Mater Dei girls baksetball team has tough road ahead

The Mater Dei High School girls basketball team in Santa Ana, Ca. knows success almost too well.

Last year, the team won the national title. This year, Head Coach Kevin Kiernan says the hardest challenge for his team (12-1) is to not get hung up on its laurels.

“We’re in a good spot to win another banner, and the girls realize it,” said Kiernan. “We have a banner from last year in the gym to remind us at practice. But you have to push rankings to the backburner. Success is expected. If we were to lose focus or lose our attention to details, we would become just an over ranked team.”

Kiernan is in his fourth season with Mater Dei High School, but he has 20 years of head coaching experience altogether. Last year, he said he was honored to receive the title “USA Today National Coach of the Year.” A former basketball player himself, Kiernan says he knows the importance of building team unity and leadership in order to succeed.

“We have a theme of some kind every year. This year, it’s ‘sisterhood’,” said Kiernan. “The time these girls have playing together is so short. They don’t realize it now, but they will 10 years from now. They will miss it. We want them to see the big picture and play as one. Basically, we’re family.”

The Monarch family will be put to the test for the rest of the season as they face top opponents throughout the country.

“Our road is very hard, and it should be,” said Kiernan. “We have tough teams coming up. We’re ranked 3rd nationally now (No. 1 on CatholicSportsNet.com), and we’ll see the two teams ahead of us (Brea Olinda and Long Beach Poly) at the CIF Playoff Division.”

Kiernan says that his team’s success comes from the girls’ positive attitudes and a certain philosophy to work hard.

“It always comes back to practice,” said Kiernan. “We know we have to work hard at practice, then the games are the reward, they’re easy and fun. We spend 70 percent of practice on defense. We work a lot on full court press and man to man. Defense wins games. You find out in coaching what wins. I have captains that lead this team and drive that hard work.”

And when he says he has leaders, he’s not joking around.

“My senior captains are Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (signed with University of Connecticut), Alexyz Vaioletama (signed with University of Southern California) and Elyse Biechele, and my junior captains are Jordan Adams and Alexas Williamson,” said Kiernan. “These girls are each important in their own way to our success through their personalities and their communication with the other girls.”

Kiernan also credits his facilities on campus to the success of the overall program. He compares Mater Dei’s athletic courts and training units to those on Div. I college campuses.

“We’ve had a lot of individual donors contribute to this campus, and it’s incredible what they’ve done here. It really makes potential students look at our facilities,” said Kiernan.

Mater Dei is situated in a hot bed of successful high school girls basketball programs. There is a similar level of talent, hard work, and success within the programs in the southern California area.

Yet, if you’re looking for Coach Kiernan at a future game, he says you will easily be able to point him out.

“I’m the one yelling and screaming. I’m intense,” said Kiernan. “People who don’t know me say it’s weird to watch me coach. But off the court, I’m quieter. Over the years, I’ve picked up things as I go on how to coach. I’ve worked with a lot of great coaches. I’ve developed my own philosophy.”

Kierman can keep his philosophy just as it is due to his success. He entered the current 2010-11 season with an 89-6 all-time record with the Monarchs. But as he finishes out the season, he says he has to keep his priorities straight and know that you can never have too much success.

Said Kierman: “We don’t hope for just wins or championships. We just hope for kids who can stay healthy and represent the school well. We want to attract good student athletes academically and spiritually. Then, the wins will come.”