Do You Know The Way To Mater Dei...???

It's at the corner of South Bishop and West Edinger...

When you wander up to, what most of us outside the state of California call, Santa Ana-Mater Dei it looks like a lot of other high schools in the Los Angeles area. There are high chain link fences and a lot of concrete surrounding parking spaces and practice fields.

But when its basketball season, there are four games in a row on any given game night- freshmen, sophomore, junior varsity, and varsity squads knock it out on 90 minute intervals.

I did the math at the Meruelo Athletic Center and all you really need to do is look at the banners hanging from the ceiling in the lobby and over the basketball court.

Since 1950, Mater Dei has collected 156 league titles and 54 state championships- 20 of those in boy's basketball alone. Most of that started in 1983 when Gary McKnight took over as head coach.

He's led the Monarchs to 7 state championships, 11 Southern California championships, 19 CIF championships, 26 league championships (21 straight, a CIF record), and an overall record of 828-76. Coach McKnight is the winningest coach in Orange County boys' basketball history and is 16 wins away from becoming the career wins leader in California state history.

Got all that...???

McKnight has lost more than five games in a season only once since 1989...

It's easy to put a finger on why they are as successful as they are. Stereotypically, you can say that success breeds success. The more you see names like Colt Brennan and any of Darryl Strawberry's kids on the Wall of Champions and LeRon Ellis' jersey in the Hall Of Fame room, you've got any Los Angelino who can go really want to...

But the easier answer at Meruelo is teaching and depth of talent pool...

Bob Thrall and Max Hoskins coach the Freshman Team. When I say "coach" that's all Thrall does- even when, in a recent game against Dos Pueblos, his cell phone went off twice. The first time he thought he turned it off, but had to explain the second time that he was in the middle of the third quarter of his 33-point win and would call whomever back when the game was over.

I would swear that all he did in one quarter of the game was tell his kids that he didn't care if they scored any points in a quarter. But he was quite emphatic that he would not allow the other team to score any with the kids he had on the floor.

And he had 14 to choose from... 14 kids on his freshman roster...

Kevin Stevenson and Ben Villa have the sophomores- and they've only got 13 to pick from in any rotation.

Stevenson has a more "modern" approach to coaching his 16-year-olds. He actually wants his kids to run "their stuff." Literally, those are the words he uses...

"Let's run our stuff."

Words that his kids understand in a 14-point win...

And an even better group of words he asked every player who was on the bench:
"Have you scored yet...?"

Stevenson made sure that every kid was getting reps and that every kid had a shot at getting in the scoring column...words his kids may keep with them as a lesson learned.

It's a school that has two Heisman Trophy winners as alums- Some guy named Leinart and John Huarte who went to Notre Dame. Huarte's trophy is in a glass case at Meruelo.

And, so you know, it's the girl's basketball team that's nationally-ranked these days. They're number two in the country- soon to be number one. They knocked off Stockton-St. Mary's in the Swoosh's Tournament of Champions...

So much for slowing down...and the bull's eye will always be there whether they like it or not... the Swoosh is everywhere it can be on campus- whether it's on a kid, a piece of clothing, a basketball, or a shoe.

That's enough fuel for everyone to come hunting...