McKnights Carry Mater Dei Banner : Coach Gary, Guard Clay Help Put the Monarchs on Verge of Their 10th Section Championship

Some things don’t change.

Saturday, Mater Dei will be favored to win its 10th Southern Section boys’ basketball championship in 13 seasons under Coach Gary McKnight. The Monarchs are led by some of the area’s top players, including Shaun Jackson and Schea Cotton.

And at guard, swishing three-pointers: Clay McKnight.

Twelve years ago, Mater Dei won its first section title. With Southern Section player of the year Matt Beeuswaert leading the way, Mater Dei defeated Long Beach Poly, 62-44.

And the 6-year-old ball-boy swishing three-pointers: Clay McKnight.

“Clay was shooting the halftime three-point shots in the Long Beach Arena back in ‘83,” Gary McKnight said. “He’s always been out there shooting.

“He sat in my lap during games and was with me constantly. It’s been neat to see him come up through the program.”

Said Clay: “I’ve always been a part of Mater Dei. For me to actually be here and now have it almost gone, it’s really exciting and sad at the same time.”

Clay, a 6-foot-2 senior who has been a two-year starter, has earned a scholarship to UC Irvine and signed a letter of intent in November. He has helped the Monarchs win 31 of 32 games while playing their toughest schedule ever.

And the Monarchs have endured another year in the spotlight when praise and adulation were often accompanied by criticism and scrutiny.

Mater Dei’s undefeated football team was crowned mythical national champion before its coach received a bizarre, phantom job offer.

Sports Illustrated contributed to the growing national attention surrounding Cotton, touted as one of the finest high school players in the country, as the Monarchs piled up victory after victory.

And there was Gary McKnight’s self-admitted regrettable confrontation with UCLA Coach Jim Harrick over a recruiting disagreement involving Clay. McKnight said he and Harrick have reconciled professionally.

But the attention to Mater Dei’s successes and shortcomings are only daily nuances.

“I don’t think it really affects either of us,” Clay said. “That kind of stuff happens with the success that comes our way. You just can’t let it affect you.”

It hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm the McKnights share.

“The guys have amazed me to be 31-1,” Gary said. “Our nonleague schedule was our toughest ever. I just felt maybe we have to get beat or play some big-time teams so if we got to the State playoffs or Southern Section finals, we would have already seen teams that are better or as good.”

The Monarchs’ only loss came against Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy in the final of the Las Vegas Reebok Holiday Prep Classic tournament in December. But the Monarchs lost by only two points after McKnight missed a three-point shot at the buzzer.

Cotton, Jackson and McKnight have done the bulk of the damage this season for Mater Dei, which plays Nogales for the Division I-A title at 8:30 p.m. at The Pond of Anaheim.

Cotton, an athletic 6-5 sophomore, continued to impress opponents, coaches and scouts. He has averaged 25 points and 11 rebounds despite suffering a hamstring injury that helped keep him out of seven games.

Jackson, a 6-7 senior who has signed with Wyoming, has been steady; he’s averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds.

McKnight is averaging 15 points. He has made 120 three-pointers and is shooting 45% from three-point range.

“We’ve seen the best and played the best,” Clay McKnight said. “The only team that could beat us is ourselves. We know what we have to do now to win. We’re peaking at the right time.”

It’s easy to see that Clay shares his father’s intensity. Clay also respects him.

“Some people say that’s not right for him to yell and scream at us, but that gets us motivated,” Clay McKnight said. “That’s part of what puts those banners on the wall. Without him, we wouldn’t be where we are.”

Gary McKnight’s feelings are mutual.

“I love my son,” Gary McKnight said. “Coaching him has been the highlight of my life. It’s added new life to me to have him involved in the last three years and it just makes every day a little more special.

“I look at it that for the next few years, I’ll have a chance to do the same with my other sons.”

Gary McKnight and his wife of 20 years, Judy, have four other sons--Bryan (15), Geoff (13), Matthew (11) and Taylor (4)--not yet in high school. All figure to wind their way to Mater Dei, but they have other sporting interests besides basketball, such as golf, soccer and football.

The McKnight family is a close-knit group, which enjoyed a recent summer trip to the East Coast. But Clay, a sports nut and cable TV junkie, had only one place in mind he wanted to visit.

“I studied the map and saw Bristol, Conn., and I said ‘If memory serves me right, that’s where the ESPN studios are, right?’ ” Clay McKnight said. “I figured we were only going to be out this way once in my lifetime so I told my dad that I didn’t care; we were taking that extra half-hour detour to stop by there.”

Clay, who would like a career in communications or the media, wanted a guided tour of the ESPN facility but was informed he had to call ahead to arrange one.

So he took his own tour.

“I looked for a door to go in and some guy who was working there asked me, ‘Hey, what do you want?’ ” Clay said. “I told him that I wanted to get inside. He let me in and told me to just pretend like I knew what I was doing.

“He showed me where the studios were and I even saw Linda Cohn (an ESPN anchor). I wasn’t about to be concerned what my parents thought. I was going to explore.”

So for 25 minutes, Gary, Judy and the McKnight clan waited to indulge Clay.

So what’s the next stop for Gary and Clay’s excellent adventure?

“I’m just concentrating on winning a State championship,” Clay said. “To see the seniors go out the way they did last season, and how sad they were, that’s something I don’t want to have to deal with this year. We’re on a mission.”

Said Gary: “We’ve been heavy favorites and lost before and we’ve been underdogs and won before. To be honest, I was really happy we won Tuesday. Now I know we have two more games and another week. I just don’t like the idea of sudden death and thinking, ‘Is this my last game with him?’ ”