Cal Lutheran Promotes Lopez to a Full-Time Basketball Coach

It took a while, but Larry Lopez has been hired-- finally-- as basketball coach at Cal Lutheran.

Lopez was interim coach of the Kingsmen last season, replacing Ed Anderson, who took a year’s leave of absence.

Lopez, 40, a 1969 graduate of Cal State Northridge, was an assistant to Anderson for two years before leading the Kingsmen last year to a 10-18 record--not a particularly impressive record unless one is familiar with CLU’s lack of a winning basketball tradition.

Before he took over, the Kingsmen were 5-23 in 1985-86 and 8-20 the year before.

But under Lopez, the program became competitive. Cal Lutheran defeated District III power Westmont twice this past season, the first time in 22 years that the Kingsmen accomplished the feat. They also beat two Division II teams--Cal Poly Pomona and Alaska-Fairbanks.

“I thought we had a good year,” he said. “And we played as tough a schedule as anyone in the NAIA.”

Still, the decision to hire Lopez was delayed until Friday when Anderson resigned to care for his wife, Lyla, who is ill. Anderson had a three-year record of 27-64.

“It’s nice not being an interim coach,” Lopez said. “It was a little nerve-racking, having to wait to see if I’d be the coach. But I just wanted to do the job and build the program. I’ve been so busy all year, I haven’t had too much time to get bogged down with it.”

On recent recruiting trips, though, Lopez constantly was reminded of his uncertain status by recruits who wanted to know if he would be the coach.

As of Friday night, when he officially was offered the job by CLU Athletic Director Bob Doering, Lopez has been able to let high school players know that if they came to Cal Lutheran, he was sure that he would be there, too.

“We’re recruiting some real good players,” he said. “I’m real excited about the future. We have most of our players coming back and with a couple more players, I think we’re looking to build a championship team.

“We doubled our wins last year and we look to double our wins again this next season. We really feel like our basketball program will eventually compare with the best Division II and NAIA teams on the West Coast.”