PREP BASKETBALL / STATE TOURNAMENT : St. Bernard’s Scott Has Kept <i> All </i> of Her Aspirations High

Inspired by the closing ceremony in 1976, which they watched on television four days before her birth, her parents named her for the Olympics. At 12, she was 6 feet tall. Among other things, she wants to be President.

Even if basketball doesn’t pan out for Olympia Scott, a Stanford-bound senior at Playa del Rey St. Bernard High, she plans to live a remarkable life.

If only she weren’t so earnest when she talks about her “destiny,” one might be tempted to smile when listening to her lofty aspirations.

The most immediate goal facing Scott is helping St. Bernard (28-5) repeat as CIF State Division IV champion. The Vikings will play Grass Valley Bear River (30-3) in the final Friday at 2:30 p.m. at the Oakland Coliseum.

St. Bernard defeated Bear River in last year’s state championship game, 59-48. Bear River players are probably not looking forward to again facing Scott, who had 24 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots against them last year.

Scott, a 6-2 senior forward, towers above most of the other players at the Division IV level, the second-smallest in the state. She averages 17.7 points, 15.7 rebounds and four blocked shots.

In four years, she led the Vikings to three Southern Section championships.

Scott was the youngest player chosen to participate in the U.S. Olympic Festival at San Antonio last summer. She led all players with averages of 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots.

When Scott is not playing basketball, she is “charting her career,” said her mother, Jacki.

Scott hopes to play professional basketball in Europe, “because I have so many plans that I think in order to accomplish all of them I need immediate cash flow,” Scott said.

“I plan to be an entrepreneur, if I don’t go into broadcasting right away, but I’m hoping that I come out with a bang and I hope that I get to play in the 1996 Olympics.”

But her primary goal is to become President.

“She has always said that she wanted to be President of the United States,” Jacki recalled. “When she first said it, I kind of laughed, but then I thought, I shouldn’t laugh, because you never know.”

Scott has already secured a bit of support for her bid.

“We’ll all vote for her, I’m sure,” St. Bernard Coach Lori Pawinski said.

Scott has been active in student government at St. Bernard, where she has held the offices of freshman class president, commissioner of athletics and commissioner of campus communications.

Scott also is the Teen Far West Regional President of Jack and Jill of America, Inc., a nationwide organization that helps youths learn about their culture and develop leadership skills.

What’s more, Scott has already begun to hammer out her platform for the nation’s top office. She is concerned about:

--Unemployment.

“Just like getting these people off the street and instead of just giving them little minuscule jobs or whatever . . . we have to educate people and help them get careers instead of just jobs.”

--Education.

“Because American teen-agers (rank) pretty low on education. I think that’s bad.”

--And virtue.

“I feel like the candidates who run now for different offices are just like puppets of all these people who have money. . . . Maybe by the time I want to run, there will be more people with integrity.”

No one ever said she wasn’t optimistic.

In fact, she refuses to acknowledge those who would limit her.

In seventh grade, when Scott wanted to try out for cheerleading, her mother suggested that she might be too tall.

Olympia looked her mother square in the eye and said: “Mom, please don’t ever tell me that I’m too tall for anything.”

She became captain of the squad.

Growing up in Ladera Heights, Scott played basketball and baseball in local youth leagues. Although she was often the only girl on her team, she was seldom at a disadvantage because of it. Aside from towering over most boys her age, she also had speed.

“Everybody used to race, even if you raced to the bathroom,” Scott recalled. “I used to be pretty fast. I think that’s what got me into baseball, because I couldn’t hit for anything at first, but I could steal bases.”

In eighth grade, Scott was still not much of a basketball player, but her size and athleticism had local high school coaches enthusiastic.

Although Scott lives near both Inglewood and Inglewood Morningside, which are powers in higher divisions, Scott chose the smaller St. Bernard for its academic reputation.

Scott started on varsity her freshman year, but mainly hung around under the basket and grabbed rebounds rather than shooting.

She hadn’t grasped the concept of game intensity. Once, with only minutes remaining in a close Southern Section championship game her freshman year, Scott stopped at midcourt to pick up a rubber band that had fallen out of her ponytail.

Spectators were stunned.

Scott rejoined the action in time to help St. Bernard to a victory and was told afterward that, if it happened again, forget the ponytail.

Since then, her fundamentals and intensity have improved tenfold under Pawinski.

“You would not believe the drastic change,” Scott said.

The change was enough to attract the attention of the nation’s top college coaches. Scott considered offers from Arizona and Iowa as well as Stanford.

“I wanted to go somewhere where the coaching was strong, not necessarily the players, because players graduate. Coaches turn good players into great players,” Scott said.

Arizona Coach Joan Bonvicini is 362-116 in 15 years of coaching and led Long Beach State to the NCAA Final Four in 1987 and 1988. Iowa Coach Vivian Stringer turned around a program that was at the bottom of the Big Ten Conference in 1983, bringing it all the way to the Final Four last season. Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer coached the Cardinal to national championships in 1990 and ’92.

Scott ruled out Iowa because of the weather. “Once it gets kind of wintry, my nose starts running,” she said.

Ultimately, she chose Stanford over Arizona because she felt a Stanford degree would help her in her bid for the Presidency.

“Basketball is not the end-all for Olympia Scott,” Pawinski said.

Scott wholeheartedly agrees.

“Sometimes, I think I have a calling, like a destiny,” Scott said. “There’s a reason for me being here. I’m not here just to have fun or just to win a game or two.”

Ever since she came into the world weighing 9 pounds 9 ounces, it has been clear to some that Olympia Renee--loosely translated, “Heavenly Royalty”--is bound for a life befitting such a name.