Small Rio Hondo Wins Big on Court

Calling Rio Hondo Prep a small school is a gross understatement, considering that the Arcadia school’s enrollment is 50 students in grades 9-12.

Even so, the school’s basketball programs are prospering. Rio Hondo holds the Nos. 1 and 2 positions, respectively, in the girls’ and boys’ Southern Section Small Schools Division polls this week.

With only 31 boys and 19 girls eligible to play in a school that goes from kindergarten to the 12th grade, Rio Hondo’s varsity teams have won 26 of 32 basketball games this season, often beating larger schools.

The high school division of the school opened its doors in 1964 and had its first varsity boys’ basketball team in 1965.

Ken Drain played on that first team as a sophomore and now, 24 years later, he is in his first year as coach of the Kares, a nickname derived from school founder Orrick W. Hampton’s Care Youth Program. To Drain, things have not changed much at Rio Hondo Prep.

“When I was going to school here, the high school only had 20 kids,” said Drain, whose Kares were ranked No. 1 in the Small Schools’ boys’ poll until they lost to Pasadena Poly on Friday. “There may be a little more students here now but everyone still plays a different sport year-round.”

The Kares field three 10-player boys’ basketball teams, freshman, junior varsity and varsity.

The entire eight-man football team, which reached the Southern Section championship game this past fall, is on the basketball team.

Drain’s varsity Kares, with no player taller than 5-11, have a 13-5 record. “We have to approach things differently here,” said Drain, who replaced Mike Dowd as coach this season. “We have to work hard on defense and always wait until the big guys bring the ball down to us. Our game is simply fast break and pressure defense.”

The leading scorers for the Kares, who do not have a senior on the team, are Todd Carson, a 5-11 junior center, and Mike Whiteside, a 5-9 sophomore forward, each of whom is averaging 14 points a game.

A pair of sophomores start in the backcourt, Jeff Fairly, who averages more than six assists a game, and Jose Montanez. Rick Johnson, whose father, Randall, is the girls’ basketball coach, is the team’s leading rebounder, averaging eight a game.

Almost all of Rio Hondo Prep’s players participated in the Care Youth League near the school, which has proven to be an advantage and a disadvantage. The after-school program has helped in developing players, but it has also alerted larger nearby public schools to talented players.

“We do not actively recruit players here,” Drain said. “Sometimes we lose kids who played in our Care program to public high schools. Two of the top scorers in the area, Greg Mann at Arroyo and Mike Parisi at Arcadia, both played here.”

Whereas the boys’ team is winning this season after finishing 8-13 a year ago, the girls are just picking up where they left off last season.

Johnson, who also coaches the football and baseball teams and is the boys’ athletic director, directed the Lady Kares into the semifinals of the Southern Section Small Schools playoffs last season with a team comprising only freshmen and sophomores.

The Rio Hondo girls are 13-3 this season, having lost only to larger schools--Palos Verdes Chadwick, Fullerton Rosary and Los Angeles Brentwood.

“We only have seven players on the team and they all played last season,” Johnson said. “They all played together in our junior high school program, which is part of the reason we’ve been successful.”

Leading the way is sophomore point guard Pauline Hampton, the team’s top scorer, and her cousin Alana Hampton, who leads in rebounds. They are granddaughters of the school’s founder.

The other key players for the Kares are sophomores Michelle Johnson, who averages 10 points a game; Linda Lunney, who averages 12 rebounds and 10 points, and Mindy Sakamoto, who leads the team in three-point baskets.

“Every game we go into, we are worried if we can play at the level of our opponent,” Johnson said. “We never go into a game knowing that we’re going to win. We have been very fortunate not to have any major injuries.”