No Regular Joe : El Camino’s Zaletel Flexes His Scoring Might, Earns Looks from Recruiters

When he was a senior at Torrance High, Joe Zaletel received only one letter from a college basketball recruiter.

Interest in Zaletel didn’t pick up after he spent the 1991-92 season playing at Harbor College.

But after sitting out last season and attending classes at El Camino, Zaletel has returned in a big way.

As a sophomore with the Warriors, the 6-foot-7 forward is among the state community college scoring leaders with a 28-point average.

And more mail is arriving each day.

“When I was at UCLA (as an assistant), we had Don MacLean, who was just a great shooter, but he doesn’t have the all-around ability Joe does,” El Camino Coach Paul Landreaux said. “Not to take anything away from Don, but if a Don MacLean can be in the NBA and do what he has, there’s no telling what can happen to Joe if he just focuses in.”

Landreaux rates Zaletel among his top three players since he started coaching at El Camino in 1978. Carl Strong, Zaletel’s coach at Harbor, rates him among the best in the state community college ranks.

It is the type of praise that Zaletel probably wouldn’t have received a year ago.

Zaletel, 20, had a noteworthy enough senior season at Torrance. He averaged 21.8 points, 11.3 rebounds and was named to the All-Southern Section team.

His success was limited at Harbor, where he averaged about 10 points in sporadic playing time as a freshman. The difficulty carried over to the classroom.

“I had some family problems,” Zaletel said. “I had to move out and get a job and I wasn’t really into school. So I needed to get a job and take care of myself.”

After his freshman season, Zaletel left Harbor and worked in a tropical fish store for a year.

“That was a lot of fun for me,” he said. “I have an aquarium at home and I have a lot of fish at home that I had even before I took the job.”

Zaletel said his relationship with his family has improved considerably since then and he shares an apartment with his older brother, Jon, in Wilmington.

He also expects to complete work on an associate of arts degree this summer.

“At the time, I felt like I just needed to move out,” Zaletel said. “But my family life is pretty much back in order and I have a job along with school and basketball.”

During his year away, Zaletel grew two inches. He was a redshirt with the Warriors last season.

All along, he kept close contact with Landreaux and his assistant, Steve Shaw.

“I think the biggest thing was just staying in contact with him and making sure things were going OK and keeping him focused,” Shaw said. “From a basketball standpoint, he already came fully equipped. He mostly had to focus on his academics.”

Attention from four-year colleges started to increase after Zaletel’s play in summer league games. Arizona, USC, UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Fullerton are among the interested.

It’s easy to see why recruiters like Zaletel.

He has made 54.4% of his field-goal attempts and 45.8% of his three-point shots. He has scored 30 or more points in four of the 10 games he has played, including 38 against Compton on Dec. 3.

“He has the ability to shoot outside and inside,” Landreaux said. “He’s just a complete talent who can score from any place on the court.”

He has also played every position for El Camino, partly out of necessity. El Camino is 3-9.

“You can’t take anything away from Joe,” Landreaux said. “If we don’t have him, we don’t win any of those games.”

Zaletel has battled defenses designed to key on him

“But when he’s on the court, he can’t shy away from it,” Landreaux said. “Everybody we play knows who our 30-point-a-game guy is, so they double-team him and do things to stop him. But he should take that as a compliment. As soon as he accepts that, it’s wide open for him.”

Zaletel expects to play small forward or shooting guard at a Division I program.

As for which school he will attend, Zaletel has yet to take an official visit and doesn’t expect to decide until after the season.