It has been over three weeks and my hangover from the Nike Extravaganza at Mater Dei has yet to flee. Considering Valentines is amongst us, I wanted to write about Hate and Love in a basketball format. Myself and my six year old son Tyler really enjoyed the spectacle that Mater Dei produced in this two day basketball gala. My mind is trying to formulate a concrete answer on how a basketball program can be so powerful. Obviously, being a powerful and decent basketball program is generally not that difficult. Just about every school has had a powerful season or two in their existence. What makes Mater Dei such a striking love story is that they have been powerful consistently over a 25 years span. We will be challenged to name another school public or private that has that accomplishment. Maybe with the exception of Oak Hill Academy from Virginia. All other known powerful high school programs go through some drought years. Coaching changes, graduating players, and moving into a different division are usually the chief reasons why a school might experience off years.
However, what we must love about Mater Dei is that they never fall into the above mention category. A bad or off year for Mater Dei is not getting that prestigious CIF ring in Sacramento. There is no other school that has expectations to have a new banner hanging every single year.
Even while I lay the above foundation for your consideration, it is easy to have the feeling of hatred creep into the argument at the same time. It is widely understood that you will not find Coach Gary Mcknight frequenting the local recreational centers on the weekend to scout average kids purely on a potential scale. It is fair to say that he might have less interest in the development of his Freshman and Junior Varsity teams then most of us. Coach Mcknight is not picking up the phone and calling the Physical Education teachers at the neighboring Junior High schools to see if any talented kids will coincidentally walk through Mater Dei gates on the first day of school. Coach Mcknight will never have much stress in the department of recruiting. He has a recruiting machine unlike any school in California. We can say with confidence that the entire state of California is his feeder program. It is much to hate about that, especially if you are a Coach that has to face Mater Dei every year. Hate can described the feeling you get when you find out that somehow a top player from a different school just miraculously ended up on Mater Dei roster for the upcoming season. Or a former sports legends son is now calling Mater Dei home. The fact that Mater Dei roster is twenty deep and filled with kids that one spectator that sat next to me and Tyler, called with no shame “Stanley Johnson funders” can obviously rattle some negative and hateful sentiments.
The conversation will be tainted if the heart is not filled with love when you think of the great education that Mater Dei has given to kids for almost no charge. These kids wouldn’t have had the chance to have a competitive high school diploma if attended a local high school. Let’s face a harsh reality. It is a big difference graduating from Mater Dei vice graduating from Verbum Dei of Los Angeles which is a very good school by any measure. We all have heard stories on how kids that display the most athletic talent in the inner-city school districts failed to meet the high academic marks of colleges or the ones that had trouble adapting to an academic environment after high school graduation. Southern California is filled with legends such as Kenny Brunner (Dominguez High) that burned out after high school for numerous reasons. Mater Dei is not exactly Eastside High from the movie “Lean on Me.” It is one of the best academic schools in California. No other school I know will be bold enough to promote wine and beer tasting in Seal Beach to their students for a recreational weekend activity.
The critics are quick to question Mater Dei Basketball program for their success. However, if a deeper look is executed on the entire athletics department, it will be discovered that not only is the football program historic but every sport at Mater Dei is performing on an apex level. Mater Dei is a place where young future professional athletes go to form life long bonds and to get a high school diploma. The Girls basketball team mostly goes unnoticed due to the long success of the boy’s team; however they are number one in the nation in many polls. This school wins and it wins with student athletes that have only two main purposes while in high school and that is to play at the next level and besides doing what a lot of misguided youth athletes do, by only depending on sheer talent, the Mater Dei athletes takes care of business in the classroom in order to go to top notch colleges around the nation. It is a recurring story of a star athlete not cutting it in the classroom. When was the last time anyone heard of a Mater Dei player being suspended due to grade violations. Naturally, the hate in us will deliver the accusation that it might be some grade tampering going on at Mater Dei. However, Mater Dei players do go on to very prestigious colleges and perform very well on the playing field and classrooms. The benefit of being at Mater Dei just for the education aspect will give enough reason recruits will do anything to get a call from Coach Mcknight Staff. The name “Mater Dei” is one of the best recruiting tools they can be utilized. We can hate the fact that it appears as if Coach Mcknight is not developing talent. He is rarely seen in coaching mode during the games, leaving it to assistants to rally and organize the team during live play. It seems that Coach Mcknight has the easiest coaching job in the world which is ambiguous to the critiques of Phil Jackson. We hate the fact that he do not have to worry about having an abundance of talent, he certainly do not have to worry about having a lack of adequate tennis shoes.
However, I do hate the fact that I refuse to Coach a game without a clip board being readily available, but from what I can see, Coach Mcknight does not even need to bring a clipboard in case of the need arises to diagram a game winning play. Maybe he knows that the game will not come down to a last second play. Nobody besides the student athletes and the coaching staff truly knows how influential Coach Mcknight is, to the on court success of Mater Dei but one thing is guaranteed, if any of us was able to build a program of our dreams, Mater Dei will be a template that we will utilize. It is understood even in the harshest critic circles that Mater Dei simply symbolizes winning and it is no way Mater Dei will have a body of work like they do if it was not for Coach Mcknight the architect. All Coaches share the same goals that Coach Mcknight has for his players, which is the burning desire to win, and to go off to college after graduation. Even if he is not the Red Auerbach of high school basketball, which no one has evidence that he is not, he is still responsible for building a story program that will never be mistaken for nothing short of greatness. One major reward when you build a tradition like Mater Dei’s, is that you can obtain things that most schools can only dream of, which can range from tennis shoes endorsements, having games on television, maybe a free spotlight in national media.
Mater Dei reward was The Meruelo Athletic Center. Take my word if you never been, there is no way a potential 8th grader or 9th grader can walk in that gym and not want to run out that tunnel donning the Mater Dei Nike Jersey. This gym has been on my mind constantly. It is not on my mind based on the fact that the hot dogs was a little overpriced or that it is almost impossible to enjoy the game from the general seating areas nor was it the assigned seating that you must abide by. It is on my mind because I believe that this gym is an intentional provocative statement made by the Mater Dei elites. The statement the Meruelo Athletic Center made to me is that Mater Dei has no plans to cease the power grip it has on high school basketball anytime soon. It is my opinion that this marvelous athletic center was a direct statement to schools such as Jserra, which is also a great school, but has made it publicly known that their aim is to dethroned Mater Dei. It will be now nearly impossible for any school to compete with Mater Dei for talented prospects. In the age where kids are driven mostly by materialistic ambitious, Mater Dei provides the perfect basketball heaven to a prospect.
I always wondered what would be the perfect answer on why Mater Dei has had a flow of talent to display since the 80’s. I received that answer when I looked at my son during Mater Dei bravado team introduction. He was absolutely mesmerized by the light show during Mater Dei starting five introductions. He also asked me why Downey High school doesn’t come out like Mater Dei does. Little did I know that Mater Dei was vicariously recruiting my 6 year old son right in front of me. Seeing his expression on his face was a direct replica of all the kids that was present. It was a look of wanting to belong to something greater and the name Mater Dei is that greater purpose. Tyler also told me that he felt as if he was at the Staples Center watching our beloved Lakers come out of the tunnel. His statement did not strike me as odd, considering that Mater Dei had the dam Laker girls there for entertainment during the breaks. You see, my son Tyler really loves the game of basketball, he loves talking strategy and he loves seeing Stanley Johnson play, ever since the first time he saw him play in a loss to Etiwanda in Anaheim last year.
Tyler might grow to be a pretty decent basketball player, he will have great height to assist in that and at the age of six he will always remember Mater Dei as a place where great basketball is on display at a very high level. Along with the other young athletes in attendance, the seed was planted early and from that moment on when these kids think of High school basketball, the first thought will be seeing the Mater Dei Monarch players running through the tunnel taken on a future NBA star in Jahlil Okafor and coming out victorious. I was actually shocked that confetti did not rain from the raptors after the last seconds ticked off the clock. With so many things going for Mater Dei most of us will love to see the hammer dropped on them for whatever the reason might be valid or not. Earlier this decade it was a sex scandal that rocked the Mater Dei basketball program, that had many thinking that Coach Mcknight has seen his last days coaching there, but Mater Dei remained intact. The transfer of Jayce Johnson to Jserra was a pebble thrown considering that Mater Dei received a transfer from stud Rex Pflueger month earlier. One thing we can bet on is that Mater Dei is not going anywhere. Their dominance on high school basketball will continue for at least the next 25 years. No schools that comes to mind ever invested so much in securing a basketball future and hates it or love it, it is the way it is, and it is the way it has always been.
