Father and Son Help Bring Out the Best in Miraleste Basketball : High schools: Jim White, a former coach at Harbor College, offers tips to his son, Frank, a junior guard for the Mustangs.

The father sits in the stands, watching his son dribble upcourt. Frank White, 30 feet from the basket, calls Miraleste High’s offensive set and notices how closely the Verbum Dei defender is guarding him. The junior guard dribbles the ball through his legs, goes around his defender and accelerates toward the hoop.

Three more defenders block his path, but White stops and passes the ball to an open teammate for an easy basket.

“You see, Frank can play ,” Jim White says, with a proud papa’s grin.

Only Jim White is not the average dad who goes to games at Miraleste to eat popcorn, schmooze with the other parents and clap for his son every time he touches the ball.

Jim had two stints at Harbor College; a 13-season run as coach from 1968-81, which included a state championship in 1975, and a three-season stay in 1984-87, when he was coach, co-coach and an assistant. White also has helped run the NBA Summer Pro League and worked with the 1984 Philippine Olympic team. Now he works as an agent, mostly handling Americans playing basketball overseas.

So he knows a little about the game.

And Frank fits the model of a coach’s son. The 6-foot redhead, in his second season of varsity basketball, takes care of Miraleste’s ballhandling duties. He is averaging 16 points and five assists a game for the Marauders (11-6), who are in a three-way tie for first place in the Camino Real League at 5-2.

“I just love playing,” Frank said. “When people tell me I’ve done good, it helps me want to do better. I work on my game a lot and like getting better. I just like getting better, and that helps me.”

Miraleste Coach John Quick said: “The kids look to him as a leader. People look to him as the guy who takes a lot of big shots, who scores, and as a passer, too. He looks up the court really well and gets the ball to people really well.”

Frank made what might have been the biggest shot of his career Saturday night, a 15-foot basket with six seconds remaining to give the Marauders a 66-64 league victory over host St. Monica.

During games, Jim watches every dribble Frank makes, charting statistics for Miraleste, offering advice to the every player and telling his son not to lean back on his jump shot. The Marauders resume play Friday night at home with a nonleague game against Chadwick.

“People always tell me, ‘You’re so lucky, because you have a dad who tells you what you do wrong,’ ” Frank said. “But he doesn’t. He just gives me tips.”

Frank was born Oct. 7, 1973, the youngest of three children and the only boy. Jim and wife Lucy brought their kids to Harbor games, where the siblings would play under the stands while dad worked.

Frank remembers shooting baskets with players before Harbor practices. Although Frank was never pushed into basketball--he rushed for 1,000 yards and 11 touchdowns as a sophomore running back on Miraleste’s junior varsity football team--it was not a shock when he became infatuated with the game, just like his dad.

As a sophomore, Frank averaged 8.4 assists on a team that reached the CIF-Southern Section Division IV quarterfinals.

After last season, when Frank started asking dad for help, Jim was happy to oblige.

“I don’t just tell him,” Jim said. “I wait for him to ask me.”

Last summer, the two would go to Harbor College, where Jim would work with Frank on dribbling and shooting.

But there has not been much need to work on Frank’s passing, according to his dad, who says his son has always been able to pass.

“You can’t teach that,” Jim said.

Frank also played in two summer leagues and pick-up games at various parks, sharpening his game.

The father and son occasionally venture to high schools to scout opponents. Jim points out the flaws in a defense and a player’s offensive game.

All these tips appear to benefit Frank, who is the only Miraleste player with any extended varsity experience. The team has only eight players, a first-year coach and had no preseason conditioning program.

For all the negatives, Jim’s involvement seems to balance things out.

Aside from charting statistics, he sets up video cameras to tape the games. He also shouts advice to the team and occasionally gives Quick his opinion. He also occasionally may give a referee his opinion.

“Everyone knows him,” said 6-8 Ramon Mol, an exchange student from Holland who lives with the Whites. “He’ll yell at guys and tell them to get back on defense. And he’ll pat you on the back after games.

“There are always basketball games on TV and he’ll tell you to look at that guy and what he’s doing wrong.”

When a dad becomes this involved with his teen-aged son’s life, it seems there might be a fine line between being helpful and obsessive. Especially when the son is the team’s leader.

“It’s hard,” Frank said. “He’ll yell at me more, but he’ll slap me on the back more, too. But sometimes, it seems like he yells at me more.”

Jim said: “It’s easier because (Frank) is so close with John Quick. He does a great job. John will sit Frank down when he’s not helping the team or shooting bad shots, and I fully support that. . . . It would be too hard to coach your own son.”

Jim White and Quick know each other from the 1970s, when White was coach at Harbor and Quick was coach at Serra High. Their basketball relationship was renewed last summer, when White recommended that Quick take the Miraleste coaching job.

“Last year was the first time in about 20 years I did not referee,” Quick said. “I saw Jim and told him that next year the two of us should coach a (junior varsity) team together. I was sitting at home one day when Jim called and told me that (former Miraleste coach) Todd Mirsky did not want to coach and asked me to do it.”

Miraleste will close after this year and consolidate with two other high schools--Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills--to form Penin sula High on the Rolling Hills campus. Although Frank has not really thought about where he might play next year, he does think about the future.

“I need to get better on knowing where to go on defense by instinct and not thinking so much,” Frank said. “When to cover down in the post, where to rotate, that stuff. And I should work on my shooting and my ballhandling. Just everything. My overall game.”

And after high school?

“Recruiters don’t come to Miraleste,” Jim said. “But over the summer he’ll play at the high level of the Slam N’ Jam (summer league), so people should see him.”

So far, Frank has received only one recruiting letter.

“He’s got great determination,” Quick said. “And if we keep winning, someone’s gonna have to look at us. I’m sure he’ll play in college. I don’t know at what level. That would be determined by how hard he works. But Frank works real hard and is determined to be the best he can be.”