Peninsula’s McKinney Is Suspended : Prep basketball: Coach Wendell Yoshida cites poor classroom and practice attendance as reasons for action.

Mimi McKinney, a consensus All-American for the Peninsula High girls’ basketball team, has been suspended indefinitely from the team by Coach Wendell Yoshida because of poor classroom and practice attendance.

McKinney, who will be a senior in the fall, has not played with Peninsula this summer and her status for next season remains uncertain. She is playing in a national Amateur Athletic Union tournament in Tennessee this week and could not be reached for comment.

“If I had to make a decision right now, she would not be back on the team,” Yoshida said. “She has done some things that are unacceptable by my standards.”

Yoshida said the 5-foot-9 McKinney has achieved passing grades and is eligible to play under school rules, but a pattern of skipping classes and practices led to the team suspension.

“It’s for her own good,” Yoshida said. “I may lose the most athletic player I’ve ever had, but no one is above the team in our program. If the school wants to fire me, that’s fine, but I have total support from our school.

“I’m teaching more than basketball. The bottom line is that she is not displaying the qualities I feel are necessary to be in our program. I have rules and I have ethics and I have morals, and I stand by them.”

Yoshida, beginning his 14th year as a girls’ high school coach on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, said McKinney has attended Peninsula games this summer and regularly comes to school to lift weights. The Panthers brought a 10-4 record into the Agoura tournament on Thursday.

“We’ve talked,” Yoshida said. “She wants another chance.”

A varsity starter since her freshman year at Palos Verdes High, McKinney is considered one of the nation’s top prep players. She helped Palos Verdes win the State Division III title in 1991 and Peninsula win the State Division I title in 1992. Last season, she led Peninsula (17-9) with averages of 20.3 points and nine rebounds and was selected to All-American teams by Street and Smith magazine, USA Today and Parade magazine.