A LOW PROFILE : Peabody Doesn’t Get Noticed--He Just Wins

If you accept the system that judges a point guard by his team’s won-loss record, there is no question who’s the best in Orange County.

Mater Dei High School’s Tom Peabody. It’s not even close.

With Peabody at the point the last two seasons, the Monarchs are 54-0. They won the 5-A championship last season. And they are favored to do it again as they open the 1986 playoffs tonight against St. Francis at Valencia High School.

Now, the won-loss system may be a bit flawed, because:

--Peabody has had the elongated arms of Tom Lewis, Mike Mitchell, Stuart Thomas and LeRon Ellis to pass to.

--The won-loss theory is basically espoused by one man, Gary McKnight, Peabody’s coach.

“The bottom line for a point guard is the final score,” he says. “Points, assists, all the other stats don’t matter in the end. Just the score. If you look at it that way, there’s just no comparison.”

Actually, there’s plenty.

Peabody, Capistrano Valley’s Nathan Call and Ocean View’s Blaine DeBrouwer are generally considered Orange County’s three best point guards. But don’t try to figure where Peabody stands with them.

Call and DeBrouwer are high-profile players. They score a lot of points and get a lot of headlines.

Not Peabody, perhaps the county’s best defensive guard. Peabody delights in what he calls “the little things.”

Little things amount to hustling and falling on loose balls, a practice that has left some not-so-little bruises.

“He’s missed a couple games just because he’s been so beat up,” McKnight said.

Peabody has learned to be content with a glancing hand slap for a nice pass or a defensive assignment’s low point total.

“Sometimes I’ll play a game and think I did really well,” he said. “You know, played good defense, hustled, did the little things. But when you open the paper all you see is that Stuart scored 34 points.

“I’ve just had to learn to find satisfaction in myself. I don’t mind other guys getting the publicity. It’s because of players like Stuart Thomas that colleges are looking to recruit me.”

Said Dave Taylor, an assistant varsity coach and Peabody’s JV coach: “He’s had to give up some personal goals for Mater Dei.”

One little thing that Peabody had to overcome was terror. Terror of being on the Mater Dei varsity.

“You’ve got to understand that being part of this program is really a different experience,” Peabody said. “The players are so good, the team is so well-known, it’s intimidating.”

Peabody remembers nursing the rock in his stomach as a sophomore thinking about practicing against the Monarch varsity--a team that included Lewis (now at USC), Mitchell (Fresno State) and Matt Beeuwsaert (Notre Dame).

Peabody remembers his embarrassment before his junior season when his picture graced a Mater Dei poster with Lewis and Mitchell. The caption read: Tom Peabody, a future star .

“I had no business on a poster with those guys,” he said. “ I tried to hide the ones I saw.”

Also that season, he remembers the weight of the world--that which surrounds Mater Dei basketball--on his shoulders, worrying that anything that went wrong was somehow his responsibility.

He remembers considering going out for football when the burden seemed too heavy.

What George Denninghoff, a Mater Dei team manager, remembers is Peabody’s kindness.

“He was the first guy on the team to really talk to me,” Denninghoff said. “You know, more than ‘get me a towel.’ He’s really been nice.”

Peabody said: “I know how it feels to be the little guy. I was uncomfortable when I first got up here. And when George first came on, I knew he’d feel uncomfortable. I did my freshman year. Guys like Matt really helped me feel a little more at ease.”

When he got to Mater Dei, Peabody had all of two years experience playing basketball. He played on a freshman team that included current varsity players John Mounce, Mark Redoutey and Mike O’Connor.

As a sophomore Peabody moved on to the junior varsity where he teamed up with Thomas to lead that team to a 19-2 record.

Thomas, averaging 19.8 points a game, is hoping the two will have a few more seasons together. Thomas has already signed with Stanford, a school that’s interested in Peabody.

“I’m praying he goes there,” Thomas said. “He sees the whole court about as well as anyone. I’m hoping, I really am.”

Peabody played forward his first two seasons. His junior year he moved up to the varsity and found out, quite late, that he’d be the point guard.

“It was kind of a last-minute thing,” Taylor said. “We decided we needed an athlete at the point. Someone to bring the ball up against pressure and to guard the other team’s best player.”

Peabody limited Call to 12 points on 6 of 24 shooting when Mater Dei beat Capistrano Valley, 67-54.

“If he can limit their best player or take him out of his normal flow, it’s going to mess up the whole team,” Taylor said. “He does it game in and game out.”

As McKnight tells it Peabody’s responsibilities have grown from just defense and dribbling.

“In our offensive system we really only play with one guard,” he said. “That puts a lot of pressure on him. He knows he has to get the ball to the guy who’s hot. Plus he has to make sure he doesn’t hurt someone else’s feelings by not giving them the ball. He has to be a diplomat. He has to take control of the game.”

But wait, there’s more.

“He has to keep everyone happy. He has to listen to me yell at him all the time, because I take a lot of my anger out on our point guard, and he’s got to get back on defense to guard their best player. That’s a lot to think about.”

And Peabody does.

Don’t let the full-court smile during games fool you. Peabody doesn’t just think about his responsibilities. He frets. He worries. Seems like not a lot has changed in a season.

“The smile is there to hide how nervous I am,” he said.

There is a good reason why McKnight’s description of Peabody went without a mention of scoring.

Peabody doesn’t. Well, not consistently.

He scored 16 points against Servite last week, but his season average is 5.5. It’s not that he can’t score, it’s almost that he won’t allow himself.

“He’s so unselfish that he thinks he should only be setting up other people to score,” Taylor said. “When I coached him on JVs I used to have to yell at him to shoot. He would just keep passing the ball inside to Stu.”

What it amounts to is that Peabody feels responsible for the team. For everything that goes on with the team. On and off the court.

As a reporter winds down an interview by asking Peabody how he’d like to be remembered by teammates he says, “As someone they could always rely on.”

The interview ends. Peabody spies teammate Erik Quigley’s practice jersey in McKnight’s office. A 25-cent fine. Soon after, Peabody sees Quigley in the Mater Dei parking lot.

“Erik, I didn’t know you were still around,” he said. “Your jersey is in the coach’s office.”

Quigley frowns.

“But don’t worry,” the captain says. “I’ll pay the fine.”