Cajon Player Triumphs Over a Tragedy

Donovan Morris always had two fathers.

There was the one he lived with growing up in San Bernardino--the one who nurtured him from childhood and showed him how to play basketball.

“He was like my real dad,” said Morris, a senior guard on the San Bernardino Cajon High basketball team. “He took care of me.”

And there was the one in Chicago, the man who was listed on Morris’ birth certificate. Father and son never lost touch, though distance made it difficult for them to see much of each other.

Then, without warning, one of Morris’ fathers was gone.

Mark Sanders, Morris’ stepfather, had not been feeling well the week before Thanksgiving. When Morris’ mother, Patricia Cox-Sanders, brought him dinner one evening, she noticed he was unconscious.

The woman frantically called for her son , and the boy held his step dad while his mother administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation. It was too late. Sanders had already died of a heart attack.

Morris was devastated, but he has slowly moved on--thanks in part to support from his other father.

David Morris arrived in Southern California two weeks ago on a Greyhound bus to watch his son’s team compete in the Southern Section Division I-A playoffs. It was a win-win situation. David was thrilled to finally see Donovan play high school basketball, and Donovan was glad to have his father around.

And Donovan didn’t disappoint, scoring 24 of his 26 points in the first half of Cajon’s first-round romp over Indio.

David, who had only seen his son play on tape, was impressed. “Seeing the tape and seeing him play in person is very different,” David Morris said. “He is very unselfish and plays very aggressive.”

Donovan scored 32 points in Cajon’s second-round victory against Riverside North. Then came a 31-point performance in a losing effort against fourth-seeded Los Angeles Loyola in the quarterfinals. Donovan made 13 of 18 shots in the packed gym, which David had to talk his way into after convincing a security guard that he had come all the way from Chicago to see his son play.

Donovan’s season may be over, but David is sticking around to help tutor his son for the upcoming SAT. The mother of Rialto Eisenhower forward Sean Marshall is also tutoring Donovan, who needs a qualifying test score to gain college eligibility.

The 6-foot-3 Donovan’s on-court credentials are impeccable. He averaged 25.8 points, 9.7 rebounds and 5.9 assists this season while shooting 54% from the field and making 84% of his free throws.

Odds and tip-ins: Beverly Hills Coach Jason Sanders said he will present the Crenshaw Christian Center with a check for his coaching salary, of roughly $3,000, next month after his team failed to reach the playoffs. Sanders put his salary on the line before the season as a motivational ploy to get his team to qualify for its first playoff berth in five seasons. The Normans needed 11 victories to gain entry into the playoffs as a wild-card team, and had nine victories with two games to go. But Beverly Hills lost to Hawthorne by two points and was routed by South Torrance in its season finale....Tarzana Stoneridge Prep defeated Palm Springs Desert Chapel, 72-57, in a Division V-A semifinal to advance to the finals for the first time. The Wildcats play top-seeded Price Friday at Loyola Marymount. ... La Puente Bishop Amat played its last game in Tate Duff gym when it defeated Irvine Northwood, 69-59, Tuesday in a Division III-AA quarterfinal. The school will build a larger multi-purpose facility in its place.... Twentynine Palms, which plays top-seeded El Segundo Tuesday in Division IV-AA, has advanced to the semifinals seven out of the last eight years.