Mater Dei, Woodbridge Return : To the Champs Go Heroes’ Welcomes

Mater Dei High School’s championship basketball team was greeted by a chorus of cheers from about 50 enthusiastic fans who braved chilly temperatures and rain Monday night at John Wayne Airport.

“This is really something, isn’t it,” said Father Michael Harris, Mater Dei’s popular principal, as he traded hugs and warm handshakes with players and parents.

Only moments earlier, Harris had lifted both hands high in a victory salute as he exited AirCal Flight 73 from the Bay Area to the roar of waiting supporters who began chanting, “We are MD! We are MD!”

On Saturday, the Mater Dei Monarchs defeated Ygnacio Valley of Concord, 69-51, for their first ever California Division I championship at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum Arena.

Smaller Public School

Also on Saturday, Woodbridge High in Irvine clinched its first state Division II crown by beating De Anza of Richmond, 89-63.

Woodbridge, a smaller public school with 1,463 students and whose team returned home Sunday, honored its team at a sports banquet at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station Officer’s Club Monday night.

Mater Dei, a private Catholic school in Santa Ana with about 2,200 students, held celebrations Saturday and allowed players and coaches a chance to sightsee before returning to Orange County.

On Monday, Mater Dei boosters decided to give their team the red carpet treatment, but flight delays ruled that out. Instead, they improvised with a roll of red paper.

“Hey, our hearts are in the right place,” said Carol Ann LaRosa, Mater Dei assistant activities director.

Triumphant Return

“This is just like being in a small community in the Midwest,” LaRosa said, ushering boosters at the airport. “It’s like winning basketball games in Indiana. I love it.”

But the weekend’s emotional moment, Monarch supporters recalled, was the team’s triumphant return to their hotel immediately after the game.

More than 500 delirious students, parents and fans jammed two levels of Oakland’s Hyatt Hotel lobby that night, waving pompons and cheering their team’s entrance, LaRosa said.

The final game had everything, LaRosa said. Group W cable television broadcast the Monarchs’ victory live to Orange County, while AM radio station KPZE did play-by-play announcing.

Leilani Justice, a former florist who raised four Mater Dei alumni, continued what has become a tradition, bringing floral leis of red and white carnations--the school colors--for the team and coaches.

Cheerleaders Won

Even Mater Dei’s cheerleaders got into the act with a last-minute arrival to perform at half-time after winning a competition in Los Angeles just hours earlier. The school was clearly on a roll.

“Three weeks ago, our song girls won first place in national competition in Florida and the following week our cheerleading squad also took first in the same competition,” LaRosa said. “So on Saturday, with the basketball victory, the feeling inside the lobby was just awesome.”

On Sunday, Father Harris, in his final year as principal, took the team to dinner after sightseeing in the Bay Area. Harris will become principal of the new Santa Margarita High School in south Orange County next fall. “Father wanted a special time with the team,” LaRosa explained.

Meanwhile, after Woodbridge High’s winning game, players and coaches had dinner with their families in the Bay Area, Principal Greg Cops said.

Cops, in perhaps the most understated quote of the prep basketball sports year, said: “It’s our culmination of a very good season.”

Academics Above Sports

But the remark was in character with Woodbridge’s reputation of putting academics above sports, being consistently ranked in the state’s top percentiles in achievement tests.

Cops attributed the basketball team’s finest moment, in part, to the season’s theme, which was “Synergism.”

It was that message which the school’s founding principal intoned immediately following the team’s victory Saturday night.

“Synergism, and don’t ask me to spell that right now, means the individual parts make up a group which is stronger than any of the individual parts. We had a balanced team, we had good athletes who were strong in academics.”