Some Big-Time Athletes Play at the County’s Littlest Schools: MATT WINTER Heritage Christian / Basketball

Matt Winter had the reputation of a prankster, and he thought his middle school classmates would certainly get a bang out of this one. So he lit the cherry bomb and dropped it on the floor outside a school social event.

Shortly after the powerful firecracker went off, his time in public school went up in smoke.

Winter looks back at such youthful indiscretions and recalls a time in his life when he lacked guidance.

That isn’t a problem anymore.

Winter, a 6-foot-3 senior, has matured into one the top shooting guards in Orange County while playing for tiny Heritage Christian--enrollment 95--where he says he has embraced discipline for the first time in his life.

“I was a troublemaker, but once I got to Heritage, things really changed,” Winter said. “They watched out for me, took disciplinary action when I needed it and got me on track.”

Winter said he was expelled from middle school after the firecracker incident and he transferred to Fontana Ambassador Christian. He said he wanted to attend Etiwanda High to play basketball with a youth league teammate, but he didn’t live within the school’s attendance boundary.

At Ambassador Christian, Winter said he was frequently running afoul of what he considered stringent school rules. Last winter, after he was forced to sit out a couple basketball games for “not having my shirt tucked in,” he moved to Hacienda Heights to live with his grandmother. It was then that he asked for and received a hardship waiver from the Southern Section that allowed him to play for Heritage.

Winter arrived during the middle of the basketball season and made an immediate impact. He averaged 21 points and was chosen co-most valuable player of the Express League and All-Southern Section Division V.

“I think he’s the best small school basketball player in O.C.,” Heritage Christian Coach Mark Berokoff said.

Winter said he thought last summer about attending a larger school after playing well for the L.A. Rockfish No. 2 team, a high-powered traveling basketball club. But Winter said he chose to remain loyal to Heritage, and particularly Berokoff, who said he believes Winter would succeed at a larger school.

Winter said he believes the Patriots have a good chance at making a Southern Section title run, the trade-off he gets for playing against lesser competition in church community centers and dim recreation halls.