A Family’s Court

It started at a dance nearly 50 years ago. Bill Mulligan, just out of the Army, noticed a cute young woman sitting with friends. Dorothy Schuma had a broken foot, but Bill didn’t know that when he approached her.

She politely turned down his offer to dance, explaining her predicament. Although Bill thought he was getting the brushoff, he worked up the courage to ask for a date.

Bill and Dorothy were married about a year later and left their native Chicago in 1956, when Bill got a job as a lower-level basketball coach at Long Beach Poly High.

The couple had three boys in a three-year span, planting a family tree of coaches that has grown to include sons Brian and Shawn and daughter-in-law Mary, Shawn’s wife.

The Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley boys’ basketball team coached by Brian, 43, and the San Clemente girls’ team coached by Mary, 40, are considered among the best high school programs in Southern California. And the long-struggling San Clemente boys’ team is making strides in its third season with Shawn, 44, as coach.

“We’re glad about what they’ve accomplished,” said Bill, 73, who coached the UC Irvine men’s team for 11 seasons and was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 1998. “We enjoy going to their games.

“And,” Bill added slyly, “Dorothy’s now kind of become a coach, where before she really didn’t give a damn.”

After her husband’s laughter subsided, Dorothy, 70, explained her apathy toward basketball: “I had other things on my mind.”

Among them was the Mulligans’ oldest son, Billy, who was born with cerebral palsy and has been in a wheelchair his entire life. Billy, 45, can’t talk clearly or write without the aid of special equipment, but he provides perspective and a constant reminder that life extends beyond the basketball court.

“In the grand scheme of things,” Brian said, “this is the guy that we all could have been.”

A family of fierce competitors, the Mulligans play hard -- even when facing each other’s teams. But they make time for each other, lending support and often offering advice.

After Brian’s Capistrano Valley team defeated Shawn’s San Clemente team in a South Coast League game Jan. 16, the entire Mulligan clan gathered at Brian’s house in San Juan Capistrano. Despite an 0-5 record against his brother, Shawn said there were no hard feelings.

“Everyone had a good time,” he said. “The game was closer than last year, so it was a little more comfortable.”

Anyway, Shawn had it rougher when he was the girls’ coach at Dana Hills for two seasons and lost four games to his wife’s San Clemente team. A couple of those losses were lopsided, creating an awkward situation at home.

But you’ll never see a Mulligan -- even one by marriage -- apologize for winning.

“We’re all pretty focused and determined,” said Mary, whose team is ranked No. 5 in the Southland by The Times. “And we’re very passionate about what we do.”

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Brian Mulligan grew up around his father’s basketball players, so he naturally identified with them, including their height.

“I was always pretty sure I was going to be no less than 6-1, 6-2,” he said.

When Brian stopped growing at 5 feet 7, becoming the self-described “runt” of the family, many expected him to choose a profession that would suit his strong verbal skills.

“Brian wanted to be a lawyer,” Bill said. “But when he saw that my [assistant] coaches seemed to be having so much fun, he said, ‘Why should I be a lawyer when I could be a coach?’ ”

Teaching and coaching have been a good fit for Brian, a bundle of energy who interacts with students in a breezy, good-natured manner. He has earned Capistrano Valley’s teacher-of-the-year award for his work in the classroom, where he usually succeeds in getting teenagers interested in U.S. history.

In nine seasons as the basketball coach, his teams have averaged more than 20 wins a season, won three league titles and reached the playoffs every year. The 12th-ranked Cougars are 18-1 after Friday night’s 55-52 victory over Mission Viejo in a key league game.

Brian attributes much of his success to lessons learned from his father, who coached winning teams at Riverside City College and Saddleback College before taking over the UC Irvine program in 1980. Brian was his dad’s assistant for three seasons when Bill came out of retirement to start the Irvine Valley College men’s program in 1992.

“More than anything, what I learned from my dad was how to deal with people,” Brian said. “He was never a big-time Xs-and-O’s guy. He was always the guy that people liked to play for. He wouldn’t [lie to] you; he wasn’t afraid to discipline you.”

Brian, who with his wife, Laura, has a daughter, Abby, 4, and a son, Charlie, 4 months, also picked up pointers from Bill about being a parent.

As a student at San Clemente, Brian recalled a time when he and Shawn complained to Bill about one of their basketball coaches.

“Dad asked us, ‘Did he make you do anything illegal? Did he hit you or touch you inappropriately?’ ” Brian recalled. “When we answered, ‘No,’ he said, ‘Then shut ... up and get back out there and play for him.’

“I learned about being a dad and a semi-normal person just from that story alone. Because you know that doesn’t happen in 98% of the households around here.”

As a player, Brian went from being a starter at San Clemente to a reserve at Saddleback College -- backing up Pete de Casas, father of two of his players at Capistrano Valley -- to an end-of-the-bench walk-on at UC Irvine, where he played for Bill. The three experiences gave him insight that he applies to coaching.

“From my playing days, I know how the good guy feels, I know how the middle guy feels and I know how the bottom guy feels,” Brian said. “And I really try to put myself in their shoes when I’m dealing with the players on my team.”

Where he differs from his father is in playing style. Although Bill’s high-scoring teams were known for running the fastbreak and pressing, Brian’s favor a more deliberate style that emphasizes defense and working for good shots.

“My dad is absolutely appalled by the fact that Shawn and I have very little emphasis on the fastbreak,” Brian said. “He was the fastbreak guru. We play it a lot more close to the vest.”

*

Although basketball was a big part of the Mulligan family, middle son Shawn was determined to carve his own niche away from the game. So after graduating from UC Irvine, he enlisted in the Marines and became a helicopter pilot.

“I wanted to do something different,” he said. “I always wanted to fly as a kid.”

Shawn spent 20 years in the Marines, the last 10 in the reserves. Upon his release from active duty in 1991, he started his own real estate company.

But being around Mary and Brian, he continually heard how much fun they were having teaching and coaching. The bug bit him too, after he became coach of the freshman boys’ basketball team at San Clemente for one season in 1994-95.

“I had a blast,” he said.

The good times continued two years later when Shawn coached the sophomore boys’ team at Capistrano Valley, where he was doing his student teaching. He asked Bill, retired again after leaving Irvine Valley, to come help him.

“It was an opportunity for me and my dad to bond a little bit, because I had spent so much time away with the Marine Corps,” Shawn said.

The next year, Shawn became the girls’ coach at Dana Hills, where he suffered embarrassing defeats at the hands of Mary’s far superior teams. Combined, Shawn is 0-9 against his wife and brother, but that’s to be expected, he said.

“I’ve had to be realistic about what I was up against,” he said. “Because in each case, I knew that the odds of winning were very slim. I’ve had to control my ego.”

Shawn joined his wife at San Clemente in 2001, taking over a boys’ program that has won only one league title since the school opened in 1963. He has a long way to go to catch up with Mary, the most successful coach and best athlete in the family.

The former Mary Johnson was Orange County female athlete of the year as a senior at San Clemente in 1981, in addition to being class valedictorian. She played basketball at UC Irvine, where she met Shawn.

Mary became the girls’ coach at San Clemente when she was 22, right out of college.

“It was back in a time when they were just begging people to be coaches,” she said. “There was no interview. I had no experience. I learned on the job.”

She learned well. Her 343-148 record in 18 seasons, 15 playoff appearances and six consecutive league titles place her among the sport’s most successful girls’ basketball coaches in the state.

Mary and Shawn have been married for 19 years and have two children -- Conor, 14, a freshman basketball player at San Clemente, and Tori, 12, who, if all goes as planned, will one day play for her mother.

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Bill Mulligan was known as a fiery, feisty Irishman during his long coaching career, but the years have taken a physical toll. His right side is partially paralyzed because of two strokes suffered 10 years apart.

Bill spends his days and nights -- he rarely goes to bed before 2 a.m., a remnant of the late hours he kept as a coach -- reading and doing light workouts. Dorothy, a small, wiry woman, stays in shape by swimming 25 laps a day in the one of the pools near their home on the UC Irvine campus.

They enjoy spending time with their children and grandchildren, all of whom live within a short drive in South Orange County. That now includes Billy, who moved to San Clemente a year ago after living and working in Riverside for 18 years.

Billy, whose disability did not stop him from getting a journalism degree from Cal State Fullerton and pursuing a writing career, spends most weekends at his parents’ house. He lives independently with an aide during the week.

“He does a lot of things you wouldn’t imagine he could do,” Bill said of his oldest son.

It just goes to show that underestimating a Mulligan is always a mistake.