1995-96 GIRLS’ BASKETBALL PREVIEW : The Key to Success : Mater Dei’s Peterson Overcomes Hurdles to Become the Best

Melody Peterson was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. She had no heartbeat and was not breathing.

Perhaps it is because of that near-fatal experience that life’s subsequent obstacles have seemed relatively innocuous for Peterson, a senior point guard at Mater Dei.

Since doctors revived Peterson moments after she was born clinically dead, she has tried to avoid getting hung up on things that others might consider hardships. That includes growing up with divorced parents, being the only girl on her youth football team and living with another family so she can attend Mater Dei.

“Sometimes it’s hard, but not enough to sit there and dread it,” she said. “I just think about what I have ahead of me.”

Peterson, who will attend Stanford next year, hopes to lead Mater Dei to its second appearance in the state basketball finals this season.

Peterson, whose middle name, Ko, was the name of the doctor who revived her, has breathed new life into the Monarch girls’ basketball program. Before she arrived in 1993, Mater Dei had not advanced past the Southern Section quarterfinals. With Peterson, the Monarchs have played in two Southern Section finals and a state championship game.

“The biggest thing she adds is just her excitement on the court and how she can do something unbelievable at any second--she’ll make a great play, she can make a great pass, she can make a key steal, she will do something,” Mater Dei Coach Mary Hauser said. “She’s the element on the team that the whole other team is worried about.”

Many have said Peterson plays like a boy. Undeniably, Peterson has the kind of speed, flair and confidence uncommon in the girls’ version of the game. She whirls and drives, averaging nearly 24 points and five assists last season. She was a first-team All-Southern Section selection and The Times Orange County player of the year.

Although Peterson enjoys basketball, she enjoys playing football more. She was the only girl on the youth football teams in her hometown of Monrovia. The coaches played her at kicker, quarterback and wide receiver before they noticed her skills on defense.

“We were doing drills one day and I just stuck this guy--he’s still one of my best friends--and after that they put me at linebacker,” she said.

Peterson had an ongoing joke with Mater Dei football Coach Bruce Rollinson during the last two years that she was going to try out for his team. Although she never did, he was impressed with her football scrapbook.

“I was kind of--I don’t think stunned is the right word--but I thought it was pretty neat,” Rollinson said. “She is a tremendous athlete and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if she couldn’t go out there and probably have success. She’s the type of individual who, when she makes her mind up, she gets the job done.”

Peterson played three sports at a time in eighth grade at Monrovia Clifton Middle School--changing clothes in her mother’s car as she sped from basketball to soccer to football practices.

Peterson attended Monrovia High as a freshman and led the Wildcat varsity to a 21-6 record, but four starters graduated after that season, leaving Peterson as the only returner.

Peterson’s mother, Sherry, said she wanted her daughter to transfer because she was unhappy with the coach, Lloyd Higgins.

“I admit that I’m a bit of a mother lion when it comes to my kids,” Sherry said. “I have never insisted that she be the star but I do insist that you treat her like a human being.”

Higgins refused to talk about the details of the transfer.

“In the years that I have been involved in athletics, I have never been involved with anyone as talented as Melody and oftentimes, talent brings misunderstandings,” said Higgins, who has coached basketball and track for 25 years in the Monrovia Unified School District. “I think it’s great that she is living her dream [of going to Stanford] and I wish her all the luck.”

Peterson had met a few Mater Dei players, including current teammate Allison Luckey, at summer basketball camps and decided to transfer. Sherry moved temporarily so her daughter could establish residency and not lose a year of eligibility under Southern Section rules.

But Sherry, a paralegal, could not find employment in the area so she soon moved back to Monrovia, leaving Melody in the care of friends so she could attend Mater Dei. The situation has not been easy for Peterson, who has been shuffled to four families in a little more than two years.

Peterson currently is living with Patti and Randy Lechmann in Orange. The Lechmanns’ daughter, Rachel, also is a senior on the Mater Dei basketball team and is Peterson’s best friend.

Patti said Melody fits in well with the household, which includes Timothy, 7, and Adam, 4.

“The boys just adore her,” Lechmann said. “She has such an upbeat personality and she’s always willing to help.”

But Peterson still misses her own family gatherings in Monrovia, where her mother, father, older brother and sister and nieces and nephews all live within 15 minutes of each other.

“It’s kind of hard, sometimes . . . you want to talk to them,” Peterson said. “I see them on weekends and they come to all my games.”

There have been some incredible moments to see, such as when she scored 19 points in one quarter against Marina to help Mater Dei overcome a 10-point deficit and win, 69-62. Against Mission Hills Alemany, Mater Dei trailed by 19 in the third and Peterson scored 19 of the Monarchs’ next 29 points in a 56-52 victory.

There have been sad moments, such as Peterson dedicating last season’s section final victory to Edgar Meyers, her ailing grandfather. Sherry told Melody before the game that Meyers, who didn’t talk to Sherry for years because of her interracial marriage, had requested Melody score a lot of points. What Sherry didn’t tell Melody before the game was that he had died. After the game, Melody found Sherry, who burst into tears and relayed the news. They stood hugging and crying in Long Beach State’s Pyramid.

Throughout much of Mater Dei’s bright postseason, Peterson was considering transferring because of what she called a personality conflict with the coaching staff. But Peterson and Hauser said they have worked out their differences.

Peterson was the youngest player selected to compete for the U.S. Olympic Festival women’s basketball team last summer in Denver and the words “national team” are often spoken in the same sentence with her name.

Tara VanDerveer, U.S. Olympic coach and former Stanford coach, recruited Peterson for the Cardinal. At the Olympic Festival, where Peterson led the West to the silver medal, Peterson enjoyed playing with four Stanford players on the West team.

Shortly after the Olympic Festival, coaches from Connecticut, Georgia, Colorado and North Carolina State called her to cancel her recruiting trips. Peterson figured they anticipated she would choose Stanford, which advanced to the NCAA Final Four last season.

VanDerveer will return after the Olympics for Peterson’s freshman season. Meanwhile, Peterson is concentrating on finishing her Mater Dei career as one of the best female basketball players ever at the school.