Off Court, Schaen Has Built a Huge Lead

Harrison Schaen has an IQ in the superior range, owns two companies, manages a rock band, writes poetry, is an accomplished sketch artist and ranks among the best junior basketball prospects in Southern California.

He turns 17 Monday, which makes him a boy genius in the mode of Doogie Howser.

His coach at Santa Ana Mater Dei High, Gary McKnight, is constantly telling him to “get some sleep and turn off the computer.”

Except the 6-foot-9 Schaen can’t settle for being ordinary.

“I was given a mouth and brain to express myself in every way I possibly can and gain all the knowledge I can,” he said. “I’m not going to sit here and take it for granted.”

Schaen had helped Mater Dei (29-5) win 22 consecutive games until their 70-65 upset loss to Riverside King in Saturday’s Southern California Regional Division II final in Long Beach.

He’d rather be playing basketball, but now that his season is over, he could be wandering the malls handing out business cards for his company that designs Web pages or seeking ideas for his newest company that creates teenage clothing and logos. “I need something to challenge me,” Schaen said. “I get bored easily.”

In basketball, he uses his size and quick jumping ability to disrupt opponents. He’s averaging 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots.

Last summer, he was sidelined with a stress fracture in his foot. He started this season out of shape because of the injury, which was a factor in Mater Dei’s disappointing 7-4 start.

The Monarchs, however, hadn’t lost since holding a players-only team meeting at an Oregon hotel in December after losing three consecutive games.

“We sat there for three, four hours, talked to each other, got on the same page, and we’ve been together ever since,” Schaen said. “It was extremely calm. We talked about what our feelings were toward every player, what we could do to get better. We felt really good about ourselves because we were able to bond.”

McKnight still doesn’t know what happened at the meeting, just that the team was different.

“The kids did it on their own,” he said. “I don’t know what took place, but we took off.”

Having a player with the intelligence of Schaen certainly helps.

Colleges who want to recruit Schaen next season had better not show up at his Huntington Beach home with the simple recruiting pitch of talking basketball.

He wants to know about the school’s business offerings, alumni connections, class sizes, the percentage of students who graduate. Basketball is his top priority, but getting a college education isn’t far behind.

“How would that make me feel if I’m getting a $120,000 free education and not taking advantage of it?” he said.

Schaen is a teenage entrepreneur juggling commitments among school work, basketball, business and social life.

How does he do it all?

“If you go to sleep at 3 o’clock in the morning, you can do it,” his father, Lionel, said. “And the phone never stops ringing. You think you are at the stock market. The kid has so much talent it’s sick.”

Schaen’s biggest challenge was homework. It bored him. He felt many of the assignments were mundane and redundant. But doing homework is part of the requirement for getting good grades.

“My mother told me the challenge lies in the homework and I accepted that,” he said.

Schaen loves challenges. It’s the reason he wanted to play for Mater Dei. He was attending a middle school in the San Fernando Valley when his parents decided to move to Orange County.

Schaen is Jewish, but attending one of the region’s most prestigious Catholic schools made perfect sense to him for academic and athletic reasons.

“I wanted to play with the best because when you have the best competition, that’s when you’re able to compare yourself against the best,” he said. “I think it’s a good learning experience. I’m not close-minded. I apply all the beliefs to my life and try to be a better person.”

There are teenagers who’d gladly skip school for a day at the beach, a day at the mall, a day at the movies, a day at the gym.

Schaen doesn’t mind a day off, but he never rests.

“I love school, I love being smart,” he said.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.