Taylor Has Found a Home at Fremont

Mat Taylor humorously proclaims himself as “The White Shadow” in reference to the late 1970s television series about a white basketball coach at a predominantly black inner-city school.

The Fremont High girls’ basketball coach did little to dispel the image on Saturday against Banning in a first-round game of the L.A. Watts Summer Games.

The Manhattan Beach resident showed up in a suit and tie in a sweltering Locke High gymnasium where shorts and tank tops were the predominant attire. Eight members of the team had to cram into Taylor’s ’79 Volvo to make it to the game.

“This was nothing,” Taylor said. “Our record is 11. We had them sticking out of the sun roof.”

Such is the life of Taylor, 40, a 1971 Aviation High graduate. Taylor served as a varsity assistant at Rolling Hills under Matt Dodson in 1983 and ’84 while working on his teaching credential at Cal State Long Beach.

In Taylor’s second season, Rolling Hills defeated Palos Verdes and won its first playoff game in school history, beating Simi Valley in a Southern Section 4-A Division first-round game.

Dodson retired in 1984, but Taylor’s hopes for the coaching job at Rolling Hills were dashed when he was denied the position because he had not completed his credential.

Taylor became a truck driver for a year before winding up as an assistant at Washington High for Phil Chase in 1986.

“Going to Washington and running into Phil was like a godsend,” Taylor said.

Chase, a spectator at Saturday’s game, resigned in 1992 after guiding the Generals to an unprecedented four consecutive City titles from 1989-92. Included in the run was a 64-game winning streak against City opponents.

“The first time I told him that he had to take the kids home after practice, that was kind of a shock to him,” Chase said about Taylor. “At Rolling Hills, most of the kids probably had their own cars. You do a lot more than coaching when you’re working with the kids in the inner city. You’re the surrogate parent, the counselor, the doctor . . . whatever. That’s his strong point.”

His knowledge of basketball isn’t too shabby either.

Taylor has coached a team in the Say No Classic women’s summer league, which features top collegians, the past four seasons. His team this year includes former Palos Verdes High standout Heather Burge, now playing at Virginia.

Taylor landed the coaching position at Fremont, where he also teaches English, in 1987. The Pathfinders won the Central League title in 1990 and have qualified for the playoffs every season under Taylor.

Fremont, however, was not in peak form on Saturday.

Tiffany Burks scored 13 of her game-high 14 points in the second half as Banning held Fremont scoreless for nearly eight minutes of the second half to pull away for a 39-26 victory.

The Pilots will face Locke, a 5-3 winner over Hawthorne, in a second-round game of the 75-team single-elimination tournament at 9 a.m. today at Locke.

Although disappointed with his team’s play, Taylor was more concerned about how he was going to squeeze additional players into his car for the trip to Fremont.

“He’s like a father to all of us,” Fremont senior center Trashon Perkins said. “He never missed practices and never missed a game. I don’t understand why he came to a scrimmage game in a tie. I wonder myself about him. Sometimes I wonder why he came to Fremont.”

Sometimes Taylor wonders too.

“I fully intended to get back to more of a middle-class school, but thank God I didn’t,” Taylor said. “It’s a frustrating job, but I knew the inner-city was my spot after the first hour. Every player has a horror story to tell, but it’s so rewarding when the kids do well against tough odds. I guess I’m somewhat of a dreamer.”