‘Unknown’ and Undefeated : Marauders’ Schedule May Be a Mystery, But Win Streak Isn’t

You cannot find Miraleste High School’s basketball schedule in the CIF master schedule. If you called the CIF office and asked about it, they would tell you Miraleste’s schedule is “unknown” and that inquiries would have to be handled by the school.

Well, the Marauders are no longer unknown--they’re undefeated. Last Friday Miraleste beat the Orange Panthers and have started the season that almost wasn’t with a 3-0 record.

The Marauders have reason to be happy now, but they have had to overcome and will have to overcome several hurdles this basketball season. For example, the Marauders will play in a league they cannot win with a perfect record and play a schedule that has 75% of its games after Jan. 4.

Friday’s 63-59 victory by Coach Todd Mirsky’s team represented a hard-fought victory on the court, but Miraleste recorded a bigger victory in the court last spring that prevented the school from closing. The Palos Verdes School District voted to close the school in the fall of ‘87, but a judge’s ruling last May 10 reversed the decision. On May 11, the Miraleste athletic program had to schedule an entire year of competition, starting from scratch. “I met with the CIF commissioner (Stan Thomas) and he assured me that everything would be done to make sure we had a competition schedule,” said John White, former Miraleste principal and now manager of facilities and planning for the school district.

“But that was easy rhetoric, it was a tough task.” White said that football and basketball were hardest to schedule. The football team landed in the Olympic League and did fairly well, finishing 4-5. The basketball team made it into the Alpha League but not before overcoming several obstacles.

While the legal battle to keep the school open was fought, the basketball team practiced as if it knew nothing of the impending closure.

“The gym was always open so we came and played,” said junior forward Dave Terrell. Mirsky said all of the players showed up for spring basketball drills, even while they were registering for fall classes at Rolling Hills and Palos Verdes.

When Miraleste received the word to stay open, the immediate problem for the basketball team was the summer schedule--it didn’t have one.

“We were excluded from everything we had been involved in over the last eight or 10 years,” said Mirsky, in his fourth year of coaching the varsity. “I called Torrance (summer league) and they said, ‘You’ve been replaced.’ ” Mirsky does not blame the directors of the league because Miraleste technically did not exist for the ‘88-89 school year.

Undaunted, Mirsky scheduled as many games as he could--four. The Marauders played Mary Star twice, Mira Costa and an all-star team from Australia. Most CIF teams play about 20 games during the summer.

“It’s hard to keep kids working hard with no games,” Mirsky said. “But they never missed practice; it’s almost like they had blinders on and focused on basketball.”

The scheduling problem continued into the school year. Since most schools complete their schedules before the summer , Mirsky had to scramble to get games. Then the CIF helped out. It issued a special dispensation that allowed schools to play a 21st game against Miraleste that would not count against their records. The CIF limit for games is 20.

“When coaches found out they could play a free game against a 1-A school with declining enrollment, my phone was ringing off the hook,” Mirsky said. “I was the most popular guy in California.”

Most schools fill their early schedules with tournaments, but Miraleste, because of its late start, could enter only the Orange tournament. The result is an erratic schedule that has the Marauders playing only five games in December, including one in a 21-day span. The Marauders played last on Friday and won’t play again until the Orange tourney beginning Dec. 27. The new year quickens the pace for Miraleste when it will play five games in eight days.

In January, the Marauders open league play, sort of. Alpha League coaches voted to allow the Marauders in the league but also voted unanimously to exclude Miraleste from playoff contention. Miraleste will play a full league schedule, but the games do not count in the standings.

The full-fledged members of the league--L.A. Baptist, Maranatha, Montclair Prep, Marshall Fundamental, Village Christian and Western Christian--receive, in effect, two practice games against a league opponent.

Because of Miraleste’s unique situation, its schedule contains divisional and geographical incongruities. For example, Miraleste opened the season with a 69-66 win against El Rancho of Pico Rivera, a 5-AA school, and then beat Capistrano Valley Christian of San Juan Capistrano, 53-37. In January, Miraleste plays at Salesian of Los Angeles and hosts Pater Noster of Glendale, two 2-A private schools.

The Alpha League presents a geography lesson for much of the Los Angeles area. L.A. Baptist is deep in the San Fernando Valley while Western Christian is in Covina. The closest league rival is Marshall Fundamental, 30 miles away in Pasadena.

“We’re going to be driving all over the place, we might spend five hours on the bus,” said Mirsky. “But that’s the least of my worries.”

Mirsky is more concerned that his team, which could be one of the strongest in Miraleste’s 20-year history, will not make the playoffs. What if the Marauders win all 12 league games? Do they make the playoffs? Maybe. The CIF has said Miraleste must win 70% of its games--14 victories. The Alpha League’s top teams are L.A. Baptist and Montclair Prep. L.A. Baptist was a 1-A semifinalist last year, Montclair Prep made it to the quarterfinals.

“They can call us anything they want,” said Mirsky. “But if we win the league, we’ll know who the best team is.”

But Mirsky and his players don’t care if the CIF says they have to win all of their games by 20 points to get in the playoffs. “We’re glad to have a schedule at all,” Mirsky said. At Friday night’s game, all Miraleste fans seemed to feel the same. The band blared “Louie, Louie,” the cheerleaders yelled from the stands and students exchanged good-natured barbs with the visitors.

William Hall, a biology teacher at Miraleste since its inception in 1968, ate popcorn and talked about the warm feeling between the people of the eastern Palos Verdes Peninsula and the high school. “The community believes it would be a real disaster if the school closed,” Hall said.

This pride and identity between the school and community manifested itself when the school district voted to close Miraleste because of declining enrollment. Parents of Miraleste students immediately began the fight to keep the school open. Miraleste, with 750 students, has fewer than half the number at both Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills, according to the CIF directory of member schools. But the parents would not quit, and their action resulted in the May decision to keep the school open.

On the court, Coach Mirsky, assistants Jeff Dellis and Jim Small and the Miraleste players were oblivious to shrinking enrollments and talk of closing the school. They had a game to win.

Junior Eric Adler scored on a driving layup with one minute to go to put the Marauders up for good. “We’ve been waiting three years for him to make that move,” said Mirsky, his voice hoarse from screaming.

The players celebrated in the team meeting room. They dismissed any suggestions of having it extra tough to make the playoffs because of their unusual situation.

“We’re just glad to play,” said Adler. The seniors were especially happy to play their fourth year at Miraleste, including tri-captain Mike Booth, who was also Miraleste’s quarterback in football, Dean Yasuda, Scott Klein and Rick Nogueira. “It would have been tough to play three years at one place and then have to switch,” Booth said,

“There’s not one guy who would rather be someplace else,” said sophomore center Sean Goodwin. Junior Terrell summed it up for the team: “We just like to take the ball to the hole, we don’t worry about anything else.”