Valley Women Have a New Leading Man : Low-Key Approach Works for Michelson

Asking Doug Michelson about his last season at Hart High is like CBS News anchorman Dan Rather questioning George Bush on the Iran- contra scandal.

It is not his favorite subject.

After coaching boys’ basketball at Hart for five years, Michelson was not rehired for the 1987-88 season because he was involved in a fight with a referee after Hart’s final regular-season game last year.

“It was an extreme situation where I reacted like any human being,” Michelson said of the altercation. “My feeling in a nutshell is that the punishment did not fit the crime in any way.”

Michelson said the incident was not indicative of his personality.

“You can call any coach in the San Fernando Valley and ask about my reputation,” Michelson said. “I never even got a technical.”

Three months after he was suspended from Hart, Michelson was named women’s basketball coach at Valley College. He took over a Valley team that had one of its best seasons in school history last year under Coach Jim Stephens, who resigned his position to coach the Valley men’s team. The Monarchs finished 25-5 last year and were co-Southern California Conference champions with Trade Tech.

Under Michelson, the Monarchs (20-2, 6-0 in conference play) have won 13 consecutive games en route to what players hope will be an undefeated conference season. Not bad for a team with a roster of only seven players.

Sophomores Dametra Johnson and Bernadette Tillis, first-team all-conference choices last season, credit Michelson for much of Valley’s success.

“Players who were under both him and Coach Stephens are doing better this year,” Johnson said. “They have a different style of coaching. There is not so much yelling and screaming now. Michelson makes his point in a more subtle way.”

Both Johnson and Tillis characterize Michelson as more low-key than his predecessor, a curious profile for a coach who was suspended for fighting.

“I cannot picture him in an incident like that,” Johnson said. “All I know is the subtle Michelson. I’ve never seen the other side.”

Joe Jackson, an assistant under both Stephens and Michelson, said that Valley was fortunate to get the new coach.

“He’s had a lot of chances to blow up at officials since he’s been at Valley, but he’s always taken the positive side of things,” Jackson said.

Michelson’s switch to Valley was his second coaching job at the college level. He coached the Pierce men’s team for two years before going to Hart and was at Poly High, a City Section school, for 11 seasons.

In 16 years of coaching high school basketball, Michelson’s teams won six league championships and advanced to the City final once. His team tied a school win record at Hart (10-0) during the 1983-84 season by going undefeated in Foothill League play.

“Some people say we had a model program at Hart,” said Michelson, who still teaches physical education classes and serves as the girls’ athletic director at the school. “If you wanted to get involved in a high school program, that’s the one you would want to run.”

Michelson’s fond memories of Hart made his forced departure even more disappointing. After he was hired at Valley, Michelson said that he would not have taken the job if he could have remained at Hart, saying, “I was pretty well set.”

While Michelson is now ensconced at Valley, he faced some adjustments in going from coaching high school boys to college women.

“The pace of the game is much slower with the women and they are less sound fundamentally,” Michelson said. “We had to back up a little bit with the fundamentals.”

Not all of Michelson’s adjustments were on the court, however.

“I miss the crowd at Hart, that was a big part of the game,” he said. “When you have 1,200 people screaming and watching your team play up to its optimum level, that’s a great situation.”

By contrast, only a spattering of fans attend women’s games at Valley. Those who show up, however, have been treated to some high-scoring contests.

Five of Valley’s seven players have scoring averages in double figures. Johnson, a 5-10 forward, leads Valley in scoring with a 26.2-point average. The Dorsey High graduate’s strong play has attracted the attention of Division I colleges.

“Dametra is rounding out her game and becoming a very complete player,” Michelson said. “She’s also taking a lot of pride in her defense.”

The Monarchs’ other two sophomores, Tillis and Traci Atkins, are third and fourth in scoring, respectively. Tillis, a 5-4 point guard, scored a game-high 21 points in Valley’s 89-61 win over Antelope Valley on Wednesday.

Michelson also bolstered Valley’s lineup by recruiting such top high school players as Ruth Aguilar, a 5-10 center out of Lincoln High in Los Angeles who was the City Section 3-A Division player of the year last season. Aguilar is second in scoring and leads Valley in rebounding.

Michelson said that he’s improved the Monarchs with his recruiting and by stressing fundamentals.

“Our goal now is to win the conference,” Michelson said. “The girls talk about going undefeated, but I’ve been around coaching long enough to know that you can’t look ahead. I’m trying to communicate that to the players.”

So far, the team has not heard Michelson’s message.

“I think our chances of going undefeated are very realistic,” Johnson said. This team has a lot of talent. We may have only seven players, but they are seven quality players.”