Girls’ basketball teams put politics aside to honor coach

The top girls’ basketball teams in Southern California, nationally ranked Santa Ana Mater Dei and Brea Olinda, typically try to avoid each other unless they are forced to meet in the playoffs.

The unexpected death of Orange Lutheran coach Tony Matson last spring changed that.

Today, basketball politics and rankings concerns are being put aside for the benefit of Matson’s family.

“It’s so stressful and so demanding,” Brea Olinda Coach Jeff Sink said. “But for a great cause, we’re willing to do this. It’s a statement to how much we respect Tony.”

The teams, which are ranked in the top three of the most prominent national poll, will meet at 7:30 tonight at Mater Dei for the first time since Brea Olinda upset Mater Dei, 44-38, in the Southern California Division II regional championship game last year.

In other games that are part of the benefit, Santa Ana Foothill will play Fullerton Rosary at 4:30 p.m. and Villa Park will play Orange Lutheran at 6 p.m. Admission is $15, and organizers hope to raise more than $25,000 for Matson’s family -- his widow, Heidi, and three school-age daughters.

Matson, 44, collapsed at his construction job in April. The coroner determined he had heart disease.

Family members and close friends said there was no warning.

A former competitive athlete who liked to play basketball, camp and river-raft, the 6-foot-4 Matson appeared to be in good health.

“In one moment, everything was different -- dreams shattered, hearts broken,” Heidi Matson said.

Sink and Mater Dei Coach Kevin Kiernan remember Matson as a man of integrity who truly cared about the young people he coached.

“His entire life was getting you to reflect on what’s really important,” Sink said. “His Christian values, his ethics, his way of looking at life was just steady.”

Matson touched many, and an estimated 3,000 people attended his memorial service.

“We have an amazing community of friends and family who have carried us when we could not take a step due to the weight of our grief,” Heidi Matson said.

Sink started coaching at Brea Olinda during the 1994-95 season, and that’s when he hired Matson to be his assistant.

The pressures of coaching a perennial basketball power deeply affected Sink at times, and Matson helped him keep perspective. After every game, win or lose, he’d point to the heavens and shrug.

To keep things light, he made a list of the 10 worst parents they had encountered. When Sink felt exasperated, Matson whipped out the list.

“He would state the absurd to make me see the absurd,” Sink said.

Sink said he would not have survived his first few years at Brea without Matson. Considering an incident at a tournament in Las Vegas, he’s probably right.

With a couple of seconds left in a game and Brea up by 20 points, a girl disregarded Sink’s plea to hold the ball and made a three-pointer. A fan from the opposing team was furious, came out of the stands, grabbed a chair and ran toward Sink.

“He was going to hit me over the head with it,” Sink said.

Matson grabbed the chair with one hand and said to the crazed fan, “I’m sorry we took that shot. May I take the chair from you?”

“He was like Achilles,” Sink said. “I was in a pool of urine about ready to die.”

After helping Brea win five consecutive Southern Section titles and two state championships, Matson became head coach at Orange Lutheran in 1999. He led the Lancers to five league championships and an appearance in the Southern Section Division IV-AA final in his last season.

Ashley Amaral, a former Orange Lutheran player, remembers Matson more for the coaching he did off the court.

Amaral, who played for Matson from 2000 to 2003, recalls being headed down a bad path as a sophomore. Matson became a father figure, talking to her before and after practice and convincing her that if she concentrated on basketball, her faith and school, true friends would materialize.

“If it weren’t for Tony, I would probably have no confidence in myself,” said Amaral, who works for a financial company.

The girls on this season’s Orange Lutheran basketball team wear a patch on their uniforms displaying Matson’s last name, his favorite Bible passage and the phrase “together forever.”

“The memory is always there; every time we do anything there’s a huge void,” said their coach, Tom Howard, who assisted Matson for 10 years.

Matson also left a lasting impression on Sink.

Recently, his team was down 11 points at halftime and the coach paused to consider “What would Tony do?”

He wanted to scream. Instead, he told the girls to relax and have fun. Brea Olinda went on to win the game, 48-46.

“Tony would have been proud for once,” Sink said smiling.

melissa.rohlin@latimes.com