Vagabond Player Returns Home to Coach, Be Close to Daughter : Basketball: After failing to make it in the NBA, former Mater Dei and Pepperdine standout Tom Lewis is an assistant coach at St. John Bosco.

Tom Lewis was waiting. He had been expecting this.

He loped across the coaches’ office at St. John Bosco High School and switched off the television. “Oprah” would have to wait, it was time to talk--again.

“I knew this was coming. It was just a matter of when,” Lewis said.

The inevitable was Lewis coaching basketball, not playing it. He is an assistant coach for the Braves, another interesting twist in an already interesting story.

This is a guy who averaged 27 points per game during his three years at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana. He was a player who was in that “can’t miss” category.

Yet, Lewis was also a player who was haunted by controversy. Every move he made--and there were many--was carefully marked.

Now, after a year of professional basketball in Portugal and failed tryouts with NBA and CBA teams, the cheers and jeers have stopped--at least temporarily.

Last Friday, Lewis was on the St. John Bosco bench and coaching against Mater Dei, which won, 76-44. The Braves’ bench seems like a strange place to find a can’t miss guy.

“Everyone expected me to go play in the NBA for 10 years,” Lewis said. “Well, things didn’t work out that way. Life goes on. This is a new challenge in my career.”

Or is it a new career that is a challenge?

Lewis, who played at USC and Pepperdine, is at a crossroads at age 25. A part of him would like to continue playing basketball, a sport that has engulfed much of his life.

Lewis said his agent expects an offer from a pro team, possibly in Australia, sometime in February.

But basketball does not dominate his life as it once did. There is another focus: his daughter, Holly.

Later this month, Holly will turn 6, and Lewis realizes he has already missed a portion of her life because of basketball.

“She’s my No. 1 priority,” Lewis said. “That’s the reason I’m thinking of settling down. I would like to stay closer to my daughter. If the right opportunity comes along, I’ll take it.”

The opportunity might be at hand.

Lewis did not return to Portugal this season because he said the team had financial difficulties. Instead, he tried to catch on in the United States.

He played on the Philadelphia 76ers’ summer-league team but was cut before training camp. Lewis then drifted to La Crosse, Wis., the CBA team that held his rights, but again was cut.

With no other options on the horizon, Lewis returned to Southern California to be near his daughter. In November, he contacted St. John Bosco Coach Brian Breslin, who had been a volunteer assistant at Pepperdine when Lewis was a senior.

Although Lewis’ only coaching experience was at Mater Dei basketball camps, Breslin hired him.

“I needed an assistant and Tom was available,” said Breslin, a first-year coach. “He didn’t have a lot of coaching experience, but he has vast knowledge of the game.”

Lewis has tried to pass along that knowledge. He sometimes works individually with the Braves’ big men, James Cotton, the team’s leading scorer who is out three weeks with a hairline fracture in his right ankle, and Tom Samson, who was held to five points in the loss to Mater Dei.

While they are learning basketball, Lewis is learning to coach.

“There are times when I have to step on the court and actually show them what to do,” he said. “I think that’s one advantage I have in coaching: I can demonstrate. This one time, I was trying to tell this one kid to take a particular shot in the offense. He didn’t get it. Finally I stepped on the court and did it myself. He said, ‘Oh, that shot.’

“It’s fun watching kids develop.”

Said Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight: “I think Tom is looking to jump to the next stage of his life. He’s really taking care of things. I think it’s great, as long as they don’t beat us.”

The job allows Lewis to stay close to Holly, who lives with her mother in Mission Viejo. In fact, Holly even comes to some of the Braves’ games.

“To tell you the truth, she’s bored with basketball,” Lewis said. “She never understood why I played it. She would come to my games and ask, ‘Why do we have to come here?’ I’d explain to her that this is what I do.”

And did well.

Lewis became a sensation at Mater Dei. During his high school career, the Monarchs were 85-6 and won two CIF Southern Section championships. He averaged 35 points as a senior.

At 6 feet 7, he could play forward or guard. With size and talent, Lewis was wooed by almost every big-name college basketball coach in the nation.

“When he was at Mater Dei, he lived and breathed basketball,” said Santa Margarita Athletic Director Rich Schaaf, who was an assistant coach for the Monarchs. “He just dominated games.”

However, with the praise came criticism.

People questioned his relationship with Pat Barrett, a friend and mentor who coached him on youth teams and at Capistrano Valley High School. When Lewis transferred to Mater Dei after his freshman season, Barrett followed him as a coach. Fingers were pointed.

Many said Barrett had too much influence over Lewis. There was talk that the college that accepted Lewis would have to take Barrett as well.

Lewis still denies that Barrett had much influence over him.

The two remain close, however. Lewis is currently staying with Barrett’s parents in Garden Grove.

Lewis’ college career was equally stormy. He surprised almost everyone by choosing USC, but left after a tumultuous freshman season. He announced that he would attend UC Irvine, then later enrolled at Pepperdine.

His vagabond style made him the target of more criticism and taunting by opposing teams’ crowds. More than a few banners asked where Lewis would go next.

“Really, I wouldn’t change a thing,” Lewis said. “I made mistakes, but I learned from them.

“What hurt sometimes is (that) I ran into people who just liked me because I was ‘Tom Lewis, Basketball Player.’ When things weren’t going well, they didn’t seem to like me anymore. I guess it could be worse. I could have been ‘Tom Lewis, Drunk Driver.’ ”

As a player, Lewis helped establish Mater Dei as one of the most highly regarded prep teams in the nation. At the moment, that is the only part of the past he wants to deal with.

“The past isn’t going anywhere,” Lewis said. “The present is going somewhere. I hope it’s heading to a place where I’ll be happy.”