El Toro Basketball Fans Quickly Learn to Enjoy the Dei

“Man! This score is lopsided.”

“That’s why we came, remember?” --Two El Toro basketball fans

during their team’s 101-43 loss to

Mater Dei Friday night

*

It’s OK, El Toro fans. No need to feel ashamed. Just because, for a split second or two, you were actually cheering for Mater Dei Friday night doesn’t mean you’ve sold your soul to Monarch-mania. It can happen to anyone.

That collective “Whoa!” you let out during Mater Dei’s warm-up drills? Don’t worry about it. Those ooohs and ahhhs after every alley-oop? Never you mind. In fact, go ahead and forget all your “Yikes!” and “Cripes!” and “Ohmigods!” that followed almost every Mater Dei play.

But don’t let it happen again.

Once you allow yourself to be dazed and dazzled by that Monarch flash, you’re a goner, fan-wise. You’ll start wearing red, white and gray. You’ll start honking at every “Go Monarchs!” bumper sticker you see. You’ll sit on Mater Dei bench cushions, eat off Mater Dei plates and dress your pooch in a Mater Dei doggy sweater.

But seeing that Friday was Mater Dei’s inaugural appearance in the South Coast League, we’re going to let you off the hook. You were nice. You were neat. You were, like, sportsmanlike. Even the “booooo” you let out when the Mater Dei players first took the floor sounded as if it came from Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Of course, we know, deep inside, you might have been feeling something else. A little fury, perhaps, over the fact that Mater Dei is now a league member in the first place. Parochial schools, you say, have no place in a public school league. It just isn’t fair, etc. Like the El Toro players and coaches, however, you kept it to yourselves. That’s quality control.

But about this cheering for Mater Dei . . . OK, maybe it’s more of a collective gasp or a gurgle or one of those swooning sounds girls make every time Dylan kisses Brenda on “Beverly Hills, 90210.” I don’t know. Fact is, a few El Toro fans actually seemed enthralled by the experience.

“Watch,” said one just before the game. “We’re not even going to score.”

“Yeah,” another said hopefully. “They’ll probably score a hundred!”

One hundred and one, to be exact. And we don’t mean Dalmatians. No spotted dog could do these kind of tricks.

Like that Marmet Williams’ slam off a perfect pass by Kamran Sufi.

“Wow! Did you see that?” one fan yelled.

“Shut up!” his friend told him.

Or the 360-degree spin layup by Miles Simon.

“That was unbelievable! How does he make those moves?”

“If I knew, I’d do them!”

Or a 15-foot fade away jumper by freshman Olujimi (say “ah-loo-zha-me”) Mann.

“No way!”

“I can’t believe the moves that freshman has!”

“He’s going to be the No. 1 high school player by the time he’s a senior!”

“Will not.”

“Will so!”

“Will not . . . “

And so it went, debating and analyzing and projecting every little thing from why Williams wears eye goggles a la James Worthy to wondering if Sufi might change his name to Sushi. When the clock finally wound down, the fans--Mater Dei’s and El Toro’s--seemed united on one thought: Would the Monarchs hit the century mark? (Yes, on Clay McKnight’s three-point swish with 21 seconds to go).

El Toro Coach Tim Travers, of course, had other concerns on his mind. Like how to put this kind of loss in perspective.

“As I told my players,” Travers said, “they’re the best high school team I’ve ever seen--the best I’ve ever coached against or played against . . . There was nothing we really could do.”

Certainly, El Toro had some highlights. Charger Jim Lewis scored 14 points, and Jeff Bone 12. El Toro even blocked a few shots here and there, and Charger fans went berserk. El Toro played hard, anyway, despite the inevitable.

“It’s kind of like, everyone knew, down deep, we weren’t going to win,” Charger captain Brian Culligan said. “But in a way, we were excited, too. You have a chance to play Mater Dei, probably one of the best high school teams around here, ever.”

Culligan added that though his team was able to accept the defeat, others might not be so understanding, what with the parochial schools having no attendance boundaries.

“I mean, we didn’t like it. Losing by 100? One hundred? That’s a lot of points,” Culligan said. “But some teams could take it bad if they get killed by them.”

We hope they’ll take it OK. As El Toro fans learned Friday night, if you can’t beat ‘em, enjoy ‘em.

Barbie Ludovise’s column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Ludovise by writing her at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, 92626 or by calling (714) 966-5847.