Looming Large Is Their Calling Card

High schools were not designed for 7-footers to roam unimpeded. Besides having to duck through doorways and sit uncomfortably behind desks built for regular-sized teenagers, these giants receive repeated stares from awe-struck classmates.

The one person always comfortable around a 7-footer is the boys’ basketball coach. It’s every coach’s dream. So what if it costs a few more dollars to order a triple-extra large uniform with size 54-inch chest and 48-inch waist?

“The most fun for a basketball coach is to see kids duck when they come through the door,” said Coach Gary McKnight of Santa Ana Mater Dei.

McKnight is one of at least three coaches this winter with a 7-footer on his roster. McKnight has 7-1 sophomore Alex Jacobson. Lake Forest El Toro has 7-1 junior David Foster, and Hemet has 7-2 senior David Massey.

Coaches know patience is required in dealing with the 7-foot crowd because they are continually adjusting to their bodies, trying to gain coordination and confidence while dealing with the kind of aches and pains that 6-footers wish they had.

“You can’t teach height,” El Toro Coach Todd Dixon said. “You love to have big players. With somebody like this, it’s that added presence defensively and on the boards. It’s a nice little comfort zone.”

At a minimum, a 7-footer has a good chance to dunk the basketball any time he’s close to the basket, and there’s no higher-percentage shot than the dunk.

“We make it a rule in practice, any time [Foster] is around the basket, he has to try to dunk because it makes him more aggressive,” Dixon said.

Players 7 feet tall are usually late bloomers, and that describes Foster, who last season played on El Toro’s junior varsity. Practice began Nov. 13, and it’s clear that Foster has improved enough to earn extensive playing time, if not become a starter when the season begins next week.

“College coaches have been impressed with his ability to get down court, his hands and shooting touch,” Dixon said.

Foster said his problem has been adding weight. He weighs 210 pounds and tries to improve his strength, agility and quickness with plyometric exercises.

He played soccer for six years and didn’t become serious about basketball until he moved to Orange County from Michigan when he was 13.

He has plenty of stories to tell about his height, from being able “to see everybody’s top of the head,” to teachers’ putting him in the back of the classroom “probably because they want to make sure everybody can see and I can stretch my back.”

Teammates tease him with the comment, “Man, if I had your height, I’d be so good.”

“But they don’t understand how hard it is to get the coordination down,” Foster said.

Massey is going out for basketball for the first time at Hemet. At 255 pounds, he was a starting offensive tackle for the football team. Asked whether 6-6 quarterback Brandis Dew could see over him, Massey said, “He usually throws to the other side of the line. Brandis may not be able to see over me, but when I’m run-blocking, the defense can’t see over me.”

Massey has a 4.0 grade-point average and said he thinks his aggressiveness in football should help him in basketball. He said he’s still growing and hardly worries what people think when he walks into a room.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “You get a lot of attention. It’s nice having a lot of people notice you. It becomes second nature ducking doorways.”

Hemet basketball Coach Craig Jennings said he can’t wait to see how Massey responds to his new sport.

“It will be interesting,” he said. “I don’t know how much he can do, but hopefully, I’ll get a chance to work with him. I’m certainly loving the idea of having him. Just seeing what he’s done on the football field, he’s come a long ways.”

Mater Dei’s Jacobson is considered the best college prospect of the three and most advanced because he played extensively as a freshman on the varsity team at Bellflower St. John Bosco before transferring.

“He’s making tremendous strides,” McKnight said. “We treat him like everyone else. We don’t baby him because he’s a 7-footer. We demand the same things from him as anyone.”

Foster already has a dream he wants to attain.

“I want to be as tall as Yao Ming,” he said, referring to the 7-5 Houston Rocket center.

All 7-footers complain about having trouble finding clothes that fit. And then there are the shoes. Foster wears size 16; Massey and Jacobson wear 18s.

They are real-life Bigfoots.

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