Alemany’s Dice Excels by Leaps and Bounds

He doesn’t wear a cape, although he rarely tucks in the tail of his basketball jersey. There is no capital S on his chest, but there is an oversized letter A. He isn’t able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but he has hurdled a 6-foot-6 center.

Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s . . . Diceman.

According to Alemany High basketball Coach Kurt Keller, senior Richard Dice is in a class, and a classification, by himself.

“People ask me all the time what position he plays,” Keller said. “I say, ‘Pick one and you’ll be right.’

“You can’t say he’s just a guard, can’t say he’s just a forward and can’t say he’s just a center. He plays ‘em all.”

And in all-everything fashion. Last fall, Dice (6-2, 200 pounds) was one of the nation’s most highly regarded football prospects as a tight end and receiver. He is averaging 23.1 points in basketball, despite consistently being double-teamed.

Dice made several plays in December basketball games that had the crowd abuzz. In a tournament game against Thousand Oaks, Dice found himself racing down the floor in an attempt to halt a fast break.

The ball was dished to Thousand Oaks center Shane Graham, a 6-6 senior and a highly recruited tight end in his own right. Graham spotted Dice out of the corner of his eye, gave him a head fake, then ducked slightly. Dice literally hurdled Graham as the crowd crowed in delight.

“I though he was going to shoot, but he pump-faked me,” Dice said. “So I just flew by him. A lot of people made a big deal about that.”

In another tournament game, Dice was open along the baseline when a teammate lobbed the ball toward the hoop. Dice caught the ball in one hand and slammed it home to complete the scintillating alley-oop play.

“The ball was literally above the (backboard) square,” Keller said. “He caught it and put it through.”

The top of the backboard square is 11 1/2 feet from the ground. With a bottle of Windex, he could clean the backboard without a ladder.

In a game last Wednesday against St. Bernard, Dice found himself in hot pursuit of a Viking guard on another fast break. The St. Bernard player attempted to bank the ball off the glass for a layup but Dice swooped in from the right flank and swatted the ball into the ionosphere.

“Nobody’s dispelled what I’ve said all along,” Keller said. “As far as talent goes, I haven’t seen anybody better in our (Mission) league.”

To be sure, Dice is in a league of his own. He caught 44 passes for 695 yards and 11 touchdowns last fall on the football team and might be the best athlete in the Valley since former San Fernando standout Joe Mauldin, who was an All-City Section selection in football and basketball in 1987-88. Dice compares favorably to another high school tight end, Sean Brown, who started the past two seasons at Colorado. At Granada Hills, Brown played in City championship games in baseball, football and basketball.

Watch the first few minutes of an Alemany basketball game and Dice’s versatility jumps out at spectators in direct proportion to the way he levitates. Dice often brings the ball up the floor. He routinely guards the opposition’s tallest player. He is the go-to guy offensively.

Some of Dice’s most spirited battles have come in practice when Keller (6-4, 220) scrimmages with the team. In fact, Keller said he and Dice have had a few, well, physical confrontations.

“Let’s just say we’ve gone at it a couple of times,” said Keller, who played briefly with the Portland Trail Blazers and professionally in Australia. “The rest of the kids are afraid of him, so I get in there and bang him around. He doesn’t always like it.”

In fact, the only one who appears capable of slowing Dice is the person staring back in the mirror. It is as though schoolbooks were made of Kryptonite; in the classroom he is merely Clark Kent.

Interest from major college football programs has waned because of Dice’s inability to satisfy NCAA Division I academic requirements. Dice failed to score the required 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test last fall. He said that he is awaiting the results of his second test, taken in December.

He said he will take the SAT a third time Jan. 18. Dice concedes that colleges are concerned about his academic progress.

“I’m sure they are,” he said. “But I’m busting my hump right now.”

Sprints and splints: League rival or not, when Westlake girls’ basketball Coach Nancy Bowman learned of the wrist injury of Thousand Oaks forward Marion Jones--arguably the nation’s best girls’ high-school sprinter--Bowman had the same initial reaction as most folks.

“Geez, at least it wasn’t a leg injury,” Bowman said.

Jones, a dual-sport athlete who has qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials (June 19-28 in New Orleans) in the women’s 100 and 200 meters, sustained a broken left wrist and a dislocated jaw Thursday night in a Marmonte League game against Simi Valley.

Bowman also had the same second reaction as many others.

“I can’t believe that if she plans to try to make the Olympics that she’s even playing basketball,” Bowman said. “That sounds risky to me.”

Field of dreams: Those venturing to the Notre Dame baseball field in a few weeks might not recognize the place. Some advanced spring cleaning has left the place looking brand new.

The biggest change is the addition of a removable outfield fence, which extends from left-center field to the right-field line. The outfield dimensions will be 310 feet down the left-field line, 375 to center and 330 to right.

The 6-foot-high fence, donated by a Notre Dame baseball booster, will be fitted with a wind screen. Previously, there was no outfield fence in center or right field.

Fifty tons of rust-colored infield dirt called Angel Mix has been spread on the basepaths. The dugout floors--Notre Dame is one of the few fields with dugouts below field level--are to be lined with cement. Pitcher’s mounds in both bullpens also have been rebuilt.

Last season, a press box was erected behind the backstop and the infield was re-sodded.

“We want it to be a place where people want to come out to watch a baseball game,” said Jody Breeden, an assistant coach.