelle consoled her and convinced her to try out for field hockey instead.

At Serra, that is akin to falling off a bicycle with training wheels, then trying out for Barnum & Bailey’s unicycle squad.

Both sports require hitting a small ball with a stick. But Serra is the school when it comes to field hockey. The Conquistadors wrote a good portion of the high school record book in the sport--the national book.

For Loosbrock, it was a struggle at first to even make the team, but she did and played junior varsity her first year. Eventually, she was considered good. By her senior year, she was one of the best.

Hard work, determination and a bit of natural ability and speed earned her all-county honors, a defensive player of the year award and a full-ride scholarship to Iowa, where she became an All-American and helped the Hawkeyes win their first NCAA team championship in women’s athletics.

Loosbrock now plays for the U.S. National team, which in two years will compete in the Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.

She has made it to the big-time--the first Serra player to do so--although it wasn’t always easy, and it wasn’t exactly what she had planned.

Loosbrock, you see, wants to become a gourmet chef and someday own a restaurant. She’s planning on playing field hockey only through the 1992 Olympics, even though she will be just 24--an age most women begin to play for the national team, not retire from it.

But she says cooking is her love. After the Olympics, she’s planning to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of Cooking in Massachusetts. In the meantime, she will play field hockey and travel with the team and try to find enough time to earn the $20,000 she needs for school. (Good chefs are not made cheaply, she points out.)

“I wanted to go to cooking school right away,” Loosbrock said. “But my mom wanted me to go to college--at least for a year.”

At Serra, Loosbrock, a center fullback, was a big reason for the Conquistadors’ success. In three years on the varsity, she helped Serra win three section titles--the last of six in a row for Coach Kris Mallory before her retirement. During those three years, Serra lost just one match, 1-0 to Fallbrook in her sophomore year.

“I can still remember that game,” she said. “I felt like I had let down every field hockey player who ever played at Serra.”

Loosbrock also lettered in track and field (she still holds Serra’s school record in the 110- and 330-yard hurdles), soccer and, yes, softball.

“I was always a pretty good athlete,” Loosbrock said. “It was tough getting cut in softball, but my sister really helped me out. She’s always been my biggest supporter. I don’t even know if she realizes that, but she is.”

Upon graduation in 1985, Loosbrock chose Iowa. The Hawkeyes were perennially strong in field hockey, and the school had a good academic reputation. But Loosbrock’s parents, Tom and Jo, attended rival Minnesota, so the decision was met with mixed emotions.

“They didn’t want me to sign (at Iowa),” Loosbrock said, laughing. “Every time I came home, they had Iowa jokes ready. They had a Christmas party one time when I was coming home, and everybody had an Iowa joke waiting for me.”

In a different sense, Loosbrock’s freshman year at Iowa was a joke. She figured to be an instant star in the Big 10 but underestimated the demands of college competition.

“I came in real cocky and out of shape,” Loosbrock said.

Run-ins with Coach Judith Davidson were common, and Loosbrock wanted to quit or transfer. On top of that, Iowa’s season ended when Loosbrock failed on a penalty stroke in overtime against Northwestern in an NCAA regional match. Because she plays defense, it was the first stroke she had ever taken.

“It ended up right on the goalie’s pads,” she said. “Smack down the middle. I don’t even think she had to move. I have not taken a stroke since then.”

That summer, she talked with Mallory. Her former coach convinced her to stick it out.

Loosbrock was one of only three players on full scholarship at Iowa. Davidson threatened to change that and demanded she meet certain conditioning requirements.

Before her sophomore year, Loosbrock asked Davidson to write out precisely what she expected of her.

“She thought it was going to be a verbal thing,” Loosbrock said, “but I had her write up a contract, and we signed it in front of the athletic director. I wasn’t about to come up short, and I never did.”

Iowa rarely did either. The Hawkeyes went on to three consecutive final four finishes. They won it all in Loosbrock’s sophomore year, made the NCAA semifinals her junior year and the final her senior season. Loosbrock was selected All-Big 10 her last three years and All-American her final two.

“After that first year,” she said. “I loved the place.”