Hattrup’s Just Mad About Mission Viejo : Diablo Girls May Be Better Than ’83 Team

Beaten, battered, hanging by a bolt, Mission Viejo may be the cozy home of the California Promise, but it’s certainly bullish on basketball rims.

The iron hoop, dangling on the north end of the Mission Viejo High School auxiliary gym, greets members of the Diablos’ girls’ basketball team, which, after a few days off for the holidays, is back at practice with its coach, the meanest man in girls’ basketball.

And he’s not so happy right now as he thinks about another day’s practice with that sagging hoop, a victim of some recreation league Dr. J.

John Hattrup is in his 10th season at Mission Viejo. In the previous nine he has led the Diablos to six South Coast League titles and a Southern Section 3-A title in 1983.

He is very good and therefore most of his teams have been very good. But in the past few seasons, very good has not been good enough in the 3-A division, recently dominated by powers Brea-Olinda and Foothill.

But this season, Foothill is down. Brea, though still one of the top teams in the county, appears mortal. And Hattrup thinks he has his best team since that 1983 champion.

“We’re always good,” he said. “But that doesn’t get you a lot of notice in this division. This team could really go places. I really like what we’ve done so far.”

What the Diablos have done is go 11-1. Their only loss came in the final of the Marina-Edison Tournament when they lost to Edison, the top-ranked team in the county, 51-45.

But as practice starts, the Diablos look anything but awesome. Players are tight after their layoff. Hattrup, however, is not.

He has built quite a reputation as being, uh, well he’s very, uh . . .

“Loud,” said Marc Hill, Esperanza coach. “He’s just as intense as his players. I think that counts a lot towards their success.”

Hattrup has been known to warm up with his players before games. He has also been known to rip and run them to shreds during practice.

Today he tells his team that, the Edison game aside, he’s pretty pleased with the way things have gone this season. A few minutes later he will encourage his players to try to dunk through the slanted basket that probably measures eight feet in the air.

“C’mon, go for it!”

When center Lori Totosz does dunk, Hattrup is the one leading the cheers.

Soon after, he will tear into one player for several minutes, concluding that she could have been a great ballplayer except for some flaw in her character.

But that is Hattrup, full of contradictions, changing like the weather. Players who want to be around for a while must learn to adjust. As several veterans players said: “You’ve got to understand that off the court John is your best friend. On the court, he’s a jerk.”

Which is not a rap Hattrup would deny. He would just like people to see the other, off-court side of his personality.

“I think people think of me as this horrible monster,” he said. “Because of how intense I get during a game, the fact that I’m still acting like a maniac when we’re ahead by 40 points. But they don’t see the other side. I wish they could--they’d see I’m not really such a bad guy.”

What he is, is a very good coach.

“Without him around to make me play, I wouldn’t be much of a player,” guard Tricia Stringam said. “For all his yelling, it comes down to the fact that he makes us better. He makes us play.”

Said Mark Thornton, Marina coach: “ Definitely one of the best in the county. He’s one of the best at getting his team motivated to play. They go hard all the time.”

This season, Hattrup may have his deepest team. Mission Viejo returned forward Michelle Reid, the South Coast League’s most valuable player, as well as point guard Christie Wile and Totosz.

Stringam was rated one of the top underclassmen in the nation, and 6-foot 2-inch Colleen Amaya has played extremely well.

“Amaya may be the difference in this team this year,” Hattrup said. “Michelle had a slow start this season, but it didn’t matter because Colleen was there. That’s the way it’s been all season--someone is always there to pick up the slack.”

Mission Viejo has six players averaging between 8 and 14 points a game.

“It’s great for me,” Wile said. “You can give the ball to anyone on this team and they know what to do with it. Makes me look good.”

Which doesn’t take much. Wile, a senior, has started since she was a sophomore and is, as Hattrup says, “the heart, soul and glue of this team.”

And this team could just end up in the 3-A final, which would turn the California Promise, structural problems aside, into a reality.