Think of the great University of San Diego High basketball teams when the Waltons played for the Dons. Then recall how good the St. Augustine teams were in the same era.
Now combine the two rosters and you have Compton Dominguez, L.A. Fairfax or Santa Ana Mater Dei.
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TROPHY TIME
The smaller their enrollment, the better chance San Diego Section schools have had for recent success in high school basketball's state tournament. Listed below are the section's Southern California Regional finalists (**–state champion, *–state runner-up).
BOYS
Division I
None
Division II
Oceanside (1984*, '85)
El Camino (1986, '97)
Madison (1988)
Division III
USDHS (1994, '96, '97, '98**)
St. Augustine (2001, '05*)
Army-Navy (1984)
Lutheran (1985)
Lincoln (1988*)
Division IV
Horizon (1999, '02**, '03**, '06**, '07, '08)
Lincoln (1991, '92*, '93, '94**, '95)
Bishop's (1998)
Division V
Calipatria (1988*)
Bishop's (1988)
Christian (1990*, '99, '00)
Horizon (1995, '96, '97*, '98)
Santa Fe Christian (2006*)
GIRLS
Division I
Point Loma (1985**, '86**, '87**, '89)
San Diego (2004*)
Division II
Point Loma (1983, '84**, '90)
El Camino (1985*)
San Pasqual (1988)
Vista (1989)
University City (1993)
Division III
La Jolla Country Day (1985)
Ramona (1988)
Santana (1995)
Eastlake (1997)
Kearny (2000)
Mission Bay (2003)
Division IV
Bishop's (1999, '00, '01**, '02)
La Jolla Country Day (2003*, '04*, '05, '06, '07, '08*)
Division V
Christian (1991*, '92**, '93*, '94*, '95**, '97*)
Bishop's (1994)
Julian (1995, '96)
Santa Fe Christian (2000*)
La Jolla Country Day (2001**, '02**)
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That starts to explain why no San Diego Section boys team has reached the large-enrollment Division I final in the 27 years since the state championships were put in place.
In almost three decades, the section hasn't even had a Division I boys team reach the Southern California Regional final.
“The biggest problem,” said El Camino's Ray Johnson, the section's all-time winningest coach, “seems to be the number of good players. When the other team goes 10 players deep and you have five or six, the margin for error is so much smaller. One injury, one kid with grade problems, one player fouling out can make the difference.”
Local teams haven't fared much better in Division II. Johnson's El Camino squad in 1997 is the only local school in the past 20 years to reach the regional championship game, and the Wildcats lost to eventual state champ Dominguez. El Camino was led by Joe Eyres, who picked up his fourth foul with six minutes to play and the teams virtually even.
“A minute later he got his fifth foul,” said Johnson. “He'd played well with four fouls during the season and I gambled. Our team wasn't like the great Crenshaw teams that would send in five players at a time and the drop-off was minimal.”
Otay Ranch coach Howard Suda agrees.
Suda helps run the Southern California Coaches Classic, which pits a handful of Southern Section or Los Angeles Section teams against their San Diego counterparts in regular-season games each January.
Suda said no San Diego team has beaten a Division I opponent in that series.
“That doesn't mean we aren't competitive, because we are, but we aren't able to play with them for four quarters,” said Suda. “Woodland Hills Taft, which came down this year, had four Division I players.
“A player like (San Diego's) Jeremy Tyler is great and he might have one or two players around him, but not like the Los Angeles Section or Southern Section teams that go 10 deep.”
The San Diego Section has had no shortage of success in smaller-enrollment divisions, where Lincoln, USDHS and Horizon have won boys state titles.
The section's girls have won state championships in nearly all divisions, with Terri Mann's Point Loma teams prevailing among the large schools and La Jolla Country Day, Bishop's and Christian winning smaller-enrollment titles.
Torrey Pines coach John Olive sees a talent gap between San Diego's best boys teams and those elsewhere in the state.
“The talent at the inner-city schools in Los Angeles and Oakland seems to be further along than we are,” said Olive, who has been the Falcons' head boys coach for 11 years. “Those kids start earlier, play longer and are better athletes.”
That said, Olive believes the quality of basketball in the San Diego area has increased dramatically in the past 11 years.
To get over the hump, he said, it'll take a confluence of talent at one school, such as might have happened had the Waltons decided to attend their neighborhood school – Torrey Pines – rather than USDHS, now Cathedral Catholic.
“There is a lot of talent congregating at certain schools in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles producing some very good teams,” said Olive. “We don't really have inner-city schools like those cities.”
Olive said for San Diego schools to reach the regional and state championships they'll need to prepare themselves with year-round play against the best programs.
And everyone agrees it would help to have a little luck.
Suda said the El Camino team of 2004, led by current USD player Gyno Pomare, had the talent to win the state title, but a 55-52 home loss to Fairfax in the regional semifinals doomed the Wildcats.
Fairfax went on to win the state championship by 16 points.
San Diego's chances of winning a large-enrollment boys title also are hampered by the lack of a large private school – such as Concord De La Salle, which won the title in 2006, or Mater Dei, a perennial power in Division II.
Olive doesn't see anything changing overnight, but he isn't giving up hope.
“I really don't expect San Diego to have a Division I champion for at least 10 years,” he said. “But we are getting closer.”
Steve Brand: (619) 293-1854; steve.brand@uniontrib.com
