School Is Small but Cager Has a Big Goal: Playing for One of Major Colleges

Brad Ermeling looks more like he belongs on the cover of GQ magazine than a basketball court. He’s your typical clean-cut, all-American boy with short, sandy hair and grayish-blue eyes.

Maybe a modeling job wouldn’t be such a bad idea for the 6-1 senior forward at South Bay Lutheran High in Inglewood.

It’s not that he doesn’t belong on a basketball court. He was the league most valuable player last year when he averaged 19.5 points and 9 rebounds a game.

His performance in last year’s CIF postseason tournament earned him a trip to Singapore where he was a member of the CIF Small Schools international all-star team.

Ermeling scored 24 points and 30 rebounds in the first round of CIF playoffs even though Lutheran lost in double overtime to California Christian.

This season has gone much the same. Ermeling leads the Waves in scoring (20) and rebounding (15). He’s seventh in the South Bay in scoring, second in rebounding and sixth in assists (6.8).

With statistics like those, it’s hard to overlook his basketball talent, even if he looks more like a California beach boy than a ballplayer.

“He just has a great drive to excel, much more than kids with exceptional talent,” said Grace Community basketball Coach Brian Gibson, whose team took two

beatings from the Waves last season. “He’s not afraid to take it to the basket. Some kids have potential but not the drive to take it to the hole. Brad does.”

So there’s no question about Ermeling’s ability. The problem is that he plays at a small school that started its basketball program just three years ago and is in a league where competition is weak.

South Bay Lutheran, 5-0 in the Westside League and 11-3 overall, has won the last two league titles, first with a group of all sophomores, then juniors. Usually they blow away league opponents with little effort.

“That’s why we’re trying to get into a different league,” said Lutheran Coach Norbert Huber. “I feel with the personnel we have we can play with the bigger schools. And exposure is just not there as far as college recruiters go at our level.”

The lack of exposure is part of Ermeling’s problem. That and the fact that he’s not pushed once league play begins. He’d like to play college basketball next year. So far, only small schools like Christ College in Irvine and the University of Redlands, a Division III school, have shown interest.

“He could really add enthusiasm, hustle, team play and good overall ability,” said Christ College Coach Dave Wild. “Another thing is that he has a natural gift as a shooter.”

But Ermeling is thinking big time. He would like to play at UCLA or Arizona State. He’s applied to both and may be a walk-on if he decides to attend one of them. Academically, it shouldn’t be a problem because he’s a straight-A student, but he probably isn’t ready for that caliber of basketball.

“I think Brad could play with one of the larger high schools now,” Huber said. “Maybe his stats wouldn’t be as high, but he could do well.

“I don’t think, however, that he’s at the level to play at UCLA or Arizona State. I think he could play at a smaller four-year.”

Wild agrees with Huber, although he says it’s hard to predict what development can occur in Ermeling’s game by the end of this season.

“Right now, I don’t project that he can play at that level,” Wild said, “and to walk on might be kind of tough.”

Perhaps if Ermeling didn’t attend a private school and played at North Torrance High, he would have received better-quality playing time and caught the attention of more college scouts.

He often wonders what he could have accomplished had he gone to a school where competition is tougher and his basketball potential would have possibly been pushed to the limit.

“I guess sometimes I do regret not playing against harder teams and the exposure of a bigger school,” Ermeling said. “But I really like this school. This is where I belong.”

He doesn’t regret attending a school that has only 65 students. He says he’s happy to be one of the pioneers of the South Bay Lutheran basketball program, especially since he was a starter his freshman year. He recognizes that at a school like North Torrance, he probably would have sat on the bench his first two years.

“I wouldn’t trade the experience,” he said. “Since the program started, there were no seniors to keep me from getting starting experience so early.”

Besides,it’s too late to think about what could have been, so Ermeling is concentrating on what can be. He plans to go all out his last season and hopes to lead his team past the first round of playoffs.

“He’ll make a difference because he’s such an overachiever,” Huber said. “He doesn’t possess that much God-given talent, but he works hard to get maximum potential.”

Plus the 18-year-old feels comfortable where he is. Not only because he’s had games where he’s scored 36 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists (against Ribet Christian) or because he was 3 for 3 in three-pointers against Highland Hall a couple of weeks ago. He’s also content because the lax competition allows him to be relaxed and, thus, perform better.

“I’m always loose,” he said with a slight grin. “It’s like being in a playground. I only hope that I can stay that way for the big games, like CIF playoffs.”