Forehan-Kelly Earns Foes’ Respect

It’s hard to stand out on the county’s top-ranked boys’ basketball team. Santa Margarita’s top eight players as interchangeable as “D” cell batteries in a boom box. Offense and defense are played with equal precision and dedication.

But 6-foot-5 Ryan Forehan-Kelly is the Eagles’ leading scorer (14 points per game) and arguably their best all-around player. He never demands the ball, preferring to score his points within the flow of the game. “He typifies the kind of kids we have this year,” Coach Jerry DeBusk said.

Forehan-Kelly, a senior, will be one of the weapons Servite must defuse Saturday if the Friars (17-5) are to upset the Eagles (21-1) in a 1 p.m. game at the Nike Extravaganza basketball tournament in the Bren Center.

Forehan-Kelly, 18, stands out for another reason. He is the only black on Santa Margarita’s varsity. (His younger brother, Tashaan, 14, plays on the school’s freshman team.) His father Michael Kelly, who is black, lives in Northern California. The brothers live with their mother Lisa Forehan, who is white. She is pursuing a doctorate in sports psychology at UC Irvine.

Although Forehan-Kelly has grown up in predominantly white areas and attended predominantly white schools, he says he has never struggled with his racial identity.

“Ever since I was young, my black grandfather had said if you had one drop of black blood in you, you were black,” Forehan-Kelly said. “He said that was how the white folks classified you back then. So I was raised to be black.

“But I’ve been pretty lucky. My family made sure I was connected to both sides, black and white. My mom made sure I didn’t just see the white side of my family, even though they are mostly in my life right now.”

Because trash-talking has become as much a part of basketball as the layup, it would seem Forehan-Kelly might be a target for small minds of any color.

Though he is definitely “one of the guys” on the Eagles’ team, it would be understandable if Forehan-Kelly sometimes felt isolated at Santa Margarita, where, according to Principal Merritt Hemenway, blacks make up less than 1% of the school’s 1,800 student population.

But Forehan-Kelly said the only opponents’ chirping he has heard--other than remarks about his basketball skills--has come from predominantly black teams. “There have been a couple of times where guys have said, ‘What are you doing at that school?’ ” he said. “But it doesn’t really affect me; everyone talks during games.”

More important to Forehan-Kelly was how we would be received at Santa Margarita when he arrived in 1996.

Although Forehan-Kelly was born in Long Beach and reared in Irvine, Lisa Forehan moved her family north in 1991, first to Mendocino and then to Santa Rosa.

“I wanted the kids to get some small-town atmosphere,” she said. “It was tough academically for me because I was still in Irvine’s doctoral program, but I just had to do my dissertation work, which I could do anywhere.”

Forehan-Kelly began showing promise as a basketball player at Mendocino High in 1994, when he became the first freshman to play on the varsity. But in 1995, the family moved to Santa Rosa, where Forehan-Kelly enrolled at Cardinal Newman High.

He started on the junior varsity but was eventually promoted to varsity as Newman made a run at the state title. His team reached the Division IV championship game in 1996, losing to Fresno Washington Union, 56-42.

Cardinal Newman Coach Pat Fitzgerald remembers Forehan-Kelly fondly.

“I wish he was with me now,” Fitzgerald said. “His fundamentals are excellent and he is a pure shooter. He is also the ultimate team player, always willing to sacrifice his game for the good of the team. He’s not extremely quick, but he as the kind of court sense you can’t teach.

“I’m not surprised he’s doing well. He’s very coachable, never a problem. He does things without question.”

Lisa had planned to keep her sons in Santa Rosa, but her school demands required the family’s return to Irvine. He enrolled in Santa Margarita in November 1996 and asked DeBusk for a chance to make the team.

Forehan-Kelly may seem soft-spoken, but don’t be fooled.

“He’s not as quiet as he seems,” teammate Carson Palmer said. “When it comes to getting business done on the court, he gets it done. And if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to, he gets in your face. Whoever plays or practices against him has to respect him. But he is also easy-going and funny. I knew the first time I met him we would be friends even after high school.”

Forehan-Kelly believes the Eagles could be destined for a long playoff run next month. That’s why he has put off making any decision about college. He has received an offer from UC Riverside and several NAIA schools have expressed interest.

He also has applied to USC with an eye toward premed, and trying to walk on to the Trojans’ team.

“I just want to play the year out,” Forehan-Kelly said. “I’m not really worried about that pressure until after the season. Then whatever happens, happens. I don’t want to close any doors. Hopefully something will come up.”

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Boys’ Basketball Tournament

* What: Third annual Nike Extravaganza

* When: Saturday

* Where: Bren Center, UC Irvine

* Morning schedule: 11:30 a.m.--Ocean View vs. Etiwanda; 1 p.m.--Santa Margarita vs. Servite; 2:30 p.m.--Los Alamitos vs. Capistrano Valley

* Evening schedule: 5 p.m.--Mater Dei vs. Elizabeth (N.J.) St. Patrick; 7--Compton Dominguez vs. Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy; 9--Beaverton (Ore.) vs. Glendora

* Tickets: $8-$12 per session

* Information: (714) 824-5000