UCLA's Mata-Real is the pride of South Gate

It isn't because Lorenzo Mata-Real is a basketball star at UCLA. The 6-foot-9, 237-pound senior is only the backup center. He averages 3.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in 14.3 minutes a game for the Bruins, who play Western Kentucky tonight in an NCAA West Regional semifinal.

But Mata-Real has made a lasting impact at his largely Latino high school for his intrepid progress as a student, for his allegiance to his former coaches and teachers and for hisacceptance of whatever role he has been given by Bruins Coach Ben Howland.

Mata-Real was the starting center for last year's UCLA Final Four team and then stepped aside as freshman star Kevin Love moved to his spot. Love leads the Bruins with averages of 17.3 points and 10.6 rebounds. Mata-Real leads in gracious role changing, which doesn't surprise anyone at South Gate.

"Lorenzo was the tallest kid in school from the time he was in ninth grade," Kremen said. "But he never expected special treatment. He did detention just like everybody. Never for anything bad. The only bad thing he did was be tardy sometimes. Oh, and once he lost a geography book. I told him, 'Lorenzo, I know you play basketball but you have to pay for the lost book like everybody else.' And he did."

Kremen is also the timekeeper at most sporting events at South Gate and she was touched earlier this basketball season when she noticed Mata-Real arrive at a game.

"He came in the back door with his sweat shirt hood pulled over his head," she recalled. "He didn't want everyone to make a big deal or stop and look at him. He just snuck in the back and sat in the stands."

And that's what makes Mata-Real both admired and respected at South Gate. It isn't that he plays for one of the best college basketball teams in the country. It's that he comes back to high school to say hi to his history teacher, Ron Davis, to speak to players on Coach Lester Sanchez's basketball team and to help Kremen operate the clock. "He did that this year," Kremen said. "There was a problem, I asked him to help and he did."

The big reaction he gets to the little things he does surprises Mata-Real, but he also understands.

"Every time I go back, people want to talk to me and ask me questions, and every time I look at them and wonder why," he said. "But I guess they just think about me as a success story, so that's cool."