Pride OF South Gate

Myra Kremen, dean of students at South Gate High, starts to tell a story about the school’s most notable athlete when she begins to cry. The name “Lorenzo” is spoken and tears flow.

It isn’t because Lorenzo Mata-Real is a basketball star at UCLA. The 6-foot-9, 237-pound senior is only the backup center. He averages 3.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in 14.3 minutes a game for the Bruins, who play Western Kentucky tonight in an NCAA West Regional semifinal.

But Mata-Real has made a lasting impact at his largely Latino high school for his intrepid progress as a student, for his allegiance to his former coaches and teachers and for his acceptance of whatever role he has been given by Bruins Coach Ben Howland.

Mata-Real was the starting center for last year’s UCLA Final Four team and then stepped aside as freshman star Kevin Love took over his spot. Love leads the Bruins with averages of 17.3 points and 10.6 rebounds. Mata-Real leads in gracious role changing, which doesn’t surprise anyone at South Gate.

“Lorenzo was the tallest kid in school from the time he was in ninth grade,” Kremen said. “But he never expected special treatment. He did detention just like everybody. Never for anything bad. The only bad thing he did was be tardy sometimes. Oh, and once he lost a geography book. I told him, ‘Lorenzo, I know you play basketball but you have to pay for the lost book like everybody else.’ And he did.”

Kremen is also the timekeeper at most sporting events at South Gate and she was touched earlier this basketball season when she noticed Mata-Real arrive at a game.

“He came in the back door with his sweat shirt hood pulled over his head,” she recalled. “He didn’t want everyone to make a big deal or stop and look at him. He just snuck in the back and sat in the stands.”

And that’s what makes Mata-Real both admired and respected at South Gate. It isn’t that he plays for one of the best college basketball teams in the country. It’s that he comes back to high school to say hi to his history teacher, Ron Davis, to speak to players on Coach Lester Sanchez’s basketball team and to help Kremen operate the clock. “He did that this year,” Kremen said. “There was a problem, I asked him to help and he did.”

The big reaction he gets to the little things he does surprises Mata-Real, but he also understands.

“Every time I go back, people want to talk to me and ask me questions, and every time I look at them and wonder why,” he said. “But I guess they just think about me as a success story, so that’s cool.”

Raymond Villalba and Joshua Suarez were both seniors on this season’s South Gate team. They know Mata-Real mostly by reputation because they were freshmen when Mata-Real led the Rams to an 18-8 record and an unprecedented unbeaten Eastern League season by averaging 25 points and 18 rebounds.

Villalba and Suarez are going to Long Beach State in the fall, not for basketball but for education. That Mata-Real is playing in the Sweet 16 tonight will make for some rowdy rooting, Villalba said. The knowledge that Mata-Real will probably leave UCLA with his degree in history has made a deeper impression.

“Lorenzo is a Mexican American like most of us here and it has been so great to see him go to a Division I school and play basketball,” Villalba said. “There haven’t been many Hispanics who do great at basketball. But he’s also getting a degree from UCLA and that doesn’t happen for many of us either. He’s a great role model.”

Mata-Real recalls that when he was a South Gate student, “I always thought . . . it would be cool if other guys had come back. Now I can tell guys that no matter what you can make it.

“I wasn’t always the greatest student or the greatest player that there ever was, but if you have people to tell you not to quit, that really helps.”

Davis was Mata-Real’s 11th-grade history teacher. Davis wore a UCLA polo shirt to school Monday, partly in honor of Mata-Real but mostly because he is a UCLA graduate. Davis first noticed Mata-Real because of his height.

“He was a 6-7 ninth grader,” Davis said. “We just don’t see that much at this school. I’m a tall guy myself so I introduced myself by walking up to him and saying, ‘It’s nice to see someone here taller than I am.’ He just gave me a sheepish smile and lowered his head.

“When I had him for U.S. history as an 11th grader, at first I noticed he wasn’t doing all the work. I spoke to his mother [Reyna Real] and his coach and pretty soon Lorenzo was buckling down. He was no dummy at all. What shocked me, though, was when I found out he was majoring in history in college. He never told me, but he told others it was because of me.”

It was. “I didn’t always like history until Mr. Davis,” Mata-Real said. “Then he made me laugh in history. Now I love it.”

Said Davis: “I see him now, how he comports himself at UCLA, how he has handled success and adversity with class. I love the kid.”

Sal Serrano was South Gate’s head coach when Mata-Real played. Sanchez was the assistant and also offered a strong guiding hand to the young man he first noticed walking down the street, bouncing a basketball.

“We saw how tall he was,” Sanchez said, “and asked him to come out to basketball practice.

“The first day of practice, Lorenzo came and after about 30 minutes we blew the whistle and stopped for a water break. When the break was over, Lorenzo was gone. When I finally tracked him down I said, ‘Lorenzo, where did you go?’ He said, ‘Coach, I thought practice was over.’ That’s how little Lorenzo knew about organized basketball.”

Sanchez imitates perfectly Mata-Real’s baritone voice and short answers. Sanchez, now South Gate’s head coach, also calls Mata-Real several times a week, offering himself as both sounding board and counselor.

“Lorenzo always calls me back,” Sanchez said. “The one time he didn’t, I called him again, kind of mad. My phone went off about 10 that night. When I answered Lorenzo said, ‘Coach. It’s me, Lorenzo.’ I asked him why he was calling so late and he said, ‘Coach, I just got back from my tutoring session.’ I told him to get back to the tutor.”

Mata-Real’s best friends are still two former high school teammates, Jose Sanchez and Manny Fajardo. He has had his South Gate High jersey retired and been grand marshal of the South Gate Christmas Parade.

For all that, Sanchez said, Mata-Real has made his community proud. “He went to UCLA and proved to doubters he could do the school work,” Sanchez said. “On the basketball court he’s always willing to stick his nose in, cheer for his teammates and never say a bad word. We all love him here. All of us.”

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diane.pucin@latimes.com

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WEST REGIONAL

Today at Phoenix

No. 3 Xavier vs.

No. 7 West Virginia, 4:10 p.m.

No. 1 UCLA vs.

No. 12 Western Kentucky, 6:40 p.m.*

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SOUTH REGIONAL

Friday at Houston

No. 2 Texas vs.

No. 3 Stanford, 4:25 p.m.

No. 1 Memphis vs.

No. 5 Michigan State, 6:55 p.m.*

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EAST REGIONAL

Today at Charlotte, N.C.

No. 1 North Carolina vs.

No. 4 Washington State, 4:25 p.m.

No. 2 Tennessee vs.

No. 3 Louisville, 6:55 p.m.*

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MIDWEST REGIONAL

Friday at Detroit

No. 3 Wisconsin vs.

No. 10 Davidson, 4:10 p.m.

No. 1 Kansas vs.

No. 12 Villanova, 6:40 p.m.*

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All games on Channel 2 (times Pacific); *Time approximate. The West and South regional winners, and Midwest and East winners meet in the Final Four (April 5 in San Antonio).