Mater Dei to Skip Holiday Basketball Event

The Mater Dei boys’ basketball team will not be in the Las Vegas Holiday Prep Classic in December. The Monarchs won the tournament in 1995, finished second in ’94 and advanced to the semifinals last season.

Mater Dei Coach Gary McKnight said his team is too inexperienced to play in a national-class tournament like Las Vegas.

“We have a young team and I don’t feel that, having graduated 12 seniors, we are ready for Las Vegas,” said McKnight, whose team won its sixth consecutive Southern Section Division I-A title last season and reached the finals of the Southern California Division I championships.

The Monarchs will open the 1997-98 season against Encino Crespi at 7 p.m. on Dec. 4 as part of the tripleheader in the inaugural John R. Wooden High School Invitational at the Pond. That game will serve as their first in the San Luis Obispo tournament, which continues through Dec. 6.

Mater Dei also will play in the Tournament of Champions at Ocean View High (Dec. 8-13), the Orange Holiday Tournament at Chapman University (Dec. 26-30) and the Nike Extravaganza (Feb. 7).

*

Fred Morgan, the Woodbridge High wrestling coach, resigned his coaching position Wednesday, said Dave Cowen, the school’s boys’ athletic director.

Cowen said Morgan resigned because of family obligations. He said the school is looking for an immediate replacement.