King/Drew Is Magnet for Success

The glistening, four-story edifice of the King/Drew Magnet High School of Medicine and Science is an eye-opening sight, but stepping into the lobby and seeing how many teenage lives are being changed through academic and athletic excellence leaves an even more indelible impression.

An educational oasis has taken hold in a neighborhood south of Watts.

One clear example of the magic taking place in the science laboratories, computer labs and on the athletic courts is senior Marvin Mills, who has a 3.7 grade-point average and is being recruited to play basketball at Stanford.

Mills is one of four returning starters for a team that won the City Invitational championship last season and could become the first magnet high school to earn a spot in the City Championship playoffs.

“We’re a magnet school that can play basketball and beat any team on a given night,” Mills said.

King/Drew has been open since 1983, but it didn’t have a permanent home until its current 232,000-square-foot campus was built in 1998 after the Los Angeles Unified School District sold $68 million in certificates of participation, a form of a bond. The school is adjacent to the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center but is not associated with ongoing concerns regarding the county hospital’s physician training program.

In 75 classrooms, 1,700 students who won a lottery to attend the school through a district point system are given access to a rigorous academic environment that last year saw six students gain entrance to Stanford, 29 to UCLA, 20 to California, one to Harvard and one to Yale. There’s a student dress code and strict rules against fighting.

King/Drew is proving that quality teaching combined with students who want to learn translates into success.

“Everybody here is surrounded by a positive person,” basketball player Marcus Rogers said. “There aren’t people gang-banging, fighting, bringing guns to school. Everybody is trying to be somebody good in their life.”

Nowhere is the desire to succeed more prevalent than within the boys’ basketball program under fourth-year Coach Chris Francis. The school has had a sports program for only five years. In Francis’ first two games in 2000, his team lost by a combined 107 points.

Now, with a straight face, he says, “Our goal is to win state.”

King/Drew won its last 12 games last season, defeated Valley Mission League co-favorite North Hills Monroe in its first game this season, and lost to Compton Dominguez, ranked No. 4 in the Southland by The Times, 71-67, Wednesday night. This is a team that fears no one.

Mills, a 6-foot-2 guard, averaged 20.6 points last season and scored 29 points in the season opener. Rogers, a 6-1 senior, averaged 14.5 points, and King/Drew also relies on 6-7 senior Daniel Stewart, 6-6 senior Donald Lee and 6-1 senior Jamaal Thomas.

“I feel I’m making a difference,” said Francis, whose full-time day job is working at a group home for at-risk children. “I have to take a ninth grader, plant a seed and water it every day.”

These are players who understand they can’t slack off academically if they want to keep up with the other achievers walking the hallways next to them.

Rogers’ parents never graduated from high school, which was motivation to enroll him at King/Drew.

“I see them not getting the job they want,” Rogers said of his parents. “They let me know how important education is and how important it is to graduate and go to college.”

Added Stewart, who wants to be an engineer: “People here care about their education. They value what they want to do in the future and take academics seriously.”

Francis keeps up the pressure by setting high standards at practice, warning his players that showing up late has consequences.

“If you keep showing up late for work, one day you’re not going to have a job,” he tells them. “If you show up late for practice, there are repercussions.”

Building a top basketball program at King/Drew must be done without junior or senior transfers. There were more than 1,200 applications for the 475 openings to the campus last year. The only way to get in is through a system that rewards points based on where a student lives, their ethnic background and other factors.

Not that Mills hasn’t thought of leaving King/Drew for the so-called promise of playing for a big-time basketball program.

“I’m not saying it didn’t cross my mind, but when it came down to it, I’m playing against all the people from the best teams,” he said. “I’m getting exposure. I’m getting minutes. I’ve been at one school for four years. I know people who’ve been at three schools. I know players who follow coaches.”

King/Drew players don’t live in the suburbs. They must deal with daily safety issues and make choices that can lead to life or death.

“You don’t want to be gang-banging,” Rogers said. “Only three things are going to happen: You’re going to get shot, killed or in jail. You make that choice to go to school and play basketball and it works out for the best. It makes you a better person being around all these different people and not being around negative people.”

King/Drew players and coaches refuse to make excuses. Their gymnasium floor was severely damaged during flooding on Nov. 12 when a freak storm dumped more than five inches of rain and ice on southern Los Angeles County. They have been forced to practice at a park and probably will play every game on the road this season, considering how long it usually takes to make repairs involving insurance in the L.A. Unified School District.

You won’t hear a complaint, though. These are players who like challenges and embrace what they represent.

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