HIS KIND OF PLACE : Father Harris’ Reputation for Success Precedes Him to Santa Margarita

Father Michael Harris, principal of Santa Margarita High School, steps out of his office and into a lobby with a high ceiling and six crystal chandeliers. With time only to glance at a newspaper sports section on a secretary’s desk--$26 million builds a beautiful school but it can’t buy a minute of free time--he reads the headline of a story detailing his school’s difficulties in finding an athletic league in which to compete.

The Catholic Athletic Assn. doesn’t want the Catholic school because of transportation problems--some trips would be about 90 miles, one way. The Orange County public school leagues are wary because they fear Harris’ school will become what he created at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, an athletic behemoth free to cull talent from any area.

Harris says: “I can’t read all this, someone give me the bottom line.”

A secretary, smiling as she attempts to bring something new to old lines, answers, “Father, we are not loved.”

Without breaking stride, Harris quips, “So, what else is new?”

Santa Margarita is. Its classrooms have been open for less than two years, but the concerns over what it is and what it will become are rooted in the past and have fueled the current debate of where the school belongs athletically.

At the base of it all is Harris, a 42-year-old priest who would rather hug than shake hands, who says, “I didn’t go into the priesthood to become a big-time administrator,” and yet who has the penchant for building success--visible and dazzling success--with exceptional administrative skills.

“He would have made a great PR man,” said Bob Ickes, Mater Dei baseball coach. “He would have made some big company a lot of money.”

Harris’ reputation precedes him. It’s a reputation that places him as one of the area’s most able educational administrators, but also placed him at Mater Dei when that school was repeatedly rumored to be actively recruiting kids in less than the spirit of sportsmanship.

When Newport Harbor Principal Dennis Evans said, “Santa Margarita seems to be the unfortunate heir to a legacy of past parochial problems,” there’s little doubt he was at least partially pointing to what Harris created at Mater Dei.

Harris admits that some of Santa Margarita’s problems getting into a league stem from his association with Mater Dei. But he says, “I never really thought of myself as a terrifying or intimidating force.”

Either way, he is now at Santa Margarita, a school that he first saw as “some open land with grazing cows,” which has become, according to the National Catholic Educational Assn. in an article in The Times, the nation’s most sophisticated Catholic high school, complete with its own cable television channel, computerized research facilities and state of the art classrooms.

Half the money to build it was gathered by passing the collection plate. Harris and others raised the other half by getting 295 big spenders to give $13 million. Still, there is no doubt this is Harris’ school.

The late Bishop William R. Johnson offered Harris the post of principal six years ago, before the first nail was struck on campus. Harris refused.

“I was very comfortable at Mater Dei,” said Harris, who took over as that school’s principal at age 29.

But Johnson decided that Harris was the man for the arduous task of raising funds and starting a new high school from scratch. He told Harris to make the switch.

“He is principal there, because he is the best man,” said Bishop Norman F. McFarland.

Harris calls himself “a hands-on administrator.” He is very visible, very demonstrative, hugging students as they pass.

“He treats it as if it were his home,” said Rich Schaaf, Santa Margarita athletic director. “He’s got his finger on everything.”

A teacher at another Catholic high school, who asked that his name not be used, said Harris’ style has earned him the nickname “Father Hollywood.”

At a welcoming assembly during the school’s first day of classes, Harris opened up his traditional black tunic to expose a big Superman “S” on his chest.

“I encourage people, I provide the structure by which things can happen,” he said. “My managerial style tends to be participatory. My style is hands-on, literally and figuratively.”

“I read that (Walt) Disney believed it was his job to pollinate and encourage and support; I see that as my task. Encourage and support so that the kids can reach for the stars.”

And, according to Harris, the way to the stars does not pass only through the classroom.

“In all the counseling I’ve done as a priest, I’ve never had an adult come to me and say their life was falling apart because of poor algebra,” he said.

He strongly believes the role of schools goes beyond the classroom.

“He always strived here to present his holistic philosophy of education,” said John Merino, Mater Dei’s activities director. Merino has been at the school for 32 years and directed a young Mike Harris as the lead in a play called, “The Worm Will Squirm.” It was a comedy in which Harris played a buffoon of a school principal.

“He was involved in drama and music and student council,” Merino said. “And he believes in educating the whole child. Physically, academically, aesthetically and psychologically.”

So strong sports programs, just as all extracurricular activities, teach children, “more than reading and writing, they learn about life and how to live it,” Harris said.

A well-worn school administrative line, but few, if any county administrators, back up the line with such passion and results. And so, as he did at Mater Dei, he has aggressively gone about building that part of the school up.

No one begrudges Harris a fine program. But there are high school administrators, none of whom wanted to be quoted by name,who question Harris’ motives and methods. They don’t think public schools should have to compete against a school with built-in advantages.

“It’s all very fine what he’s accomplished,” said one, “but the significant question is how has he done it, and if we can’t do it that way, why should his school be in our league.”

Harris hears the grumblings but says, “No one ever says anything to me.”

“The open enrollment issue, which is the main reason so many public schools are reluctant to allow us to play them, I think that is a legitimate concern,” he said. “I agree with that. But we’ve been thrown together in this thing, and we have to make the best of it.”

No one seems to question that his school will have an extremely strong athletic program; the only questions are about when and how dominating the program will be.

“They’re going to be the Mater Dei of that end (south) of Orange County,” said Bob Dowding, Orange Lutheran athletic director. “There’s no doubt.”

One newspaper article suggested that the very sight of Santa Margarita’s campus could be considered a recruiting tool. Jeff Zippi, athletic director and baseball coach at Capistrano Valley Christian High, which competes against Santa Margarita in the Olympic League, joked that his staff considered giving parents the wrong directions to the school for a game “so they wouldn’t see this beautiful thing.”

Zippi did give the right directions and Santa Margarita promptly became “the talk of the town. Our parents were very impressed,” Zippi said.

But Harris believes his school would attract parents and their children, “even if we had established it in Quonset huts. I really don’t think the principal reason parents send their kids here are the buildings.”

He might be right. They would probably go there for him.

“First of all, his greatest quality is charisma,” McFarland said. “People are instinctively attracted to him.”

And once attracted, many become fiercely loyal.

“If he got a new parish and asked me to be his gardener, I’d take the job,” Schaaf said.

Bob Sharp worked as a fund-raising consultant for Santa Margarita. He said the first time he met Harris he got a “sense a radiance and energy . . . If he ran for governor, I’d vote for him.”

Of course, others would not.

“I suppose everyone would like to be liked universally,” Harris said. “But I also know that’s not very realistic. If we’re not popular because of the things we’ve accomplished, we’d find equally as much criticism if we did things mediocre.”

History tells him so.