Nocita Seeks Power, Glory for Alemany

Father Michael S. Nocita wants to make an announcement: If your school is a Catholic institution within driving distance of Mission Hills and it has athletic teams, better buckle your chin straps. Here come the Alemany Indians.

“I want to be the leading sports program in the Valley,” the 38-year-old Alemany principal said. “And I want to do it as soon as possible.”

That could be bad news for rivals such as Crespi and Notre Dame. Nocita always has been associated with winning, from his days as chaplain for a championship football team at St. Paul High to his four years as the driving force behind the athletic success of Paraclete High in Lancaster.

“We pushed the sports program up there,” said Nocita, who was principal at Paraclete, “and it paid off.” The program, he said, “averaged seven league championships a year.”

Nocita is now at a school whose boys’ teams have not been known for their success in athletics. So he pushed the boys’ sports program, not only to the students but also to the community. At as many luncheons as one priest could possibly attend in a year, Nocita spread the word, “purposefully trying to raise attention to the fact that we’re a school on the move,” he said.

In one year: new head coaches in football and track, a newly formed booster club and high hopes. “We now have a strong football program and we’re excellent in track and cross-country,” he said.

His mission in Mission Hills: “We want to be able to beat the Crespis of this world. Alemany hasn’t been a dominant force over a period of time,” Nocita said. Then he added, with a laugh, “We’re praying for that to happen now.”

As one of dozens of public parochial schools competing for students with private Catholic schools like Crespi, Notre Dame and Chaminade, Alemany needs to be strong in all areas, Nocita says, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles knows the value of sports. Besides raising morale on campus, a powerhouse athletic team can boost the overall reputation of a school, which in turn draws new students.

By next fall, Alemany’s enrollment--in ninth through 12th grades--will have increased by 100 students, says Nocita, who gives a lot of the credit to the new emphasis on sports.

“Any sensible parent or kid has to realize what great potential there is here,” he said.

If Nocita sounds like a PR man, that’s because he is. Once a month, he represents the archdiocese on KABC radio’s “Religion on the Line.” A William Hurt look-alike, he is glib, smooth, affable and extremely capable of articulating the Church’s positions. But he also has a sly sense of humor.

“I coached back-to-back cross-country champions at Bishop Montgomery,” he said. “I should add, we were undefeated in league meets. Uh-oh. I’m bragging. I have to go to confession now.”

Earlier this month on the tree-lined Alemany campus, a sophomore was asked about her principal. “He’s strict but funny,” Robin Tokunaga said .

Sitting in his muggy office with his collar off and black shirt open at the neck, Nocita leaned back at his desk and admitted: “I guess I am more informal than formal.”

A seminarian as a teen-ager, Nocita was a tour guide at the San Fernando Mission during the summers. After four years of graduate school at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, he became a parish priest and part-time teacher at Mary Star of the Sea in San Pedro. In 1980, Msgr. Jeremiah T. Murphy, then superintendent of Catholic public schools in the archdiocese, asked him to devote all his energies to education.

It was as chaplain of the St. Paul football team in Santa Fe Springs that Nocita came to see how important sports can be in a youngster’s development. In 1981, St. Paul won the Big Five Conference title and after the game, in the locker room at Anaheim Stadium, the team captain led the players in prayer.

“I’m telling you, that was a great moment,” Nocita said. “It was a combination of what Catholic school is all about and total athletic success. It showed me where their minds were: school, God, family and themselves. That’s integration.”

That was also inspiration to Nocita. “I saw the effect and positive fallout from that experience,” he said. “I saw kids become better men.”

But sports, particularly when winning is overemphasized, can be counterproductive. Nocita knows all about what he calls the “evils of competition.” But Alemany will not be a win-at-all-costs school. “I reject that philosophy,” he said. Instead, he says, Alemany will develop a student’s inner resources and faith to help him to overcome obstacles and not be inflated by victory or crushed by defeat.

“We won’t lose sight of what’s important in life,” he said. “We could lose 20 games and the kids would still believe in themselves.” Then he grinned and said, “But winning is better.”

Nocita will not have to worry about wins and losses again until September. In the meantime, he will head his pickup truck to Canada for a summer of river rafting, backpacking and observing “flora and fauna.” A self-described “fledgling naturalist,” Nocita has roamed the world getting close to nature. Framed in his office is a photo he took in Africa of an 850-pound mountain gorilla. A possible recruit for the defensive line?

“I wouldn’t use the word recruit,” he said, smiling. “It makes the CIF nervous.”