Orange County Prep Review : Mater Dei’s Rare Underdog Role Pays Off

Gary McKnight, Mater Dei High School basketball coach, has talked about the pleasures of being a bit of an underdog in the playoffs, for once.

Now it has finally paid off.

Mater Dei advanced to the Division I boys’ state basketball final for the first time in McKnight’s five seasons by beating previously undefeated Fairfax Saturday night, 46-42, to win the Southern California Division I boys’ basketball championship and advance to the the championship Saturday against Ygnacio Valley of Concord in the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum Arena.

Mater Dei defeated Fresno Edison, 63-62, in a regional semifinal.

“Of the five teams I’ve had, this one (making it to the state final) is quite an accomplishment for these guys,” McKnight said. “You consider I had a team with five starters who got Division I scholarships and didn’t go (to the final),” he said, referring to the 1983 team that lost to Crenshaw in a regional semifinal and included Tom Lewis, Mike Fielder, Mike Mitchell, Matt Beeuwsaert and Chris Jackson, all of whom originally signed with Division I schools.

Mater Dei lost to Crenshaw in overtime in the 1986 regional final.

“You look at this team and they’re going to Oakland,” McKnight said.

LeRon Ellis, the 6-foot 11-inch Monarch center, will attend Kentucky, but it does not appear that any other Monarch starter will play at a Division I school next season, although junior Kevin Rembert likely will be a Division I prospect next year.

McKnight calls his other starters--Chris Patton, Erik Quigley and John Boyle--”very fine players” but said they have not been recruited by Division I schools.

“It took a real team effort along with Ellis,” McKnight said. “. . . To accomplish this when you’re the underdog is the nice thing. In the past we were always favored to win it.”

Add Mater Dei:

McKnight said that plans to charter a plane to Oakland for the championship are under way, with interest so high that the group may fill more than one plane. Bill Mounce, the booster club president, had told McKnight four years ago that a plane would be chartered when the team advanced to the final, McKnight said.

After a wait of several years, all signals are go.

The Orange Unified School District board voted unanimously last week to deny the Canyon football team permission to travel to Hawaii this fall to scrimmage against Honolulu Punahou High School. John Ikerd, acting superintendent, said the board thought that fund-raising for the trip would annoy the community and that the decision reflects a board policy that discourages or denies permission for trips of more than 500 miles.

Numerous Orange County teams have made similar trips in recent years, including Brea-Olinda, Edison and Tustin.

When the Edison girls’ basketball team lost to Point Loma, 56-45, in the title game of the Southern California Division I Regional Saturday, it ended the careers of senior starters Michelle Hennessey, Denise Ogburn and Kristi Smith, as well as Dave White, the Charger coach.

White, who announced before the season that it would be his last as girls’ basketball coach, will continue as coach of the Edison football team. In the seven years White coached the girls’ basketball team, the Chargers were 162-49.

Despite being defeated fairly easily, White found something to praise.

“My two senior guards were just incredible, I thought,” he said. “Even though things weren’t going good, Michelle and Denise never stopped. They showed the kind of character that rubbed off on the whole team all year.”

Tom Redington of Esperanza has hit a home run in each of the Aztecs’ last seven games over two seasons.

Redington, a senior shortstop, hit his fifth home run in five games this season Saturday night as the Aztecs defeated Glendora, 18-12, in the championship of the Glendora tournament.

The streak began when he hit a home run in Esperanza’s 1986 Southern Section 4-A semifinal victory over Simi Valley. He hit another in the championship victory over Fontana in Dodger Stadium last season.

Redington hit into a fielder’s choice in his first at-bat Saturday, then homered in the third inning. He was walked twice and hit by a pitch in his other at-bats.

Dial-an-All-Star Soccer: Two high school all-star soccer matches will be held Friday, but organizers have done away with traditional political boundaries in organizing the teams. Instead of counties, the teams are divided according to telephone area codes.

Manny Toledo, Brea-Olinda boys’ soccer coach, will coach the Area Code 714 team against the Area Code 213 team in a match at 6:30 p.m. Friday at St. Francis High School in La Canada. Area Code 818 will play Area Code 805 in the second match at 8 p.m.

The name may change, but the stadium remains the same. The much-used baseball field in Glover Stadium at Anaheim will be dedicated as Dee Fee Field at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in a ceremony honoring DeeForrest Fee, who was a maintenance worker and supervisor for the City of Anaheim Parks Division for 49 years, from 1937 until his retirement last year. Fee, 72, was called upon several times to help with field upkeep in Anaheim Stadium.

An announcement from the Anaheim Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department noting its pride in the dedication nevertheless refers to the stadium as La Palma Stadium--neglecting to call it Glover Stadium, the name it was given in 1974 in honor of Richard Glover, who coached the Anaheim High School football team from 1931 to 1957. Incidentally, among the many youngsters who played for Glover was Dee Fee.

Football and baseball teams from the Anaheim Union High School District are the primary users of the stadium.