THE HIGH SCHOOLS / STEVE ELLING : Notre Dame’s Trying Times on the Court Spare No One

From the coach to the players to the parents, nearly everybody involved in the boys’ basketball program at Notre Dame High is bound by a common thread.

Frustration.

In 1990-91, the Knights won the Mission League championship, advanced to the Southern Section Division III-A semifinals and finished 23-5. Heady stuff, indeed, and smiles abounded.

“Last year, it was hard to walk in and out of the gym,” Coach Mick Cady cracked, “because they were carrying me everywhere.”

Eleven months later, Cady feels like he has been carried off on his shield.

The team is 9-12, 3-6 in league play. Cady is disenchanted and disappointed, the players lack motivation and some parents have been vocal.

“I never had a complaint about Mick, ever , until this year,” said Kevin Rooney, Notre Dame’s athletic director, of his fifth-year coach.

Morale took some lumps in the days that followed a 52-36 loss to Bishop Montgomery on Jan. 23. No Knight player scored in double figures and Cady found himself looking for ways to light a fire under a team that has just three seniors.

“We were down, 14-0, before we even got started,” Cady said. “And that was on the heels of a couple of other unmotivated games.

“It was a horrible performance. I didn’t seem to be getting anybody’s attention. Now I seem to have everybody’s.”

At practice the following day, preceding the Knights’ Jan. 25 game against rival Crespi, Cady tried some new motivational wrinkles. He took away the team’s practice and game uniforms and told players they needed to earn the right to wear them again.

Cady said he learned of the ploy from a Duke assistant at a coaching camp last summer.

“He said he didn’t envy anybody who had to coach in California,” Cady said. “We have to deal with the most image-conscious kids in the United States.”

Notre Dame players practiced as “shirts and skins,” and two players were injured during routine drills. Scott Teaberry, a promising freshman, shattered a bone in a finger on his right hand and junior Kevin Kenney caught an elbow over the eye. It took 16 stitches to close Kenney’s wound.

Notre Dame lost to Crespi, 62-59, which did not improve matters. As Cady has juggled the starting lineup, parental input has increased. Rooney has been cornered by parents complaining about their son’s playing time and Cady’s motivational tactics.

“I keep telling (the team), ‘Stop looking for other places to place the blame,’ ” Cady said. “ ‘You need to do the best you can do.’

“It’s not a popularity contest.”

Players question whether the sacrifice is worth it.

“When you say sarcastic things enough times, (certain players) start to believe it,” said one player, who asked not to be identified. “It doesn’t make a good impression and some guys are wondering about coming out next year.”

Cady concedes that he doesn’t know how the team will respond over the long haul.

“I’ll be able to answer that in six months,” he said. “I’ll be able to tell by how we approach our summer-league games.”

Added Cady: “These are the types of years that drive coaches out of the business.”

Road weary: It was a tiring, emotional affair and Ventura Coach Dan Larson did not enjoy a single minute of it.

“It wasn’t fun at all,” Larson said. “It was ugly.”

Ventura played at Santa Barbara on Wednesday night and, as expected, there was plenty of extracurricular activity during Ventura’s 77-68 win.

Ventura played a large, loud role in Santa Barbara’s forfeiture last week of seven victories for using an ineligible player. Ventura, Larson admits, called the Southern Section office and blew the whistle on its Channel League rival.

Plenty of safety precautions were taken Wednesday. The Ventura bus was escorted by two police squad cars to and from Santa Barbara and approximately 40 members of the Ventura faculty made the trip and observed from the stands, Larson said. Furthermore, Cal Houston, who assigns game officials from Santa Barbara to Calabasas, sent a pair of veterans to work the game.

“It was a closely called game all the way through,” Larson said. “They did a good job of trying to keep it under control.”

Sparks flew, nonetheless.

The second quarter included a fight and two flagrant technical foul calls that led to the ejection of Santa Barbara player Seth McIver and Coach Bob Purdy.

Adding fuel to the combustible mix was Teodor Russinov, the player who has been ruled ineligible. Russinov was introduced before the game, Larson said, and Santa Barbara players wore a patch with Russinov’s number on their jerseys.

Russinov, a forward from Bulgaria who was ruled ineligible because he is not part of a foreign-exchange program recognized by the California Interscholastic Federation, was on the bench in street clothes when a fight broke out in the second quarter between Ventura’s Randy Martinez and McIver. Russinov was one of many Santa Barbara players who left the bench during the scuffle.

“I’m just glad it’s over,” Larson said.

The Diceman cometh: Alemany’s Richard Dice played the game of his life Wednesday night, although earlier in the day there was some question as to whether he would play at all.

Dice was involved in a fight in a Jan. 25 loss to St. Paul and, in keeping with a league rule, was subject to an automatic one-game suspension. Alemany determined Wednesday that the senior swingman was not at fault--teammate Doug Tait was suspended for his role in the fight--and Dice was given clearance to play.

Talk about a reprieve. Dice led Alemany to an 83-81 upset of host St. Bernard, which entered the game atop the Mission League standings.

Dice scored 18 of Alemany’s 23 points in the fourth quarter and all seven of the team’s points in overtime and finished with 43. When it was crunch time, Dice came out flinging, not swinging.

St. Bernard Coach Jim McClune could hardly believe his eyes.

“We fouled out three players trying to guard him,” said McClune, whose team statistics sheet indicated that Dice had made 10 of 13 shots from three-point range. “We’ve played some pretty fine athletes in the past, but I don’t think anybody has ever scored (43) points against us.”

Was Dice playing over his head?

“No,” McClune said. “He was playing over ours.”