Reggie Howard Sees Life After Basketball : Colleges: He left St. Bernard High for UC Riverside to get an education, not make the pros. He makes his last South Bay appearance Saturday against Cal State Dominguez Hills, but he has off-court goals now.

Reggie Howard returns to the South Bay for the final time Saturday night, five years after he left with a keen sense of his future.

An aspiring teacher and coach, the former St. Bernard High School basketball star makes his last regular-season appearance here when playoff-bound UC Riverside visits Cal State Dominguez Hills in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. finale at 8:05 p.m. in Carson.

Howard, a 155-pound point guard who set a CCAA record with 15 assists in a game earlier this year, recognized early in his life that every kid’s dream of having a professional career in sports was not in his cards. Instead, he set out to make the best of what talent he had.

“I thought basketball was a means to go to school for free,” Howard said of the scholarship he earned from Riverside. “It was a way to take the pressure off my mom and dad, to let them enjoy what little they have.”

He has made the best of his situation in the Inland Empire, both on and off the court. He averages 11 points and six assists a game for the 18-7 Highlanders, who returned only one starter when the season began.

But more importantly, the fifth-year senior graduates this spring. After that, he hopes to do graduate work at Loyola Marymount. He wants to follow in his mother’s footsteps as a teacher, perhaps in special education, but admits that basketball may be hard to forget.

“I think once basketball is over, (after a while) I’m going to come back to it,” he said, “maybe as a coach.”

Riverside Coach John Masi isn’t surprised by Howard’s lofty goals.

“I don’t doubt that Reggie Howard will be a success when he is out of here,” he said.

Riverside has an impeccable reputation, both for its basketball program (221-90 under Masi) and as a place to get a good education. But the basketball program is in Division II, a dead end for the athletes who play there. The school is kicking around a move to the Division I level, but that will come long after Howard is gone, if at all.

Because the 5-foot-11 Inglewood native recognized his limitations before he left high school, he was able to capitalize on them.

“If you go to a Division II program, you have to be honest: You are not lookin’ to (play basketball) and go on,” he said.

Yet even he has questioned his decision at times, as all Division II players do. Could he have been a success on the highest level, Division I?

“As a senior, you wonder, ‘What if?’ ” Howard admitted.

“As far as playing conditions, you know you are not going to play beyond this point. Your motivation, then, turns to self-motivation, toward the long term.”

To Howard, that meant getting an education. He has opted for a liberal studies degree, including four years of Spanish classes. He won’t have much use for the language back home on Crenshaw Boulevard, he admitted, but it can come in handy in Southern California--not to mention when he crosses the border into Baja California for a vacation.

“They look at me kind of funny at first,” said Howard, a black, about his experiences in Tijuana and Ensenada taverns. “But once (the Mexicans) realize you are trying to speak their language and not make a fool out of yourself like some Americans do, they appreciate that you try.”

Howard has long been known for making his own way.

Said Masi: “He is very goal-oriented. He has an idea of what he wants to do.”

Howard isn’t a loner, but he likes to be different.

“I always try to learn something,” he said. “I don’t just want to reiterate what I already know.”

That attitude has proven both a help and a handicap during his basketball career, according to Masi.

“He often tries to do too much,” the coach said. “He’s very good at seeing the entire court, but at times he milks the ball.”

Howard grew up playing baseball. In his first organized basketball league, in the fifth grade, he didn’t fare very well.

“I couldn’t shoot a lick,” he said.

He worked on his ball-handling and shooting, and discovered that he had just as much fun dishing a pass that led to a score as he did hitting a long-range jumper.

By the time Howard reached junior high, he was good enough to make the Westside Blazers, an off-season youth basketball program affiliated with the Amateur Athletic Union, where he perfected his three-point shooting and passing.

When he was 14, he spent “about a week” at Morningside High School, then opted to attend St. Bernard after passing that school’s entrance exam.

“I was pretty much recruited to go there,” Howard said. “I had a ride over there, and it had a good basketball program.”

As a senior he was an all-Camino Real League, all-Southern Section and Times All-South Bay selection.

Howard credits much of his worldly preparedness to his experiences at St. Bernard.

“Once I was there, it prepared me for any situation,” he said.

At Riverside, Howard’s career developed slowly. He came off the bench as a junior and played a significant role on a team that won the CCAA title and finished third nationwide with a 30-4 record. He ranked among the country’s top 10 three-point shooters, hitting 54%.

He lists the team’s upset win over the University of Iowa, a Division I school, in the Maui Chaminade Classic on Christmas Day, 1988, as one of his biggest thrills.

But in reality, his greatest thrills last season may have come from passing off night after night to fellow guard Maurice Pullum, a Division II All-American. Pullum, who averaged 18.6 points a game, was the main reason why Howard played so well last season, Masi said--and, paradoxically, the reason why Howard got off to a slow start this year.

In Pullum’s shadow, Howard could play safe, the coach said. “Reggie was a spot player for us because we had some very good players. He could come in and shoot the ball because he was not the focus of our team.

“This year,” Masi said, “(Howard) has been focused on by other teams. When he goes to shoot the three-pointer, there are guys in his face. He has had to make adjustments. It took him a while. He didn’t expect to be focused on.”

Howard’s averages in points per game, playing time and assists are up this year, but his field-goal accuracy is down.

Masi has had four point guards voted all-CCAA in the last 10 years. He expects the point guard to perform smoothly, calling the position “a privilege to play.”

“For us, the way we play, we expect so much out of that player,” he said.

Howard realizes the importance of his position and knows what it means not to play it well. He says he is the most “yelled-at” player on the team.

“One time, (Masi) threatened to throw me out of Riverside,” he said.

But Howard also realizes that this is the role he must play on the team.

“You can never yell at a big man because they go into a shell,” he said. “There are days when, because you are 23 years old, you don’t want to be yelled at anymore, but he’s got to yell at someone, and I’m it.”

Said Masi: “He has put a lot of pressure on himself. He tries to do too much.”

Howard said he has no complaints about his treatment at Riverside.

“Masi is a fair guy,” he said. “He is interested in you as a person. He wants to make you better.”

Which is why Howard took up rock climbing and stayed in the Inland Empire for five years.

If given a choice of TV, Howard said, he would watch the Discovery Channel rather than ESPN, because he has always felt that there is more to life than basketball.