Repeating Is Academic for Ventura Basketball Program

Winning a championship can be the sharpest double-edged achievement in sports. It can be heaven and it can be hell.

Coaches and players who never become champions often are considered bums. The ones who make it to the mountaintop are heroes.

But our society loves to create heroes and then discard them when they are no longer hot to make room for someone else. It’s the American way.

Winning, of course, is also part of our tradition.

We must win in business. We must win at pogs. The twisted popular belief in this country is that only winners can be loved.

That’s why becoming a champion is a two-headed monster. After a team wins one season, everyone expects it to repeat. If it doesn’t, the inquisition begins.

Which brings us to the Ventura College men’s basketball team and Coach Philip Mathews.

Not that things have gone sour there. Far from it. The Pirates and their army of fans are still gleaming after Ventura claimed the junior college state championship 12 days ago with an 80-61 victory over West Valley of Saratoga.

The players have been showered with praise and honored with a parade. They have become the toast of the town.

They also are expected to win it all again next season--even though nobody has openly made such predictions--because they will have 10 sophomores on the roster.

Or will they?

Not even Mathews is sure who will play for the Pirates next season. He says some of the current players will redshirt so they can concentrate on their school work.

The team will consist of perhaps only two or three returners, some redshirt freshmen and whatever true freshmen commit to Ventura and make the cut.

Is Mathews serious or is he merely cracking the whip in order to get these players to crack open the books?

“There’s a big possibility we might redshirt all of them,” Mathews said of the freshmen on the championship squad. “I haven’t decided who will be redshirted yet. I’m going to sit down with the guys in the next few days to talk it over.”

The concept is not new at Ventura. Mathews, like every other coach, wants to produce good players who will make the Pirates a powerhouse. But he also is committed to turning out more than jocks. He strives to mold a complete package out of his charges and the evidence is overwhelming: Fifty-nine of the last 64 players at Ventura have transferred to four-year schools, most of them with full scholarships.

Mathews created the redshirt system at Ventura when he took over the program for the 1985-86 season.

Simply put, a player must stay on track to graduate or sit out and catch up.

The players are required to attend study hall for a minimum of 1 1/2 hours every school day, where they are supervised by an assistant coach. Their grades are checked every three weeks and if their progress is deemed to be average or less, they have to attend study hall every evening for two hours.

“Academics is first here,” Mathews said. “Although the kids (now on the team) will be eligible academically (next season), they need another year of seasoning in the classroom.

“Once they leave here, they’ll be much more prepared for the rigors of Division I academically.”

The idea of being ready to make the jump to a four-year school could also apply to Mathews, but under different circumstances. Officials at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo called Mathews to see if he might be interested in rebuilding the moribund Mustang men’s basketball program, which went 1-26 in its first Division I season. It’s nothing more than talk at this point, but Mathews said he is willing to listen.

Whether he goes north or stays put is speculation at this juncture. For now, Mathews remains the guiding light of the Ventura program.

He has won two state championships. He has taken the Pirates to four state Final Eight appearances in a row. He has won nine consecutive Western State Conference North Division titles.

But Mathews is not worried that people might think he has lost his mind for wanting to break up the championship team next season. He wants to win, and he will find a way. But not at the expense of a player’s education.

That’s not the kind of hero Mathews wants to be.