SOUTHERN SECTION BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS : Coach Takes Servite Back to the Future : Boys’ basketball: Richard Smith, in his first year at the school, revives Friars’ winning tradition with a fresh approach.

Memories of basketball teams past hang in Servite High School’s gymnasium, reminders of what was once one of the premier programs in Orange County.

The east wall is covered with 25 banners, each one representing a standout player at Servite.

Most played basketball in college and a few made it to the professional level in other sports. There’s Mike Witt (Angels) and Steve Beuchele (Texas Rangers) and Steve Beuerlein (Raiders) and Blaine Nye (Dallas Cowboys).

In Coach Richard Smith’s office, however, signs of that past are noticeably absent. While the gymnasium is filled with tradition, the office represents change.

Gone are the mementos of previous seasons, the newspaper clippings and photographs. In their place is, well, nothing.

The walls are barren, except for a photograph of Smith with the team during a summer league game.

“I took all the other stuff down,” he said. “I wanted to start fresh.”

Servite has not been considered a basketball power since the early 1980s. The banners are faded now, some are frayed on the edges--much like the program has been in recent years.

Now, Smith has breathed a little life into the program in his first year as coach.

Servite will play Estancia at 8:30 tonight in the 3-AA championship game at the Bren Center. A victory would give the Friars their first title since 1964-65.

At the center of this rejuvenation is Smith, 28, a former computer salesman. He has peddled to his players the idea of being great without borrowing from the past.

“I’m not into what was,” Smith said. “They certainly have a great tradition here. But I want the kids to look ahead, not back. I want them to think about where they can go.”

Smith has preached “being the best” to his players. But he has done so with a light touch.

During practice Monday, Smith went over the Estancia scouting report. It was serious business, mixed with a little humor.

” . . . then we’ll pass the ball over to ‘Juice,’ who will then shoot an air ball,” Smith said.

The players ate it up. Some have had older brothers who played at Servite and have been around the program for years.

They were weened on Friar tradition before Smith had heard of Servite. But this is a different era.

“Coach Smith is a younger guy and is more in touch with how teen-agers think,” said center Steve Marusich, whose three older brothers played at Servite. “He has tried to make practice a little more fun.”

Smith says fate brought him to Servite. He had no intentions of coaching basketball when he graduated from Santa Clara, where he was a soccer standout.

“It all started because I followed a girl,” he said.

Smith, a native of Portland, Ore., came to Southern California in 1985 to see Eileen McDermott, now his fiancee.

While visiting, he went to a couple of open houses held by computer companies. In less than a week, Smith had been offered a position with a computer company in Santa Ana.

“I really liked it down here,” Smith said. “I was from Portland, where it rains 222 days a year. How could I not like it?”

What Smith didn’t like, though, was his job. After several months of selling computers, he started looking for something else.

Smith, who had played two years of organized basketball in high school, had always been interested in working with kids. He had helped out at a Boys Club in Portland and had liked the experience.

So when McDermott and some friends told him that he didn’t need a credential to teach at a parochial school, he made a few calls.

“I had come to the conclusion that working nine to five at a desk wasn’t for me,” Smith said. “I called Mater Dei and asked if they needed a math teacher and they said no. I then called Servite and the secretary told me she was about to call the newspaper to take out an ad for a math teacher.”

The secretary also told him that Father Charles Motsko, then the Servite principal, liked people from Santa Clara University.

Smith also discovered that the Servite order also has a grotto in Portland, not far from where his family lives.

“No matter what your religious belief, you have to see that someone was pointing me here,” Smith said. “Three days later, I quit my job.”

Since getting the job, Smith has devoured everything about basketball. He has worked at the Snow Valley and Santa Clara basketball camps during the summer.

He also has solicited advice from Santa Clara Coach Carroll Williams.

“Richard was always on the court playing when he was in college,” Williams said. “He was intrigued with the game. I think he was a frustrated basketball player in soccer clothing.”

Smith coached the sophomore team in 1986-87 and was a varsity assistant the past two seasons. When Larry Walker resigned as coach last spring, the position was offered to Smith.

The program he inherited had appeared in two playoffs in the previous four years. The 1988-89 team finished 12-11, but was eliminated in the first round.

“Last season, the team didn’t have an optimistic attitude,” senior guard Jamie Rosenkranz said. “Early this season, Coach Smith told us about the time he was suspended from going to recess in grade school. He said he had wanted to win so bad, the teachers wouldn’t let him play with the other kids.”

That attitude has prevailed. The players have taken Smith’s, “be the best you possibly can be” attitude to heart.

During a recent Saturday morning practice, after a game in which the Friars had shot poorly from the foul line, Smith told his players that there was no reason everyone on the team couldn’t make 10 consecutive free throws.

The team stayed in the gym from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. Only one player failed to make it.

“The kid got to nine twice, but couldn’t make that last one,” Smith said. “He called me that night and said he wanted to be at practice early on Monday so he could work on his free throws.”

Such dedication has paid off. After a preseason schedule, which included games against Lakewood, Long Beach Poly and Muir, the Friars finished tied for second in the Angelus League with Bishop Montgomery.

Servite has surged during the playoffs, with victories over Troy, Trabuco Hills, Centennial and Culver City.

“Before the season, I just wanted other coaches to tell me after games that we played hard,” Smith said. “But I’m happy for the players. Getting to the final will give them something to remember. It has been a good season.”

Maybe even a banner season.