No Time to Look Back for Monarchs, Ladycats

They were brought together for one weekend by fate, fortune, the bounce of the basketball, the luck of the draw and economy-class air fare to Sacramento Metropolitan Airport.

They did their thing in the Arco Arena, in the championship round of the high school state basketball tournament, in front of more faces than most of us meet in a lifetime.

Where do they go from here?

Mater Dei’s Monarchs: Back to jump-shooting practice was the first recommendation after the clanging in their ears stopped, but the players who combined to miss 72.9% of their shots Saturday night will instead try to forget and get on with their lives by spending a few days in the Bay Area, and then a good many more away from the school gymnasium.

On strict edict from their coach.

“I want them to get away from it,” said Gary McKnight after his team’s 59-37 disintegration against Alameda St. Joseph in the boys’ Division I final. “Kids need to be kids. You play 36 games and there’s so much wear and tear. You put your family on hold, the studies take a beating, everybody’s just worn out by the end.”

McKnight could see the fatigue in his players’ eyes and in their shooting totals--13 for 48 from the field, 1 for 12 from three-point range.

“Our outside shooting kinda left us,” McKnight said. “We weren’t hitting three-pointers like we did earlier in the season. Early in the season, we were knocking down five, six three-pointers a game. I think we just got tired.”

Between now and next season, Mater Dei loses its best player, Reggie Geary, but gains from the Sacramento experience. Four starters return, plus Miles Simon, who awoke Saturday morning to confront this agenda: You’re a 10th-grader, you’re playing for the state championship, you’re starting for the state’s top-ranked team . . . and you’re guarding Jason Kidd.

From young Miles’ perspective, the next two years have to look like cake.

Reggie Geary: To the weight room. That was Geary’s self-analysis after he sized up the future competition, a man named Kidd.

“I saw that I’ve got to work on my game and put on a little weight if I want to compete with him,” said Geary, who will be in the same league with Kidd in 1992-93, regardless, since Arizona (Geary’s destination) plays California (Kidd’s destination) twice every Pacific 10 season.

In a matchup of two of the state’s most celebrated players, Geary had the foot speed to keep pace with Kidd, and the leaping ability, as his third-quarter thunderdunk rousingly illustrated. But physique, ballhandling, jump-shooting, defensive skills--when Geary looked at Kidd, he saw his own personal wish list.

“I’d catch myself looking at him, like a show,” Geary said. “He’s not the national player of the year for nothing. I know he’s going to lead Cal to a lot of victories.

“Hopefully, not too many.”

Gary McKnight: To Cal State Fullerton.

He has to interview first, you know.

“I’m supposed to get in touch with Bill (Shumard, Fullerton athletic director) on Tuesday,” said McKnight, who was invited by Shumard last week to apply for the vacancy created by John Sneed’s dismissal.

McKnight is interested, and intrigued, by the Fullerton situation, but also wary after last year’s handshake-and-backslap with Tom Ford during UC Irvine’s coaching search.

“Irvine was such a token last year,” McKnight said. “Tom did it, basically, to keep Gary McKnight happy so Dylan Rigdon wouldn’t transfer.”

It didn’t work; Rigdon is now a redshirt and awaiting Geary’s arrival at Arizona. But if Fullerton approaches McKnight with serious intentions, McKnight is prepared to do the same.

“For me to leave, the package has to be right,” he said. Included in the package: a full-time secretary to run the basketball office, invitations to Mater Dei assistants Phil Bellomo and Dave Taylor to join him, permission to run on-campus summer camps.

“Fullerton’s a little bit easier to turn around (than Irvine) because it has the majors you need to get the kids, recreation and P.E.,” McKnight said. “I’d need the right package because I have too good of a situation at Mater Dei. But Bill seems to want to make that program successful. . . . “

Brea-Olinda’s Ladycats: “We’re going to be young and rebuilding,” Coach Mark Trakh said as he struggled to suppress a post-championship grin. “That’s the party line, isn’t it?”

The line on the 1992-93 Ladycats is this: Point guard Nicole Erickson, perpetrator of the game-breaking three-pointer against Healdsburg, will be back, as will center Colleen Hudson, as will forward Sarah Beckley. All three are sophomores. Joining them will be top reserve Lee Moulin. She is a freshman.

Oh, yes: The Ladycat junior varsity was 24-0 this season.

“I think we’ll be very competitive in Orange County,” Trakh allowed, “but I don’t know about another CIF championship. If I live to be 80 and can say I went to the state finals four times and won three of them, that’s a lot to be happy about.”

Jody Anton, on the way out the door to USC, begs to differ.

“They have three returning starters ,” she said, eyebrows arching. “However you want to elaborate on that, go ahead. Three of them have already experienced the pressure and preparation it takes to go to the State finals.

“I know I’m going to come back and watch them.”

Jason Kidd: To an NBA backcourt near you, after a quick pit stop in Berkeley.

Landing Kidd was the catch of a lifetime for Cal, but how long he stays there is anybody’s guess. Kidd needed three cracks to pass the Scholastic Aptitude Test and already has the look and build of a fifth-year Pac-10 senior. If he leaves after two seasons, Cal will say thanks for the time we spent together and try to recruit by showing highlights of its performance in the 1994 NCAA tournament.

Sighted in Arco Arena Saturday night: dozens of trademarked sports caps on spectators’ heads. The caps were blue, bearing a big gold inscription: JASON KIDD.

Also sighted: Kidd being surrounded by autograph seekers, some of them sportswriters, as he tried to leave the postgame interview room.

“Hey, Jason,” McKnight called out from behind the podium, “can I get an autograph, too?”