The Preps : Rolling Hills’ Coach Makes Up for Lost Time

Cliff Warren, having experienced both, knows all about great starts and great comebacks. It’s just the middle that’s missing.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come back sooner,” he said.

In 1963, as a 22-year-old rookie coach, Warren took the El Segundo High School basketball team to the Southern Section 2-A title.

Three years later, the Eagles reached the semifinals, and the next season, after winning 34 straight games, they lost in overtime to Monrovia in the 3-A championship game, then the major division.

In a two-season stretch, 1966-68, Warren’s teams, which included several All-Southern Section choices and 1967 Player of the Year Dana Pagett, won 51 of 52 games.

Then Warren moved up, to Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. Bad move, it turned out. He missed Southern California and said bye-bye to Walla Walla after one season.

Soon afterward, the real estate firm of Cliff Warren Investments was formed in Hermosa Beach, and that’s where Warren stayed. Even so, his thoughts strayed frequently to coaching basketball.

“His son played at Palos Verdes High, so (Cliff) was always coming to the games,” longtime Palos Verdes Coach John Mihaljevich recalled the other day. “We talked. He mentioned to me one time that he wondered when I was going to retire so that he could take my job. He said he was getting tired of playing golf all the time.”

The opening finally occurred last season at Rolling Hills, four miles away. Warren was 47 and hadn’t coached since the late 1960s, but that didn’t seem to make a difference. Apparently, it still doesn’t.

Rolling Hills, which will play Compton Centennial in a Southern Section quarterfinal game tonight at 7:30 at Redondo High, is 23-3 and ranked No. 1 in the 3-A and in the State Division II. One of the losses was by a point to Palos Verdes in the Miraleste Tournament--the Titans later beat Palos Verdes three times--and the others were to out-of-staters Seattle Kennedy and Las Vegas Bishop Gorman in the Rancho Tournament at Las Vegas in December.

“Most of my friends are coaches,” Warren said. “I was led to believe that everything is different now. But I think everything is the same. Maybe I’m real fortunate or it’s just the type of kids that I’ve had for the past two years, but everything seems the same.

“I was a little surprised last year. However, I’m really not coaching for the wins. I know it’s more fun when you win, but the most important thing is the type of boys that you have. I decided that if I was having fun, if the kids were still trying hard and they wanted to win, that I would keep coaching.”

Maybe he’s just real fortunate? Hardly, says Mihaljevich, who is in his 20th season at Palos Verdes and has coached standouts such as Bill Laimbeer, Jan van Breda Kolff, Jim Spillane, Brian Jackson and Mark Acres.

“One of the things that he does real well is keep everything simple,” Mihaljevich said. “I think that he’s also strong at adopting strategies to suit players better than a lot of coaches do. They’re fundamentally sound. He does understate his own contributions.”

Last season, Warren posted a 21-6 record and reached the 4-A quarterfinals with a team that had no returning starters and little height. The Titans lost two starters from that team, physical front-line players Rick Batt and Mike Rudberg, but returned six of their top eight and, with an all-senior starting lineup, went undefeated en route to the Bay League title. That with a front line of players 6-2, 6-3 and 6-4.

“We know we’re not a dominating team,” said Warren, a part-time coach who still spends days at the office. “I had dominating teams at El Segundo. I had big, strong players so that we could have bad games and still win. Our particular team now, we have to battle and play hard all the time because we don’t have the size. We’re vulnerable every game out and we know it. The last two years, we have won so many close games it’s unbelievable.”

Rolling Hills’ two best players, Cameron Terry and Doug Gehr, are probably out of position. Terry, a 6-foot 3-inch off guard, is averaging 16 points a game but is better suited for the point. And Gehr, a 6-4 forward, is an outside player forced to play the post because of the Titans’ lack of size. Still, he has averaged 21 points and 8.5 rebounds, both tops on the team.

“It makes it tough for him,” Warren said of Gehr. “But we have to do it that way. We have to leave him inside most of the time for rebounding and the inside game. He’s actually one of the real pure shooters around.”

Warren is three wins away from his second Southern Section title, 24 years later. At a school on the higher reaches of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, he could end up being king of the hill.

Just like before.

Center Brian Williams of Santa Monica St. Monica, one of the top basketball prospects in the nation, said he will sign in April with Maryland, the school he visited last weekend. He had also considered UCLA, Temple and Washington.

St. Monica (19-6) will play Huntington Beach Ocean View (18-6) in a Southern Section 5-A quarterfinal game tonight at Santa Monica High.

Prep Notes Tonight’s match-ups for the City 4-A semifinals at the Sports Arena: Defending champion Crenshaw (18-4), vs. Cleveland (19-3) at 7:30 and Dorsey (16-5) vs. No. 1 Fairfax (23-0) at 9:15. In the girls’ games, Jordan (15-7) vs. Crenshaw (16-4) at 4 p.m. and defending champion and No. 1 Kennedy (20-3) vs. Westchester (13-4) at 5:45. In 3-A boys’ play, Los Angeles (15-9) is at Birmingham (21-2,) and San Fernando (15-8) is at Granada Hills (18-4). In girls’ 3-A play, Reseda (12-2) plays at Garfield (12-2) and North Hollywood (14-0) plays host to Lincoln (14-0). . . . All Southern Section teams are in the quarterfinals, with the boys playing tonight and the girls Saturday. . . . Dan Arnold of Salton City West Shores won the Southern Section regular-season rebounding title with an average of 21.1. Evric Gray of Bloomington led all non-Small Schools players with 16.2. In girls’ competition, Kathy Lizarraga of Calexico was No. 1 in scoring with a 31.2-point average, and Tasha Bradley of Pasadena Muir led rebounders with 19.8 a game. Both are juniors. . . . Bradley’s coach, Archie Newton, has announced his resignation, effective at the end of the season.

Armando Gonzalez of Franklin has been named as the third South coach for the Shrine all-star football game. . . . Dick Flaherty, an assistant at Canyon Country Canyon, has been named football coach at Saugus. . . . Linebacker Chris Rising of L.A. Loyola will play for Duke. . . . Prime Ticket will televise four boys’ basketball title games, including the state Division I final from Oakland. The City 4-A game, with Geoff Witcher and Brad Holland, will be shown March 6 on a same-night delay at 12:30 and then March 9 at 10 p.m. The Southern Section 5-A contest, with Randy Rosenbloom and Holland, will be shown March 7 on a same-night delay at 11 p.m. and again March 10 at 10 p.m. Witcher and Holland will team up for the Division I Southern California Regional final March 14, delayed until 11 p.m., and the state championship game March 21 at 8 p.m. . . . Steve Gillette has resigned as football coach at La Canada. . . . Craig Falconer, basketball coach at Costa Mesa, has resigned. . . . Tony Lipold has resigned as basketball coach at Garden Grove Bolsa Grande. The Matadors lost to Etiwanda in the second round of the Southern Section playoffs Tuesday, 79-76.