Despite Record, McKnight at Ease

You just know people have waited for this season, taking glee in every Mater Dei loss. The boys’ basketball team’s reign had to end at some point, and it looks as if the run of consecutive Southern Section championships will stop at six.

The Monarchs find themselves in unusual territory, in third place in the South Coast League and out of the county’s top 10.

But you also will find a smiling face in the most unlikely of locations: behind Coach Gary McKnight’s desk in the the boys’ basketball office at Mater Dei.

His Monarchs are 12-6, already having equaled their losses in the previous three seasons combined, and the most losses in a single season since 1988.

Try to reconcile those facts with this statement from McKnight: “I’ve never had as much fun coaching.”

Huh?

“Because they’re very talented,” he said. “They’re just young. They don’t have the senior bodies with the strength and what-have-you.

“To be honest with you, after my cancer surgery about a year and a half ago [to remove a malignant tumor from his chest], some things don’t bother me quite as much. We’re doing the best we can. I’ve got great kids. And we’re having fun. It’s not like I’m going home and kicking the dog or sulking.”

“It’s a thing where you look at, you start two freshmen and a sophomore and two juniors. Off the bench, you’re playing a junior and three sophomores. It’s such a young group, at least you know the future is very bright.”

All of a sudden, success is in the past, leaving only the future to talk about.

For the first time in who-knows-how-long, when the diplomas were handed out to last year’s seniors there was nobody to pick up where they left off. They have to use that rarely heard word at Mater Dei: rebuilding.

“Most years it’s a reloading-type thing,” McKnight said. “We always have a couple of kids. It’s a situation where we didn’t have any senior kids coming up.

“We had 12 seniors, and all five starters went to Division I [NCAA colleges]. It took a pretty good bite out of the team.”

That put the coach back into Coach McKnight, who now needs the same amount of scouting and game planning for every game as he used to spend only on national tournaments or playoff games.

“Now every night we can get beat,” McKnight said. “And it’s an adventure. As coaches, we’re spending a lot more time in preparation.

“We’re not practicing any more than we have in the past, but as coaches, our time commitment is a lot larger than in the past.” It’s tempting to be cynical here, to wonder if Mater Dei simply had a bad recruiting year, or if this is a ploy to make their addition more palatable to whatever group they join when (and if) the principals ever come up with a functional releaguing arrangement.

“Contrary to belief, we’re not trying to make public schools happy,” McKnight said. “We are still trying to win league games. We’ve lost two home games, which just isn’t done here very often. We’ve lost two league games in 15 years, and lost two in one year.”

Perhaps the accumulation of fortuitous bounces and favorable calls that are a part of any run as successful as McKnight’s 454-35 record in his first 15 seasons has topped out. It obviously will take more than good breaks to return to the elite level.

When McKnight says, “with any luck, we’d be 14-4,” that still would leave the Monarchs with more losses than any season since their 25-5 record in 1990-91.

“I thought over Christmas, in the Orange [Holiday] tournament, we played extremely well, we lost to Santa Margarita by three points in the finals,” McKnight said. “I thought we were really turning the corner. But then we kind of plateaued. I don’t know if it’s just the youth, where they don’t take some teams seriously and they think, ‘We’re Mater Dei, we’re going to win.’ But we showed up in league a couple of nights against Dana Hills, Trabuco Hills--they both have talented teams and they took it to us. They beat us by eight and nine. We weren’t ready to go.”

He still thinks there’s a chance, that if they win the last five games they can win a share of the league championship. He notes that the 1987-88 team lost eight games and rallied to win the Southern Section title.

But he also looks back on the suddenly past glory days and says, “I don’t know if you’re ever going to see a run like we had in the ‘80s and ‘90s.”

The coaching has improved throughout Orange County, he said, and there’s talent everywhere you look.

I asked if he gets discouraged and he quickly dismisses it with a “Nah.”

These days, wins and losses are recorded on X-rays, and the latest one showed no signs of the cancer returning.

“As long as you’re cancer-free, every day’s a good day,” McKnight said.

“Ten or 12 years ago, [basketball] was the only thing that was important. You keep things in perspective. I enjoy life, I enjoy every day. I go watch the freshmen play. I don’t let things bother me like they used to.”

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The Monarchs Under McKnight

The year-by-year record of Gary McKnight as boys’ basketball coach at Mater Dei:

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Season Rec Championships 1982-83 29-3 Angelus League, Southern Section 1983-84 28-2 Angelus League 1984-85 29-0 Angelus League, Southern Section 1985-86 30-1 Angelus League, Southern Section 1986-87 31-1 Angelus League, Southern Section, Regional, State 1987-88 21-8 Southern Section 1988-89 25-3 Angelus League 1989-90 34-1 Angelus League, Southern Section, Regional, State 1990-91 25-5 Angelus League 1991-92 34-2 Angelus League, Southern Section, Regional 1992-93 33-2 South Coast League, Southern Section 1993-94 33-1 South Coast League, Southern Section 1994-95 36-1 South Coast League, Southern Section, Regional, State 1995-96 34-2 South Coast League, Southern Section 1996-97 32-3 South Coast League, Southern Section 1997-98 12-6 Totals 466-41 14 league, 12 section, 4 regional, 3 state

*--*

Note: McKnight’s teams have won 31 invitational tournaments, including the Tournament of Champions on 10 occasions and the Orange Holiday Tournament nine times.

Monarch Missteps

Mater Dei has lost only 10 boys’ basketball games to county opponents during Gary McKnight’s 16 seasons as head coach. A list of the losses:

Season: 1987-88

Opponent: Capistrano Valley

Score: 57-55

Circumstance: Nonleague game at Saddleback College

Opponent: Ocean View

Score: 79-58

Circumstance: Nonleague game at Ocean View

*

Season: 1988-89

Opponent: Saddleback

Score: 59-56

Circumstance: Title game of Costa Mesa-Newport Harbor Tournament

Opponent: Saddleback

Score: 57-53

Circumstance: Title game of Orange Holiday Tournament

*

Season: 1990-91

Opponent: Los Alamitos

Score: 56-55

Circumstance: Fifth-place game of Trabuco Hills Tournament

Opponent: Servite

Score: 50-49

Circumstance: Angelus League game at Cypress College

Opponent: Marina

Score: 64-55

Circumstance: Southern Section Division I-A semifinal at UC Irvine

*

Season: 1997-98

Opponent: Santa Margarita

Score: 55-52

Circumstance: Title game of Orange Holiday Tournament

Opponent: Dana Hills

Score: 53-46

Circumstance: South Coast League game at UC Irvine

Opponent: Trabuco Hills

Score: 83-74

Circumstance: South Coast League game at Mater Dei