PREPS : Narbonne High Coach Doesn’t Feel Unlisted Any Longer

Before the season, Narbonne High basketball Coach Bob Hoppes was rarely in demand. Then success entered his life.

Now his phone rings at all hours.

“That’s one reason I bought the (answering) machine,” he said. “I don’t want to slight anybody. I want to return those calls.”

Coaching colleagues call to offer congratulations. Reporters want to know the secret behind turning a perennial loser into a winner.

And the Gauchos, who for years played to sparse home crowds, are starting to draw a following.

Hoppes, a modest and cautious coach, takes it all in stride. He knows the attention will last only as long as the victories outnumber the defeats.

“The bottom line,” he said, “is people want to see wins.”

Narbonne fans saw just the opposite last season. The Gauchos finished with a 3-18 record in Hoppes’ second year as coach after suffering an embarrassing 97-47 loss to top-seeded Manual Arts in the L.A. City Section 4-A playoffs.

Narbonne had no business going to the playoffs after finishing in last place in the four-team Pacific League. But L.A. City athletic officials, in their infinite wisdom, decided midway through the season that all 4-A teams would qualify for postseason play in order to fill out a 16-team bracket.

So, what is usually regarded as a reward, a playoff berth, became a death sentence for the Gauchos.

“We didn’t belong in the playoffs against Manual Arts,” Hoppes said. “I had to turn around (after the game) and look at the parents and the people who supported us all year. That was tough.

“I took a lot of heat. I seriously thought about getting out of (coaching) at that point.”

Fortunately for Narbonne, he decided to give it another try.

With the support of his family and the knowledge that he had a good group of athletes coming back, Hoppes went to work after last season. He picked the brains of other coaches and he pushed Narbonne through a rigorous schedule of summer league games.

The payoff has been a 10-3 start for the Gauchos, who reached the final of the Torrance Holiday Classic by beating Torrance on Wednesday night.

“I’ve stayed at it,” Hoppes said. “I’ve been busy since I got the job. Some people think all you have to do is give the players the ball and let them play. After our games, I’m up most of the night thinking about the things that we didn’t do right.

“I think the biggest factor is that the players believe in themselves and believe in what I’m doing.”

Hoppes credits good chemistry for Narbonne’s turnaround.

The Gauchos returned two starters--6-foot-4 off guard Major Goulsby and 6-7 forward Curtis Boyer--and Hoppes blended them with two players off last year’s league champion junior varsity team--point guard Gabriel Maciel and 6-6 center Mike Reynolds. All are seniors.

The fifth starter, 6-3 junior D’Mitri Rideout, was academically ineligible most of last season but perhaps has become Narbonne’s most exciting player. He has a 45-inch vertical leap, according to Hoppes, and was named all-tournament two weeks ago at the Hamilton Tournament.

The first players off the bench for the balanced Gauchos are juniors Vijay Mani, an off guard, and forward Robert Jordan, a transfer from Carson.

“Five or six players have scored in double figures most of the season,” Hoppes said. “We don’t really have a star. It’s tough for me to single out any one of them.”

If he had to, though, Hoppes would pick Maciel.

“He’s averaging about 16 points and seven or eight assists a game,” he said of his floor general. “He even does some rebounding. He has an uncanny knack for being at the right place at the right time.”

Winning has its rewards. For Hoppes, he hopes it can attract the type of athlete who has bypassed Narbonne in the past for more successful programs at Carson and Banning.

“You have to be (at Narbonne) to understand what’s going on,” he said. “We have some great kids and athletes, but they’re not the caliber that are at other schools. If a kid checks into the area and is an athlete, he usually wants to go to Carson or Banning.

“In order to attract good athletes, we have to win. That’s why the season so far has been so special.”

A promising start would seem to make it easy for Hoppes to aim for lofty goals. But in keeping with his conservative personality, his sights for the remainder of the season are set on the game at hand.

“I don’t believe in looking past the next one,” he said. “I really try to instill that in the parents and kids. I want to be realistic.”

Narbonne was given a dose a reality last week in a 51-38 loss to Carson, a team it will meet twice more in league play.

That indicates the Gauchos still have their work cut out.

And Hoppes still has some sleepless nights ahead.

Morningside’s girls basketball team, which lost its first game last week, also might have lost a shot at a mythical national championship with a 59-48 setback to Brea-Olinda in the Tournament of Champions at Santa Barbara.

Coach Frank Scott, though, isn’t lamenting the fact that an unbeaten season has escaped his team’s grasp.

“It would be nice to go undefeated,” he said. “But with the schedule we play, it’s almost unrealistic to think we could go undefeated for a whole season. This gives us a chance to see where we are and what we have to do.”

Scott said the Lady Monarchs took the loss to Brea-Olinda hard.

“Everybody was down,” he said. “We went to the locker room and everyone was crying. I told them to get it all out now. It hurts to lose but they have a whole season ahead of them.”

Morningside played Brea-Olinda without two of its best players. Sophomore forward Janet Davis (6-4) was out with a sprained ankle and junior Princess Murray, the Lady Monarchs’ first player off the bench, was sidelined with a dislocated shoulder. Also, 6-5 center Lisa Leslie played only about half the game because of foul trouble.

“It hurt us,” Scott said. “I’d love to play Brea-Olinda again with a full lineup.”

PREP NOTES--Three Mira Costa basketball players received honors last week at the Roosevelt Tournament in Honolulu. Guard Chris Hobbs and forward Canyon Ceman were named Co-Most Valuable Players and reserve guard Simi Fonoa, who was pressed into the starting lineup because of injuries, was selected to the all-tournament team. The Mustangs beat David Douglas High of Portland in the championship game . . . Morningside, playing this week in the Best of the U.S. girls basketball tournament at Shelbyville, Tenn., expected cold weather after temperatures near Nashville dipped below zero last week. But Coach Scott reported it was 40 degrees Wednesday when the Lady Monarchs opened play . . . St. Bernard’s Kerrie Peques and Morningside’s Santisha Arnold have been invited to compete in the girls 500-yard run at the Sunkist Invitational track meet Jan. 19 at the Sports Arena.